The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Seventeen-year-old Sheila Gower is going nowhere fast. Working at a local gas station, she has no aspirations to go to college but is learning French in the hopes of moving to Paris. Then a man who goes by the name Peter Parker starts to frequent the gas station. Sheila finds herself increasingly curious about why he’s christened himself with Spider-man’s alias, and when he walks in one day with a gun, suggesting they stage a robbery and flee the state, Sheila agrees. The two drive to Chicago and begin a new life together. Peter starts calling Sheila by the name of Spider-man’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, but what he doesn’t tell her is that she’s factored heavily into prophetic dreams he’s been having. Peter is on a mission to save a suicidal man that he’s seen in these recurring dreams, and he believes he needs Sheila by his side to do so. Bruni’s debut is an unusual and inventive love story, with two lost souls who hold the key to each other’s salvation at its heart. --Kristine Huntley