Meet the Wrenchies. They're strong, powerful, and if you cross them, things will quickly go very badly for you. Only one thing scares them-growing up. Anyone who survives to be an adult lives in constant fear of the Shadowsmen. All the teenagers who come into contact with them turn into twisted, nightmarish monsters whose minds are lost forever. When Hollis, an unhappy and alienated boy, stumbles into the parallel world of the Wrenchies, he finally finds a place where he belongs. But he soon discovers that the feverish, post-apocalyptic world of the Wrenchies isn't staying put...it's bleeding into Hollis' normal, real life. Farel Dalrymple has created a sprawling, intense science fiction tale that has at its heart the uncertainty and loneliness of growing up.