Summary

The novel is narrated in first-person past by the main character, Maren. In Chapter One, Maren thought about the first time she ate someone. She could not remember the event, but her mother had told her that she had left Maren with her babysitter, Penny Wilson. Penny Wilson had wanted a baby of her own, and she’d gotten too close to Maren. Maren had eaten Penny Wilson and left the bones on the floor because she was too small to swallow them. As a teenager, Maren asked her mother what she had done with the bones, but her mother would not tell her.

On Maren’s 16th birthday, she and her mother had a fun Saturday. Her mother had not looked so happy in a long time. They went out for pancakes and Maren was gifted a Lord of the Rings book...