Publisher's Synopsis
Benjamin has always been the type of guy who stands to the side and watches the classic all-American, pretty boy badasses swoop in and get the girl. They always seem to know how to act, and being charming and cool is effortless for them. Meanwhile, curious, contemplative, and comically awkward, Benjamin, who relies on his razor-sharp wit and books to help him navigate the world, remains completely clueless. It was only a few weeks ago that Benjamin's ineptitude cost him everything. On a day that was expected to be perfect, everything ended with his dad dying on his drive home to deal with the mess Benjamin had created.
After Benjamin suffers a mental breakdown and attempts suicide, his mom packs up the family. She moves them to her upstate childhood hometown of Lima, a suffocatingly small town with a complicated history and an uncertain future-a future, unbeknownst to Benjamin, that is tied to him by lineage and circumstance.
When Benjamin meets reckless, charming, and equally alienated Theo, a kid who is nothing like anyone Benjamin has known before, he gets roped into Theo's dreams of being the next Evel Knievel. With Benjamin's guilt bearing down around him as he haplessly relives the day of his father's death and the lengths to which Theo will go to achieve his dreams becoming increasingly dire-and illegal-the boys strive to overcome their challenges together. Will Ben and Theo persevere as the consequences of their choices threaten to overwhelm them, or will their actions lead them on a collision course with disaster?
