On the surface, it’s a simple enough plot: boy meets girl, then they run away together and have adventures in the big city. But there’s nothing simple about Sarah Bruni’s debut novel, The Night Gwen Stacy Died. As one layer after another gets added, the plot becomes a shifting landscape that the reader explores along with her characters. And as you explore the world of the novel—which is just familiar enough to make the differences all the more unsettling—you find yourself participating in their delusions, trying to negotiate the blurry boundaries between the imaginary and the real.
[Who is the hero, and who is the victim? And what are these coyotes doing here?]