Wonders of the Invisible World

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2015 by Christopher Barzak

Cover art by Lynn Buckley

Painting detail: Ralph Albert Blakelock, American, 1847–1919,
Moonlight Sonata
(detail), about 1889–92, Oil on canvas, 77.15 x 55.88 cm. (30-3⁄8 x 22 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund 45.201. Photograph © 2014 by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barzak, Christopher.

Wonders of the invisible world / Christopher Barzak.—First edition.

pages cm

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Aidan has been living like a ghost since his mother tried to stop a family curse by causing him to forget his psychic experiences. But when Jarrod, a childhood friend, returns, so do the memories, and Aidan is compelled to seek the truth and release them all from the story that has trapped them.

ISBN 978-0-385-39279-2 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-385-39280-8 (lib. bdg.) —ISBN 978-0-385-39281-5 (ebook) — ISBN 978-0-385-39282-2 (pbk.)

[1. Psychic ability—Fiction. 2. Supernatural—Fiction. 3. Blessing and cursing—Fiction. 4. Death—Fiction. 5. Gays—Fiction. 6. Farm life—Ohio—Fiction. 7. Ohio—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.B2874Won 2015

[Fic]—dc23

2014022809

eBook ISBN 9780385392815

Random House Children's Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v4.1

ep

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Chapter One: My Life in Paper

Chapter Two: Missing Pieces

Chapter Three: Where All the Good Boys Go

Chapter Four: Masks Off

Chapter Five: The Angel, the White Stag, and Other Spirits

Chapter Six: A Map of the Stars

Chapter Seven: Second Chances

Chapter Eight: In the World's Shadow

Chapter Nine: The Trail of My Father's Blood

Chapter Ten: Sorrow Acre

Chapter Eleven: The Logic of Ghosts

Chapter Twelve: Thanks to the Internet

Chapter Thirteen: City of Light

Chapter Fourteen: In Plain Sight

Chapter Fifteen: Unraveling

Chapter Sixteen: Homecoming

Chapter Seventeen: Paper People

Acknowledgments

'Tis a thousand pitties,

that we should permit our Eyes

to be so Blood-shot with passions,

as to loose the sight of many wonderful Things,

wherein the Wisdom and Justice of God,

would be Glorify'd.

Some of those Things,

are the frequent Apparitions of Ghosts,

whereby many Old Murders among us,

come to be considered.

—
C
OTTON
M
ATHER,

T
HE
W
ONDERS OF THE
I
NVISIBLE
W
ORLD