Carnival’s arrived in town but Sal is staying at home with Macey, her twin sister who’s bedridden with cancer. What little energy Macey has left, she spends spying on their weird old neighbour. He has many small animals locked in pens in his backyard. But whenever he takes one of them inside his house, it’s never seen again. With Macey off to the hospital after another bad seizure, it’s up to Sal to figure out the creepy mystery.
There were two small spots of bother with this story for me. I understood the carnival was a metaphor for hope, but it was so far removed from the actual story that it felt tacked one. And I never really doubted the moral character of the old man, though I think the story wanted me to. But these were just small problems which melted away before Holly Phillips’ masterful evocation of Sal’s depressive family situation and the painfully perfect ending.
