This coming-of-age novel tells the story of a fatherless young boy's struggle to find his place in the world. Set in the 1980s and early 90s in Southern California, the novel is part hanging out, part road trip, and part alternate world. A supernatural entity called Jacob contacts young Eric during a lonely birthday party while he is depressed about his mother's sudden departure on a business trip. Since his mother and he have recently moved, Eric has no friends. He has only the babysitter, who he knows hates him. Jacob makes his wraithlike appearance and entertains Eric, mimicking the role of imaginary friend and taking up residence inside of Eric.The novel jumps forward several years with Eric now in middle school. He has made a friend, an older boy named Jones, a bit of a delinquent. Although dormant inside Eric for years, an incident with Jones brings Jacob back. The two boys use the entity to commit small crimes, since Jacob has the power to make victims forget the recent past. Eric wants to keep Jones as a friend, but he doesn't like committing the robberies. A young woman, older than Jones but still in high school, witnesses one of the robberies and somehow remembers enough to track the two down at school. She demands answers to what she has seen. Bernadette is popular, intelligent, and tough.This story develops from here, with Eric struggling to find meaning in what's happening, both with his friends and also with more metaphysical problems when difficult situations face him in the alternate world where he and his friends have become trapped. Readers of middle school age and below may need some parental guidance for plot situations and violent or sexual situations.