His father took a drunken fall in the shower and never walked again. His mother walked out of the maternity ward and never looked back. His grandmother gave up her dream job to keep the family afloat. Everyone said JP's birth ruined their lives-but no one ever explained why. Now thirteen, JP is determined to uncover the truth. Between visiting his father in a nursing home, sneaking whiskey gingers with his older sister, and serving at Catholic funerals for tip money, he pieces together the family mythology surrounding the day he was born. What he finds is messy, funny, cruel, and unexpectedly tender: love warped by guilt, superstition, and survival. Set in a fading cereal-factory town, Reel Around the Fountain is a queer coming-of-age novel about music, mythmaking, and growing up under the weight of being blamed for everything that went wrong.