{"product_id":"the-friend-of-the-family-9781662533297","title":"The Friend of the Family","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA girl liberated from a carnival sideshow discovers her mysterious purpose in a moving novel about family, sacrifice, and transcendent love by #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Dean Koontz.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe human \"oddities\" in the Museum of the Strange are less wondrous than the gawking rubes had been promised. But Alida is something else. The real thing. Traveling Depression-era America from carnival midways to speakeasies, Alida is resigned to an exploited and lonely life on the road as the museum's golden ticket. Until she's rescued by two compassionate strangers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFranklin and Loretta Fairchild see in Alida a gifted and uncannily well-read girl in need of a loving touch and a family. With the openhearted couple and their three precociously imaginative children, Alida finds it. Yet despite everyone's overwhelming generosity and acceptance, Alida knows she is still a very different kind of girl. Her dreams bear that out. They're vivid, unsettling, and threatening. Alida fears that they're also warnings. And that it's the Fairchilds who may need rescue from a bad, bad world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlida will do anything to help those she now holds nearest and dearest. Empowered with a purpose to vanquish evil, she will not fail her family.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Dean Koontz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Thomas \u0026amp; Mercer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/20\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 381\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781662533297","brand":"Thomas \u0026 Mercer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45155984998537,"sku":"9781662533297","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_0f37bb7a-6c8b-4e02-825e-93b074e84348.jpg?v=1768293733","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-friend-of-the-family-9781662533297","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}