Fiction Tuesday - Hitchers

Not gonna lie, the only reason I bought this was because Sam Wolfe Connelly did the jacket illustration. I adore all his work to no end and he is a constant inspiration to me since I want to be an illustrator as well!! -the illustrious kid

Sam Wolfe Connelly's art work on the book jacket.. In the book Finn creates "Wolfie" in his grandfather's comic-script TOY SHOP.

Two years ago, on the same day but miles apart, Finn Darby lost two of the most important people in his life: his wife Lorena, struck by lightning on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Tom Darby, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip Toy Shop. Against his grandfather's dying wish, Finn has resurrected Toy Shop, adding new characters, and the strip is more popular than ever, bringing in fan letters, merchandising deals, and talk of TV specials. Finn has even started dating again.When a terrorist attack decimates Atlanta, killing half a million souls, Finn begins blurting things in a strange voice beyond his control. The voice says things only his grandfather could know. Countless other residents of Atlanta are suffering a similar bizarre affliction. Is it mass hysteria, or have the dead returned to possess the living? Finn soon realizes he has a hitcher within his skin... his grandfather. And Grandpa isn't terribly happy about the changes Finn has been making to Toy Shop. Together with a pair of possessed friends, an aging rock star, and a waitress, Finn races against time to find a way to send the dead back to Deadland... or die trying!-book description

You might not know it when you start reading the book, but this is a sci-fi read. What you'll love about McIntosh is his down to earth quirkiness. And he has a way of taking you to the scene with such genuine realism... with his wonderful prose.

I kept thinking of Sam Huntington as FINN the main character of the book.

"The book takes place in present day Atlanta after a terrorist attack that claimed over half a million lives. Now, you're probably thinking, what could be worse than that? Well, I'll tell you ...
What if when that many people die in one place at one time a rift opens and, as the souls of the dying are moving from one realm to another, some long dead folks are able to get back to the world of the living? Impossible? Tell that to Finn Darby, our reluctant hero. After some uncontrollable outbursts, Finn begins to suspect that he's sharing his body with his dead and very angry grandfather. Partnered with an aging rock star and a waitress, Finn has to figure out how to get rid of the hitchers before they take over completely.
Hitchers is a great story, with a really interesting premise. As I was reading, I became very emotionally attached to the characters. I was desperate to find out if they would win the battle with their respective hitchers, and then I found myself wondering for whom I was really rooting."-lexyvs 

Krysten Ritter would have made a wonderful Lorena.

Will McIntosh is a Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award finalist whose debut novel, Soft Apocalypse, was published by Night Shade in 2011. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s (where his story “Bridesicle” won the 2010 Reader’s Award, as well as the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Short Story), Strange Horizons, Science Fiction and Fantasy: Best of the Year, and others. A New Yorker transplanted to the rural south, Will is a psychology professor at Georgia Southern University, where he studies Internet dating, and how people’s TV, music, and movie choices are affected by recession and terrorist threat. In 2008 he became the father of twins.-Amazon