Summary

Chapter 1, titled “Renowned Creatures of Movieville,” opens with Karen Reyes, a middle school-aged girl and the novel’s protagonist, turning up the volume on her record player so no one could hear her masturbating in her room. After she finishes, Karen (depicted as a hairy, beastly werewolf) begins to grow rapidly. Her nightgown is ripped to shreds and as she grows she becomes more beastly. Her howls are heard by passersby outside her building and they decide to grab torches and kill whatever this ‘monster’ is that they hear. The angry mob reaches her and shoots her with a silver bullet, when suddenly she wakes up. Her mother asks her if she was having “the villager dream again,” indicating this is a sort of recurring nightmare Karen has. Her mother lays down with her to sooth her back to sleep. Karen describes her...