A CERTAIN STRAIN OF PECULIAR
Gigi Amateau
Candlewick Press
Fiction
ISBN: 9780763630096
272 pages
Thirteen-year-old Mary Harold Woods lies at the bottom of her school’s pecking order, getting kicked in the heart with cruel insults and every other kind of verbal abuse her classmates can invent. Even her ex-best friend joins the massacre. Mary can never seem to find the strength to fight back, instead turning inward to hide. It doesn’t help when the panic attacks dominate her mind and body; she can’t breathe, and fear desperately takes control. Mary begs her mother to move in with her grandmother, Ayma, who lives on Wren Mountain in Alabama. But her mother refuses to live there again. So Mary takes matters into her own hands.
Slipping out in the middle of the night, Mary takes the old truck and drives herself the 600-plus miles to her grandmother’s farm. Her mother gives in and decides she can give it a try, with a few conditions of course. One is that Mary must have her own cow to care for, to which she readily agrees. So the following day, the farm manager and next-door neighbor, Bud, buys Mary her first cow. Helping Bud on the farm is the start of a new feeling of belonging for Mary. She begins to build up both an outer and inner strength that helps her blossom for the first time in forever.
Mary even finds a new best friend. Bud’s daughter, Dixie, is two years younger, and is a bit different in that she acts like a horse. Ever since Dixie’s mom left, Dixie refuses to speak English, and instead neighs and paws the ground. But Mary accepts Dixie for who she is, and vice-versa. The summer glides along peacefully, and Mary begins to heal. But then school starts.
Although the other kids seem content to leave Mary alone at first, they do torment Dixie unendingly. Mary decides she won’t hide any longer and stands up to protect Dixie. The bullies pull her into a fistfight, and Mary gets suspended. She struggles to find peace within herself and in the community, and to make the right choices; hiding doesn’t work, but neither does fighting. She must find a way to love herself before she loses herself completely.
Gigi Amateau is the person responsible for this tender and heart-touching novel (with a bit of help from her editors and publisher). Right from page one, Amateau reaches out and bonds with the reader, sharing the pain of trying to accept oneself and find acceptance in the community. It is easy to believe in and relate to Mary and the other colorful characters. Amateau imparts the importance of building a support group with friends and family, to get through the tough times and to share in the good ones. She also does an amazing job of sharing nature’s beauty and peace with her audience, and captures the spirit of small town living, where everyone knows everyone’s business, creating a bit of humor in the story.
Readers will definitely want to keep a close eye on this talented writer, whose previous books include CHANCEY OF THE MAURY RIVER and CLAIMING GEORGIA TATE.
--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT, GHOSTS OF THE UPPER PENINSULA and THE BLACK POND
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