Publication Date: August 1, 2023
It’s been a year since Bridget and her teenage son have been home. Living in motel rooms, they now drive from shopping mall to shopping mall, posing as casting directors on the lookout for kids with star potential–that is, kids with parents too eager for fame to notice they’re being conned. But on Halloween weekend, Bridget’s pursuit of a mark leads them to a haunted house deep in a gated community, where her lies will endanger them both and threaten to extinguish any hope of returning home.
A mother and son duo traveling from place to place looking to con others with a fake casting scam find themselves in trouble on Halloween weekend.
Author Kevin Allardice delivers a haunting tale in Weft, highlighting what happens when Bridget and Jake find themselves at a haunted house where they must face the haphazard series of lies they’ve constructed.
This was a challenging story to follow, although the unveiling of the back story helped. Seeing Bridget’s stable life implode, both her marriage and the separation of the two children, gives a sense of her mindset.
I felt a sense of empathy for Jake, being caught up in his mother’s search for acceptance. There are plenty of references to the 1990s, particularly the mall culture and films of the time period.
Weft plumbs the depths of a mother-son relationship highlighting how far they will go to avoid rejection by creating the ultimate con.
Kevin Allardice is the author of four novels, including Any Resemblance to Actual Persons, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. His most recent book is The Ghosts of Bohemian Grove. In 2022, Allardice was a Jack Hazard Fellow with the New Literary Project. He and his family live in the Bay Area.
