Allie Argos, her parents long ago imprisoned, has grown up under the dubious care of her nasty foster mother, Oda Friendly, and her horrible sons, in Baltimore's crumbling, long ago abandoned, and somehow ever-shifting Greaser Hotel. The arrival of the hotel's owner, ageless capitalist Marvin Greaser, prompts Allie's closest friend, the magical and somehow talking cat Jerome, to engineer her escape. The first of a planned trilogy, award-winning young adult author J Scott Fuqua's urban fantasy is a thrilling and surreal adventure, bolstered by 115 remarkable and vivid illustrations.