From Translucent Eyes PressFor the past seven years, Margot Stanley and Johnnie Quinn have been best friends. They've worked together on Margot's ambitious science projects, they've played Super Nintendo games in each other's half-finished basements, and they've participated in countless games of red rover, TV tag, and sharks and minnows with the other kids in their small-town neighborhood. But when the streetlights flicker to life at the end of the last day of summer vacation before the beginning of eighth grade, Johnnie impulsively runs into the woods behind the neighborhood park in search of one last summer adventure. Fearing the parental wrath that awaits if she returns home without her hyperactive best friend, Margot chases Johnnie into the woods.Minutes later, when Margot finally catches up to Johnnie at the edge of a large clearing, he's not the only thing she finds. Standing in the center of the clearing is a pristine, four-floor gothic mansion of limestone ashlar. And as if this new discovery isn't puzzling enough, the inky darkness of the late August evening has inexplicably reverted to high noon. Now Margot has a decision to make: does she satisfy her curiosity and explore the mysterious mansion with Johnnie, or does she drag him back home and risk missing out on the scientific discovery of a lifetime?A surreal bildungsroman spanning multiple decades and dimensions, Stone Cells is a deeply emotional, profoundly weird exploration of friendship, love, desire, and the search for belonging in a frightening and unwelcoming world.
