Imagine if you wrote the book and it got published before Ruby's.
I think if I wrote a Ruby-based book, it would have to be in the 'creepy child' horror subgenre. Cliche, I know, but that's where a lot of her behaviour would fit.
Spooky mansion in the middle of nowhere. A lone alpaca stands on the horizon. Where are the other alpacas?
The mansion - Bones Manor - is overrun with dead insects and cobwebs. Forget cottagecore, this is Havisham core.
There are rumours that the reclusive girl who lives in the house, Flooby, can talk to the insects and summon them to do her bidding.
There are also rumours regarding a sibling - Artha - who has not been seen for many years. Where is Artha? Is she with the alpacas? Are these disappearances somehow linked?
Mysterious fires begin to appear. ''What is that scent?'' one neighbour asks as the flames engulf his garden shed. ''I believe it's Oxford Library Studious Study Scent,'' replies his wife knowingly.
Crop circles appear in the fields. The local farmer has seen a girl, possibly Flooby, walking repeatedly in circles around the muddy field. His eyewitness account reads: Y
es, I saw her there. She always returned with her camera. I hid beneath the windowsill and watched her stomping on the mud with her Miss Patina boots pause for product placement to sink in. She began twirling violently like a dervish until she collapsed. I heard the shout ''ALWAYS MAYKK TIME FOR WHHAHT YOU ENJAY DOING'' and then she vanished into the mists.
Later in the story, Flooby is found to be holding her friend, Lake Knee, hostage until she's read every book in the bookshop, River Rocks.
There will be a chase scene in an archive. Re-appeared sibling Artha is searching for key paperwork to find the true identity of their
300-year old ageless-child sibling. Artha searches through the corridors while Flooby follows, pausing only to do creepy yoga shapes and stir a black magic potion made from peas and coconut discs. She whispers,
I am eternally a child; that is my identity and the book ends on a cliffhanger.
But how accidental are these 'accidents'? Another question for the book!
Oh man. Ruby really doesn't know how food works, does she?