The Night Gwen Stacy Died

Guys, I don't even know? I picked this up because I was intrigued by the title, as a comics fan, but... okay. So I liked the start of the story. It's set in Iowa City/Coralville, which I liked, because I like Iowa City. The protagonists are a 17-year-old girl named Sheila, who works at a gas station, and a 20-something dude named Peter Parker, who frequents the gas station to buy cigarettes. Sheila suspects Peter Parker's ID is fake, because who would name their child after Spider-Man, right?

Anyway, at first I liked Sheila a lot. High school misfit, saving up her money to go to France after high school with no set plan because she doesn't want to go straight to college and she wants to get out of Iowa. So she listens to French CDs and practices while she works at the gas station. Get it, Sheila.

But then she lets herself be voluntarily kidnapped by Peter Parker and goes with him to Chicago? And he gives her a fake ID with the name Gwen Stacy, aka Peter Parker's first girlfriend who dies?? Again... I'm still interested, here. Is Peter going to kill her, or what.

Then... okay, I described the plot of this to a co-worker and she said it sounded like it was written as an exquisite corpse story. (You know, where you fold over the page and pass it to the next person and they write something without having seen your part.) I agree, or maybe like it were part of an improv scene where the author just kept saying “Yes, and.” Yes, and... Peter has accurate visions of death. Yes, and... Peter's long-thought-dead brother is actually alive and well in Chicago. Yes, and... Gwen decides to kidnap Peter's brother. Yes, and... coyotes are taking to the streets of Chicago. Yes, and... Gwen has visions of talking coyotes.

???

Also it seemed like the Spider-Man thing was kind of used as a hook and then dropped?

I'd be way into reading a book that used comic book characters/archetypes as a way to explore relationships but I just found this very confusing and weird.

I'm seeing a lot of great reviews for it so it's totes possible that it just all went over my head. If anyone else I know has read it, I'd LOVE to talk about it.