Calico Kids — Todd Downing

Summer, 1982. When two local teens go missing from the riverside town of Calico, Oregon, it falls to a middle school nerd steeped in wild conspiracy theories to investigate.With a posse consisting of a busboy, a delinquent, an L.A. transplant, and a cheerleader, A.J. sets out to prove that a Satanic cult is behind the disappearances, all while dodging the local Sheriff, high school bullies, and a deputy drunk on authority. But instead of a dark cult, the group encounters a legion of ghosts, mysterious government agents, alien technology, and an interdimensional crisis of literally Earth-shattering proportions.From the author of the Airship Daedalus pulp adventure book series, and adapted from his short story, comes a love letter to retro-ʹ80s science fiction and horror, in the vein of Stranger Things and The Babysitter. Equal parts John Hughes, Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, Calico Kids is a coming-of-age story set in a rural town, full of impossible adventures.