Local kids have a little fun with the town “moron.”

(from A Near-Perfect Gift)

Travis Kratz may have wanted to say a number of things, but the only words we ever heard him speak were “You got a quarter?” and “Want me to do a jig?” He was a moron, a genuine one, a clinical one, and he was ugly, even if innocence should have made him cute.

On one hand, there’s something sort of Hollywood-ish about this: the small town kids taking out their boredom and frustration on anybody who’s different, in this case the “slow” boy who is almost certainly harmless. But on the other, larger hand (picture Hellboy) “Madman’s Moon” feels more democratic, more understanding of all its potential monsters. The local kids, gently repressed at all turns, are reduced to a pack mentality. Only in numbers can they push the boundaries. It’s an idea made plain by the “we” narration. (So you’re never quite clear what gender the narrator is.)
Here’s R.M. Kinder’s homepage. (She’s a woman.)