Miles from Ordinary

Gr 7—10—This is a heart-wrenching exploration of Lacey's attempts to build a normal life for herself under the shadow of her mentally unstable mother. As the novel begins, the 13-year-old desperately hopes that Angela's new job as a cashier at Winn Dixie will offer her a fresh start. It will also free Lacey to volunteer at the local library, allowing her to escape the woman's suffocating neediness. Written in a taut, lyrical style, the story takes place in one day; Williams effectively uses this framework to build the character of responsible, yet vulnerable Lacey and fill in the family's gripping back story. Her beloved Aunt Linda moved out of the house after a final blow-up with Angela, and her repeated attempts to rescue the girl have been thwarted. Further tension is added in the specter of Lacey's dead grandfather, whose strange pull on her mother looms throughout the story. Shunned by her peers, Lacey is essentially alone, so when Aaron, a classmate, reaches out to her, she is at first wary. But when events begin to spiral out of control, and her mother goes missing, it is Aaron who supports and helps her. The girl's conflicting emotions about her mother are convincing, though her continual internal ruminations bog down the pace of the novel. Nevertheless, the story gradually gains momentum, climaxing in a horrifying scenario in which she must use all her emotional strength to defy her mother's insane plan. Lacey is both a resilient and sympathetic heroine, and the ending is not without hope. However, the novel's overall bleakness will limit its audience to those who enjoy their plots on the dark side.—Caroline Ward, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT