Brennan just wants to be a good boy and make his parents proud, but his world is defined by strict rules and unyielding parents who believe in the power of punishment. He gives every day his best effort-both at home and at school-yet he just can't seem to stay out of trouble. And the more stressed out his parents become, the more trouble he seems to find himself in.

When Brennan fatefully crosses paths with a new kid at his school-a boy whose parents and home life seems to defy the very beliefs and principles that Brennan has been raised to follow-he is drawn into a spiral of anxiety, self-doubt, and confusion, until an eventual playground conflict ends with Brennan's temporary suspension from school.

As he wrestles with the consequences of his actions, Brennan begins to unravel the complex tapestry of love, fear, and control that binds him to his parents, picking up some new mindsets and coping methods along the way to help him process-and survive-the darkly confounding world around him.

"A Kafkaesque young adult book with some serious teeth [...] It'll leave many adult readers just as shaken and moved by Brennan's harrowing tale as its younger, YA audience-if not, even more so [...] This is not a story for the faint-of-heart."

The New Kid's Revelation is a bold deep-dive into a child's search for identity and security amid familial conflicts, pressures, and expectations that he is ill-equipped to process and respond to on his own.

In this daring, debut novella, Marck Thomas Wilder explores the strange burdens that adults so often place on the shoulders of children, illuminating the hazards and the harm that can shape-and sometimes scar-our young spirits for years, or even decades, to come.