Mona Bright, a divorced ex-cop, has spent the last few years or so driving from place to place aimlessly in the American south, no final destination in mind. That is, until her deadbeat father dies. In his storage unit, aside from his car that she always loved, Mona finds the deed to a house. Not only is it strange that her father has a deed to a house, but the house is in her mother's name, a mother who committed suicide when she was only 7. The house resides in a town called Wink in New Mexico.
With nothing better to do, Mona decides to go claim this house and possibly learn more about her mother that she never really knew along the way. However, after the initial difficulty of even finding the place (as it doesn't exist on any official maps), she quickly finds that the town, though very pleasant in a 50s era tv show way, has something very off about it. And she'll soon learn that the town has a very dark secret, one that could be tied to her in ways she could have never imagined...
This novel provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Mr. First is a very affable eldritch abomination. To introduce himself to Mona, he creates the projection of a movie theater that is playing An American in Paris, and speaks to Mona through Gene Kelly. He also clearly very much loves Gracie and wishes to keep her safe. However, there is no way around the fact that he groomed Gracie into being his "girlfriend" since she was a young child and by present day is having sexual relations (or the eldritch abomination equivalent of it) with her even though she is only 16. Blue-and-Orange Morality is no doubt a major factor, but as ex-cop Mona notes, Gracie shows all the signs that Mona frequently saw with abused spouses.
- And I Must Scream: To stop Mother from destroying our reality, Mona sets her oldest brother, Mother's firstborn son, the Wildling, against Mother. He is unable to truly kill Her, but he is able to disable Her for a time, during which he drags Her back to his prison where She will be his prisoner for the rest of eternity, just the two of them all alone together. And he was the one child that She abandoned from the beginning.
- Anyone Can Die: By the end of the story, the entire town of Wink has been destroyed with no survivors aside from Mona and Gloria (and Norris and Zimmerman, who got the hell out of dodge before things started going to hell).
- Big Bad: It is revealed over the story that the outsiders' Mother is not nearly so benevolent as some of them make her out to be. She is a control freak who is constantly in need of new stimulation. And she lied to her children about the destruction of their reality. She states its because they were too numerous and too powerful for the reality to hold them, but the truth is that she destroyed it to force them to move somewhere new, so she could experience some place new herself.
- Big Bad Wannabe: The person in the pinstripe suit who refers to themself as the Ganymede, is the cause of (most) of the changes occurring within Wink, which is all part of their plan to reunite with their Mother, who they dearly miss. They believe their eldest siblings have become complacent in waiting for Mother to return, and they seek a more active solution. Though they succeed in their plans, they don't live long enough to see Her return, as Mona unleashes the Wildling against them, which leaves the Ganymede to die in terror as their eldest brother destroys them.
- Bittersweet Ending: The entire town of Wink has been destroyed. Every human is dead and every outsider has been returned, forcefully or otherwise, to their home dimension. Mona, even though she is given a second chance to be a mother, chooses to return "her" baby to her proper reality, wishing not to inflict the grief she felt when her child was stillborn upon an alternate version of herself. However, this gives her a level of closure, as she got to make at least one choice out of love for the child she was never able to have. She and Gracie start a roadtrip around the US, given that Gracie has literally never left the boundary of Wink her entire life.
- The Death Of A Child: By the end of the story, there are no humans alive left in Wink, including the children. Parson and Mrs. Benjamin enter child bodies after their previous hosts are killed which kills the personality inside those children (though Parson's host was noted to be a vegetable before he entered it). Other children are noted to be killed by their parents who went insane from witnessing Mother (such as Gloria's boyfriend and his young sister who were shot dead by his father). Only Megan Twohey, a girl that we know previous struck up a friendship with one of the outsiders avoids the carnage and death Mother brings about, but we do not see her in the aftermath as Mona and Gracie leave town, and it's also mentioned that at one point all the humans in town have died so the outsiders no longer have anyone to possess, which makes Megan's outlook very bleak.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Normal humans cannot witness the true nature of the outsiders without at the very minimum some mental damage. Witnessing an outsider in their true form equals instant suicidal insanity, as the human residents of Wink all quickly discover upon Mother's return to our realm of existence. Everyone who witnesses Her makes killing their loved ones their first order of business, with suicide being second. However, those Touched by Vorlons like Gracie are able to tolerate them.
- Grand Theft Me: Most of the outsiders anchor themselves in our reality by possessing a human host to live in. The only exceptions are Mr. First who was too old and developed to properly do this and the youngest of the outsiders who were not mature enough to do it. The process completely overwrites the consciousness of the host, effectively killing them. And it turns out this happened to Mona's mother, to the point that Mona's mother was possessed before she even met Mona's father. And said possessor of Mona's mother in fact happens to be the mother of ALL of the outsiders. Incidentally, this makes Mona not quite human.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Ganymede's weapon of choice to kill their elder siblings were rabbit skulls that served as portals to the prison where their eldest brother lived. A brother who was very hateful towards his siblings for being able to live their lives while he has been imprisoned his entire existence. At the end of the story, Ganymede ends up a victim of their eldest brother's wrath as well when Mona tricks them into touching a rabbit skull.
- Humanity Is Infectious: The outsiders who possessed the citizens of Wink needed to find a way to stave off boredom while waiting for Mother to return to them. They found entertainment through the town's TV stations and radio, which primarily played stuff from the 50s and 60s. Thus, the outsiders modelled the entire town in the styles of the 50s and 60s, and spend their days trying to emulate humanity. "Trying" often being the operative word; one chapter details their attempts to replicate human behavior, and it's often skin deep. One vignette involves a husband who works on his car while his wife stands by with lemonade as a refreshment for him. However, they have no bodily needs so she stands in place holding a jug of lemonade for 4 days on end, smiling the entire time. And though the husband "knows" that men work on cars, he has no idea how cars actually work, so he has replaced all the parts under the car with random objects that in no way make a car work.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Bolan and his two remaining henchpeople collectively decide that even though the smart thing would be to get the fuck out of dodge with all the money they've made and forget everything they've seen, they've been too affected by the horrors they've witnessed and feel they wouldn't be able to live with themselves if they didn't do something. So they decide that they will help Mona stop whatever is going on. After killing the Ganymede's current host, it possesses Bolan's henchwoman, who proceeds to kill both Bolan and his other henchman before leaving Mona locked in the trunk of their car unable to get out.
- Tragic Monster: The Wildling was Mother's firstborn child, but something about him revolted Her, so that She cast him out. He snuck along with the rest of his family when they moved into our reality, and he bears a mighty grudge against his younger siblings who got to experience Mother's love. But ultimately, that love is all he ever wanted, and he is friendly enough to Mona when she realizes that the two of them are actually siblings.
- What Now: After Mother's defeat, the remaining outsiders in their human hosts have no idea what to do anymore, so they awkwardly all decide to go back to their "lives" emulating humans. However, this is largely a moot point as the entire town is on fire, and they all obliviously "die" in said fire, which largely just has the effect of forcing them back into their home reality, with no one left to possess in Wink.
