Working for a newspaper changes a misfit girl’s life in many ways in Giroux’s novel.

Pennacook, Massachusetts, is a town beset by constant floods in which menacing wild boars roam the streets/canals, people ride balance-bikes or pedal boats, and grocery store robots have banded together in the woods. Readers meet the novel’s protagonist, Wendy Zhou, during her difficult middle school years—Wendy’s father has recently died, no one in Pennacook can pronounce her last name, and her coming out as gay during a school dance goes disastrously wrong when her crush rejects and insults her. Writing for the Pennacook Beat newspaper gives Wendy a purpose, and she and the other kid reporters in her school-sponsored program uncover a case of corruption revealing the reasons for the floods and hordes of feral pigs—and the truth behind an idealistic-sounding scheme to cover the town with a giant dome. Interspersed with teen Wendy’s exploits are depictions of Wendy in the year 2032 as she nears college graduation. Both Wendy and her Pennacook Beat editor, Graham Bundt, are flawed characters, but the author makes them likable by showing their growth. Graham has a drinking problem and allows the newspaper to be co-opted for propaganda, but he’s worth redemption—he inspires kids to write and cares about the town he inhabits. Wendy can be unkind to her mom; she’s also an unreliable narrator, revealing late in the story that she has lied about some of her personal details. Still, the reader is on Wendy’s side when she learns to care deeply for someone and discovers her own strength. Though the story is frothy, Giroux embeds many serious themes in the narrative, including self-acceptance, suicide, sexuality, and racism. The book also convincingly explores the fragility of democracy, which is threatened in Pennacook. As Graham observes, quoting his hero, John Adams, “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

A strange and fluffy confection with a thought-provoking core.

In this debut novel, a pair of brothers weathers the changing fortunes of a failing New England town.

Pennacook, Massachusetts, has seen better days: “What they’d soon call the Great Recession had just unmasked itself to the world, but it seemed to have gotten a head start here.” The depressed mill town’s affordability is why Ray Markham chose to settle there five years ago, after his parents were killed in a car accident and the recent high school graduate became the legal guardian of his younger brother, Patrick. Since then, Ray has worked at the deli counter of the local chain grocery store, Bounty Bag, while Patrick has made his way through the town’s not-so-good public school system. Bounty Bag happens to be the largest employer and the primary landowner in Pennacook. (The chain may also be partially responsible for the town’s substantial population of wild boars.) Dr. Regina Chong, principal of Patrick’s high school, is supporting a referendum to override the local tax cap to fund a desperately needed new school building, but for her plan to work, she needs to spur voter turnout among the generally disengaged electorate. Her scheme is thrown into jeopardy when a management shake-up at Bounty Bag—and the resulting push for automation—inspires the workers to rise up in protest. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Patrick has been getting into trouble, showing up to track practice drunk, dyeing his hair electric blue, and “running away” to stay in a friend’s basement. While Ray navigates the changing landscape of Bounty Bag with his colorful co-workers—odd characters like Muscles Carbonara, Toothless Mary, and The Alfredo—Patrick learns a bit of American history from his terminally ill teacher Mr. Grant, who helps him put the instabilities of capitalism and democracy in perspective. Can the Markhams manage to stay afloat, even if Pennacook itself is going down?

Giroux’s prose is reminiscent of Richard Russo’s writing: intricate and incisive, though always full of warmth and humor. Giroux particularly shines when chronicling the rules and rule breakers of Bounty Bag: “Every law and the Bounty Bag Code were against Toothless Mary’s smoking in Deli, but before the store opened she did it anyway and left her hair unwrapped too. During business hours, she smoked on the Golden Mile, the long, wide lane out back used for trash and Deliveries. Sometimes she returned from the Golden Mile with little pieces of garbage attached to her.” The author ambitiously sets out to say something about the state of the contemporary American town, subject to the whims of corporations, distracted voters, and shortsighted politicians. He manages to achieve that goal without drifting too far into didacticism or oversimplification. The characters are believable even as they are peculiar, and readers will have no trouble sympathizing with their various attempts to stay employed—or simply to remain sane. Patrick is a particularly well-drawn figure. Readers will not regret their time spent in Pennacook and will likely keep an eye out for whatever lighthearted dramas Giroux puts his pen to in the future.

A well-balanced comic tale that deftly grapples with larger contemporary themes.