"Wormwood, Nevada"

David Oppegaard is the author of the Bram Stoker nominated The Suicide Collectors.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Wormwood, Nevada, and reported the following:

Wormwood, Nevada is about a meteorite landing in a small town and stirring up trouble. It’s also about young married couple, Tyler and Anna Mayfield, who have just moved to town and find their lives in a state of monumental upheaval. Not only does the thunderous arrival of the meteorite seem ominous, it becomes a touchstone for all sorts of strange speculation among the citizens of Wormwood.

From pg. 69:

“It’s from outer space. That’s strange.”

“That’s not what I mean. It has a…presence.”

Wormwood, Nevada deals with loneliness and boredom and the effect a strange event can have on a group of people with too much free time on their hands. Wormwood is geographically isolated in the middle of central Nevada, with its closest neighboring town over sixty-five miles away. Its citizens find themselves dealing with the meteorite’s surreal effects, both real and imagined, without much input from the outside world, and this leads to some strange behavior. On page 69, Tyler Mayfield still hasn’t realized how much the meteorite will affect his own life:

Anna chewed her food and stared at her husband. Tyler held up his hands and bugged out his eyes.

“What? I thought we were trying to brainstorm here.”

“You know,” Anna said, tapping her fork against the edge of her plate, “in horror movies, the smart-ass usually dies first.”

Learn more about the book and author at David Oppegaard's website and blog.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue