Midway through his summer vacation, eight year-old Huddie Blaylock suddenly realizes the reason for his recent, nagging paranoia: his normal, if slightly dysfunctional family has been replaced by imposters. Possessing the inflexible determination of the young and/or mentally ill, he embarks on a decade-long, cross-country search for the truth that will carry him through second-rate amusement parks, nightmarish nursing homes, 24-hour adult novelty shops and the wilds of Midwestern suburbia.
Scott O’Connor is the author of the novels 'Zero Zone', 'Untouchable', and 'Half World', and the story collection 'A Perfect Universe'. He has been awarded the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and his stories have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times/EFG Story Prize and cited as Distinguished in Best American Short Stories. Additional work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Zyzzyva, and The Los Angeles Review of Books.
In enjoyed it. Went quickly - felt like a short story. I read it because I liked the story line, parent impostures, and was satisfied with an inventive tale. The end didn't really tie it up for me. The writing was very accessible yet maintained your attention.