From grade school to junior year, Ian Wilder''s heart belongs to one person-his next-door neighbor and best friend Penelope Archer. To him, they match like the last two puzzle pieces across an infinite, jigsaw universe. Together, they spend every free moment in the outgrown treehouse adjoining their yards. There, under the dull glow of dying flashlights, Ian scribbles the words and Penelope paints the worlds from their imagination. From western shootouts with kooky outlaws or surviving a horde of alien zombies aboard a space station, their stories have always been more vivid than reality.
But junior year hits harder. Their stories take a back seat to make out sessions under the sleeping bags of that old treehouse. And as these two puzzle pieces jostle closer to completing the universe, something changes. Penelope grows distant. Troubled. Bad dreams and unforgiving worry wrack her mind. And then, the unthinkable-a brain aneurysm. And Penelope''s gone.
Ian cracks and succumbs to a walking state of catatonia. They were team. They had plans. A future. Together. How could he go on without her? When his parents drag him to her funeral, a hallucination of Penelope breaks through his madness. But it couldn''t be her. He saw her body in the casket.
When Ian finally returns to school, a strange substitute teacher tells Ian that infinite realities exist across a multiverse, and worse, an alternate version of Penelope is in danger. He needs Ian''s help to navigate to a distant reality to save her from a world of blood-thirsty pirates. What more could Ian lose? His mind is already lost. But he could see her one more time. Or more. Ian doesn''t need an A in Calculus to figure this out.
The Ghost of the Wicked Crow is a story about a teenager using his overactive imagination to cope with trauma. Can you solve your problems with the multiverse at your fingertips? Or does it fracture your psyche and family even further?