Tideland

"I had to be with my father before the Bog Man stirred."

We now enter the world of Jeliza-Rose, daughter of Noah and "Queen Gunhild". At eleven years-old, Rose is imaginative, perky, and somewhat morbid. She tells us her daily routine of homeschooling herself on how to make heroin for her parents, and trying to steal her mother's Crunch Bars without getting "walloped".

But when her mother dies, Jeliza-Rose's father runs with her out to her grandmother's abandoned back country house in Texas all the way from LA. Along the way, they meet P-P-Patrick, a delivery boy with a bad stutter, who drives them to the house, kindly named What Rocks, and gives them peanut butter, crackers, and a jug of water.

That night, Jeliza-Rose wanders off while her father falls "into a dream". Not knowing what really happened to her father, Rose is convinced he's just asleep, and leaves him there while she ventures out into the countryside with her beheaded Barbie friend, Classique.

After a few days or so, Rose comes across what she thinks is a ghost. Scared, but wanting to make friends, she leaves the ghost her father's, now dead, radio. She leaves it in her garden, only to come back and find it gone the next day. She later returns, the ghost, and gives Rose pound cake and apple juice. Now pleased, Jeliza falls asleep, only to awake to find the ghost leaving. She follows the ghost, in pursuit of finding out who she is.

Once reaching a house, she finds the ghost is actually a woman named Dell. Soon enough, she meets Dickens, Dell's younger, adult, and mentally handicapped brother. He befriends Rose, taking her to his fake submarine and helping her find Classique when she goes missing.

But as the story progresses, Jeliza-Rose gets more and more lost in thoughts. With only Dell and Dickens when Classique goes missing, Rose has no one to tell her what's going on. With squirrel hunting and Alice references, Jeliza's life becomes more and more overwhelming.

But the question is: Is it real, or is it all a dream?

And if it is a dream, can Jeliza get out, or will she be forever stuck in the tideland?