I’d heard of Will McIntosh from his award winning debut novel Soft Apocalypse, but I never got around to reading it. So, when I saw his new novel, Hitchers, in the library, I decide that I should check it out. And I am so glad that I did. McIntosh has created a funny, thoughtful, exciting story that makes me want to check out everything that McIntosh has written.The story has a great premise, wonderful characters and a plot that keeps you wanting to turn the page. So, let’s check out why there are hitchers.

Finn Darby had a good and terrible day. His mean, cranky grandfather finally died, but while boating with his wife, she dies from a lightning strike. Flash forward and Finn is somewhat moving forward in life. He resurrected his Grandfather’s comic strip and made it more popular than ever. But he’s only tentatively started dating. Then a terror attack happens. Six hundred thousand people die from an anthrax attack in Atlanta. And Finn dies (technically at least) for a few minutes.

Then strange things start happening. Finn starts having a weird voice pop out of his mouth on occasion. he quickly realizes that it is his grandfather. And his grandfather isn’t happy about the comic strip coming back when he wanted it to die with him (and especially not go to Finn who he hated). Finn quickly meets a couple other people who have the same problem: an aging rock star who is being haunted by his late bandmate and a waitress who is being haunted by Finn’s late wife. Together they deal with the problems of having another person inside their body, especially when the dead person can take over their body for hours at a time.

The basic plot is Finn and his friends dealing with the hitchers in their body. But McIntosh goes deeper and deals with tragedy and loss and love and friendship. The friendship between our three main characters is what drives the book with the venomous grandfather doing a great job of trying to drive a wedge in Finn’s life. Since Finn took over his grandfather’s comic strip, the book shows a few of the strips and uses them to help demonstrate the current mood.

Overall it’s a touching novel that has several great moments. It occasionally goes over the top(Grandpa’s buying spree and drinking), but never enough to take away from the story. The ending is a little trite, but by that point it’s not that big of a deal. I loved the characters and came away very impressed with McIntosh’s writing. I’m definitely going to check out his other books. Recommended.