So I knew early on that I would never be able to join the Marines like my dad, or play sports, or ride a bike, or even take gym class like other children. I spent a lot of my early childhood in body casts and wheelchairs. My bones could break with the slightest pressure, and they did. My femurs were bowed and required surgical correction with plates and screws. I was born with an orthopedic condition that was never definitively diagnosed but resembled osteogenesis imperfecta. When I was born it was clear I would not amount to much in the physical fitness department. The cover promised great suffering, great truth. The title was sinister yet playful, wholly mysterious. I wanted to own this book and I wanted it to own me. But I still bought the book, such was my desire to own it. I must have known I would not be allowed to keep it. The mouth’s teeth were crowded and stained.
On the cover were flames and a screaming mouth. The book’s appearance on the shelf was almost audible, as if it were emitting a faint, hellish siren.