The Night Gwen Stacy Died

April 1, 2013
In Bruni’s engaging debut, 17-year-old Sheila is bored by her life in smalltown Iowa, her only ambition a vague plan to escape to Paris when she has saved enough money from her job as a cashier at the local Sinclair gas station. A local cab driver who refers to himself as Peter Parker (Spider-Man’s alias outside the red-and-blue tights) offers a strange plan: he’ll rob the gas station, pretending to kidnap her in the process, and they’ll take the money and run away together. Sheila accepts, and flees with Peter to Chicago, where they begin a relationship and where Sheila takes on the name of Spider-Man’s first love, Gwen Stacy. But Peter has secrets that don’t relate to his chosen name: his grief over the death of his older brother, and his disturbing premonitory nightmares. Burdened by what the dreams portend, Peter feels responsible for saving the people in them, as Spider-Man felt responsible for Gwen Stacy. Despite an oddly swampy ending, the novel’s quirky tone and accessible themes of rescue and recovery make for a likeable read. Agent: Susan Golomb, the Susan Golomb Literary Agency.

Starred review from May 1, 2013
Spider-Man lore is one layer of this superbly suspenseful first novel about two loners, improbable lawbreakers, on a mission to Chicago. How do you get out of Iowa? Sheila Gower would love to know. Bored silly by her family and hometown, the high school senior fantasizes about immigrating to Paris before her French teacher discourages her. The solution is one of the regulars at the gas station where she works the swing shift. Peter Parker (Spider-Man's "real" name) is a cabdriver in his mid-20s and is clearly attracted to her. Sheila learns from her research that Spider-Man was unable to save his first girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, from the villainous Green Goblin. But when Peter shows her a gun at the station, suggesting they fake a kidnapping, empty the cash register and drive to Chicago, daredevil Sheila is up for it. Peter's story reveals him as more victim than creep. He was only 6 when his much older brother committed suicide, an overdose. Seeking escape, Peter immersed himself in the Spider-Man books; his mother, sensing his trauma, let him assume Spider-Man's name. Peter's not crazy; he knows he lacks superhuman powers, but he does have premonitions in his dreams, and when a recurrent dream features the gas-station girl, a gun (found in his mother's underwear drawer) and Chicago, he swings into action. Bruni does a masterful job evoking their world, equal parts fantasy and reality and further skewed by a downtown Chicago that's been invaded by coyotes. Their chemistry changes as they become mutually dependent lovers and Sheila, no dummy, realizes that Peter's plan--to rescue a man haunting his dreams--is no plan at all. When push comes to shove, and the fugitives are in danger of exposure, it is Sheila/Gwen's quick thinking that saves them. Is Bruni steering us toward Gwen's rendezvous with destiny or something more reality-based? She keeps readers guessing as the plot twists and turns. Bruni writes dark passages and playful moments with equal aplomb. The world is her oyster.

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June 1, 2013

Iowa doesn't suit Sheila, not from where she is standing at the edge of everything, dreaming in French and planning her future with a taxidermied coyote as a confidant. It is a good thing she has plans for after high school: she is going to get out of this small town she does not understand and where she is not understood and head to Paris. The random element introduced to disrupt Sheila's carefully planned schedule is Peter, the only one who is as much an outsider as she is. She will become Gwen Stacy to his Peter Parker--they will fall in love, they will be reckless, and their world will change. VERDICT Part tangled love story and part love affair with comics, this debut novel centers on that tenuous bit of time between childhood and adulthood, when anything seems possible and so many decisions seem inevitable. Rough with dark psychology, rich with introspection and emotion, this beautifully written book will appeal to fans of Spider-Man comics as well as coming-of-age fiction.--April Steenburgh, George F. Johnson Memorial Lib., Endwell, NY

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)