Simon Sort of Says

Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

A boy (simon) and his family move out from Omaha to a remote city in Nebraska. The city is home to a radio-telescope, so radios (including microwaves, cell phones and the internet and others are prohibited.) the city is half "scientist" and half "farmer". His mom has bought the local mortuary and her dad is working as a Deacon at the local Catholic church. He struggles in the new environment, but does make a couple friends.

We gradually learn more about the interesting backstory. His dad had got in trouble at their previous church after having too many animals at a "blessing of the animals". He had been homeschooled the previous year after being the only kid in his class to survive a school shooting. He suffers from trauma from the situation and was also stressed by the media coverage.

Some interesting things happen in the town. His mom is "forced" to keep someone on staff to pick up bodies. He manages to lose a body from the hearse and they end up in Iowa. A squirrel at the church is caught eating the blessed host and later is struck by lightning in the church on a holy day. This results in some interesting sermons. One of the boy's friends has the idea of using a microwave to simulate signals from aliens. All of these actions result in media coverage - exactly what they don't want.

The book has some interesting situations for the "come to a new town" scenario. It is filled with plenty of bizarre scenarios, from runaway emus to the craziness above. In spite of the craziness, it does follow a logical progression. The scenarios gradually develop in a plausible manner, which makes the ridiculousness even more fun.