It all starts as a joke. As a cynical response to organized religion, 16-year-old Jason decides that the town water tower would be a worthy god, and he and his friends begin to “worship” it. Just for fun. But things begin to change when tough guy Henry Stagg joins their congregation, pushing his peers into some pretty risky behavior, such as climbing to the top of the water tower at night. Even more disturbing, Jason realizes his best friend, Shin, is taking their new-fangled religion much more seriously than the others. He’s become a water-tower prophet of sorts, and he’s writing his own bible to spread the word. Shinn has always been a strange kid, unusually obsessive, but the idea of worshipping the ten-legged god seems to have really taken hold of him, pushing him to the edge of sanity. As a result, Jason grapples with the issues of power and faith in a provocative novel that’s hard to put down and even harder to forget. (Ages 14–18)

"I refuse to speak further of the Ten-legged One...but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion? All you need is a disciple or two...and a god."
Fed up with his parents' boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god -- the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend, Shin, cute-as-a-button (whatever that means) Magda Price, and the violent and unpredictable Henry Stagg. As their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own. While Jason struggles to keep the faith pure, Shin obsesses over writing their bible, and the explosive Henry schemes to make the new faith even more exciting -- and dangerous.
When the Chutengodians hold their first ceremony high atop the dome of the water tower, things quickly go from merely dangerous to terrifying and deadly. Jason soon realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling it, but control it he must, before his creation destroys both his friends and himself.
Pete Hautman, author of Sweetblood and Mr. Was, has written a compelling novel about the power of religion on those who believe, and on those who don't.