A bold, vibrant, and surprising collection. Men and women looking for escape from the excess and sham culture in which they live—junk food, souvenirs, and hype (whether for religion or sex)—are led by the power of their own imaginations to places of danger and self-reckoning.

In these gritty, imaginative stories set in the mountains and small towns of the South—often in motels, theme parks, or resorts—men and women find themselves at the mercy of an inspiration gone wrong: a man on a tryst is seduced by a ghost; a woman conducts a test to discover who is her true best friend—her husband or her dog; a beleaguered young writing professor goes one step too far while chaperoning the famous writer he finds darkly alluring. In the title story, an ex-high-school basketball player living an uneventful life in her small hometown as a cashier helps her boyfriend rob a lottery winner, and finds herself on an epic journey of fear, deceit, and betrayal.