The Thing in the Woods is dead. But James Daly will find out there's more to this world than just one monster.
Having survived his encounter with a Lovecraftian horror and the cult worshipping it in the previous book The Thing In The Woods, our hero James Daly is now a student at Georgia State University. But horrible things start happening again, drawing the attention of The Men in Black.
The novel contains examples of:
- Aliens in Cardiff: The Greys have set up an underground fortress complete with a stargate in the vicinity of Georgia State, with secondary lairs established in dilapidated buildings in poor neighborhoods elsewhere in the city.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Amber again. No problem with doing violence on the Grays, including absolutely losing her her mind on one after James' friend Eli is killed.
- Black and Nerdy: Javion Jackson, as much as he can be under the circumstances (i.e. he's a member of a street gang).
- Disposable Vagrant: The Grays have been killing homeless people and street criminals to establish secret bases in Atlanta. Nobody seems to notice or care.
- Gangbangers: The Boulevard Crips and the Edgewood Jack Boys feud over drug-dealing territory. Unfortunately for some of the latter, The Greys have designs on that territory as well.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: One of Eli's fraternity brothers doesn't think Eli is authentically Jewish due to having a Gentile mother. Eli only puts up with him because he's useful at organizing fraternity events and supplying the brothers with marijuana.
- Hidden Depths: Javion is extremely knowledgeable about World War II due to his grandfather having served under Patton. He also really loves The X Files.
- Jewish and Nerdy: James' best friend and roommate Eli.
- No Such Agency:
- Psychic Powers: Thanks to a dose of alien blood to a facial wound at the climax of The Thing In The Woods, James is developing them. These include
- Astral Projection
- Dream Spying
- Psychometry
- Seers
- Touch Telepathy
- Scary Black Man: Two of the Edgewood Jack Boys from the prologue.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Amber when sufficiently threatened or angered.
- Shiksa Goddess: Eli's mother in the past, since her not being Jewish comes up a lot.
- The Government: It quickly becomes apparent that they know more than they let on to James, but its (mostly) benevolent.
- White Bread and Black Brotha: We start to see a little of this with James and Javion.
