In 1996, restless teenagers Frankie Budge and Zeke create a cryptic poster featuring a drawing of a person holding a severed head and a mysterious sentence about a "coal child." They secretly photocopy and distribute the image throughout their small Tennessee town. This anonymous art project triggers a widespread moral panic as neighbors interpret the image as a satanic omen or a threat of violence. Decades later, Frankie is an established novelist when a journalist contacts her, threatening to reveal her identity as the original architect of the chaos.
Readers interested in the long-term consequences of creative obsession and the unpredictable nature of viral information will appreciate this narrative. It functions as a study of how private expressions shift once they become public property. The book provides a look at the specific anxieties of the pre-internet era, showing how rumors spread through physical spaces. Readers walk away with a perspective on how youthful mistakes remain integrated into an adult’s sense of self and the difficulty of controlling one's own legacy.
- Published
- 2022
- Language
- EN
