Sarah Bruni: The Night Gwen Stacy Died

Sheila Gower trudges through her shifts at a gas station in Iowa, waiting for high school to end and life to start. That is, until a taxi driver named Peter Parker shows up with a thrilling, dangerous, and definitely illegal alternative.  "A pseudo Bonnie and Clyde with Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy delusions go on the lam in Iowa and hide out in Chicago in Sarah Bruni's sterling debut, but the pleasures here go far beyond the propulsive narrative. The prose is blade-sharp, the eerie love story is leavened with moments of unforced wit, and the nuanced observations are utterly idiosyncratic. It's as if Lorrie Moore wrote a taut thriller—not an updated Western, but a modern Midwestern." —Teddy Wayne