Strangers In Boston

Strangers In Boston is the first book in T.S. Mann's Tales of a Strange World series.

Summary
Sometimes, when you see something strange, you have to choose. Do you ignore it and put it out of your mind? Or acknowledge it, and perhaps become a little bit stranger yourself from the experience? But then, on a rare occasion, you might see something BEYOND strange, something that utterly violates the natural order. And then, your choice is more serious and the repercussions more severe. Do you ignore what’s in front of you and hope it doesn't kill you in your willful blindness? Or do you accept the truth of what you've seen and, in the process, become something TRULY strange. So strange that you fall out of the world you knew. Your family and friends don't know you. Your house key no longer fits its lock. Your driver's license is now just a blank plastic card. You become a citizen of a hidden realm of magic and horror, one visible to normal people only out of the corner of the eye. You have become a Stranger.

Matt Sullivan, a high-school jock from Boston, had such an encounter when he and his brother Luke crossed paths with an insane Lovecraft-quoting witch who tried to sacrifice them for an evil, nearly incomprehensible purpose. He survived, but as a result, he "went strange" and passed into a new and frightening world. A world where his own mother doesn't recognize him. Where enigmatic techno-mages scheme and plan in their hidden base beneath MIT, while sword-wielding magical inquisitors prowl the streets looking for enemies of their faith to destroy. Where the mysterious "Wizard of Fenway" holds secrets that will change Matt's life forever. And where evil forces want to use his missing brother as a weapon against Reality itself. But it's also a world where Matt finds that he has actual magical powers at his command ... provided they don't kill him or drive him insane.