You're an Animal. A Novel

A tender portrait of four misfits, on the run across Texas, that speaks to those who are left out, those who opt out-and to the wild animal in us all"Libaire creates a delicious universe at a constant brink of collapse, a universe I never wanted to see end."-Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of MonstrilioIt's springtime in Oklahoma, and Ernie, an outcast in a group of outcasts, feels uneasy. Nerves at the abandoned summer camp where he and his fellow oddballs are crashing have been on edge since the arrival of a teenager named Coral, unceremoniously dropped off from her family's minivan one afternoon.
Adding to her aura of mystery, Coral doesn't say a word. Ever. When a drug lab explosion burns the compound to the ground, Ernie, Coral, and the hard-living couple Staci and Ray escape on a pair of motorcycles. Feeling shaky with fear and alive with a new surge of freedom, the four outcasts find a rundown house in rural Texas: It's a place to stay, they tell themselves, for now. Yet to their surprise, over card games and wild strawberries and target-shooting and late-night dancing to ZZ Top on the local radio, a quirky little family forms.
At the heart of their new home is Coral, whose silence only amplifies her strange, undefinable power and the sense that she found them for a reason. But soon, tensions rise, and a mysterious threat begins to materialize-whether it's coming from inside or outside the house still isn't clear. All this crew knows is, now there's something at stake: their chosen family, forged by both loneliness and joy, and bonded by an awkward kind of love.