art of mikey o’dea by riley turner

art of charlie aguilar and mikey o’dea by riley turner

The May after his freshman year of college, Charlie can’t stop having nightmares about an old high school friend. When he decides to check in on him, he ends up in a van hurtling across the country with two vampires, one of whom is his ex-girlfriend, a mechanic from Illinois who can see ghosts, and their bonus passenger, a six year old werewolf. Their destination? A safe haven for his monstrous companions. But over the course of a summer in a werewolf safehouse that doubles as a nightclub run by the elegant Sasha Gray, Charlie starts to learn things about himself, his humanity, and just maybe, who he’s been all along. 

Mikey, an aspiring musician and a year off his barely-received high school diploma, has given up on trying to kill himself by May. Seven months ago, after a gig, he was murdered and turned into a vampire, and ever since, he hasn’t been able to figure out how to exit the mortal plane. Every myth he’s ever learned to hurt vampires: stakes, holy water, garlic, and even sunlight, seems to be just that- a myth. So he’s decided to flee. What he isn’t expecting is his high school best friend’s ex-boyfriend to show up in his driveway. Soon enough, he’s taken on four extra passengers for his solo road trip. For the first time, when they reach their destination, Mikey feels like maybe he has a place in the world. But when it all gets too much, and his mental illness comes back full force, Mikey has to figure out what that means for him, and how to keep himself alive. 

Mikey and Charlie’s stories interweave with those of many others in this fantastical, colorful, musical, joyous, and realistic look at what it means to be looked at as an outsider- and as monstrous.