Chapter 1: Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

August Landry, a twenty-three-year-old transfer student, arrives in Brooklyn with almost nothing: five cardboard boxes and a plan to start over at Brooklyn College. She spots a flyer taped to a trash can outside a Popeyes advertising a room in a three-bedroom apartment for $700 a month. The flyer demands a queer- and trans-friendly roommate who isn't afraid of fire or dogs, and it warns against Libras.

When August visits the apartment, she meets Niko, a tattooed man who claims to be psychic. He asks to touch her hand, and after a moment, he tells her she likes lilies and that he'll get some for her move-in day. He also mentions that Myla, the sculptor whose room August would take, has a lot of frog bones. Myla appears, friendly and warm, with a blowtorch in hand. The two are a couple of four years, and the third roommate, Wes, is a mostly nocturnal tattoo artist who owns a poodle named Noodles. The apartment is cramped, decorated with thrifted furniture, plants, and a five-foot-tall sculpture of Judy Garland made from bicycle parts and marshmallow Peeps.

Despite her skepticism about Niko's psychic claims and her general distrust of people, August accepts the room. She moves in with her five boxes, and her mother, Suzette, calls on FaceTime. Their conversation reveals a shared history: Suzette is obsessed with a cold case involving NOPD missing persons, and she checks in monthly with Detective Primeaux, who has stopped trying to reopen the case. Suzette reminds August of their two rules: