Kittentits

In this chirpy if wearying debut, a 10-year-old white girl seeks friendship and adventure after a tragedy. In 1992 Calumet City, Ill., Molly lives with her dad in the House of Friends, a religious co-op, where she’s homeschooled by an older woman she calls “fat Evelyn.” Two of their fellow residents recently died in a blaze, including a nun whose ghost haunts their “fire-rotted” house. When 20-something Jeanie arrives on a dirt bike and moves in, Molly is immediately taken with the young woman: “right now Jeanie’s the most supernatural thing to me ever.” Jeanie is on the run from her vengeful twin sister (the reasons for this come out later), prompting her to fake her own death by staging a hot-air balloon accident. Molly, knowing Jeanie is still alive, runs away to Chicago to meet up with her pen pal Demarcus, who is Black, for help in tracking Jeanie down. Wilson has a knack for surreal imagery (she describes a cyclorama in Chicago as “a ghost-painted grid with glowing bars and square cells like a prison”). Unfortunately, she leans too often on the puerile insults of the period, including “asstard” (to which she adds “crotchtard” and “kittentits”), and awkwardly attempts to work through racial issues by having Molly say ignorant things and Demarcus call her out (“I can’t tell if you’re racist or just dumb”). In the end, Wilson serves up more fatigue than intrigue. Agent: Kent Wolf, Neon Literary. (May)