The Peculiars

McQuerry. Maureen Doyle The Peculiars      

Amulet see Abrams, Harry      2012  354p  $16.95      978-1-4197-0178-8       ms/hs   VG-BN    Fantasy

     

Lena Mattacascar’s father left the family long ago, when she was very young.  Now, Lena decides to leave her mother and grandmother to travel to a strange land in search of him. She is also determined to find the answer to a troubling question: why she has an extra joint and bone in each of her fingers and toes.  This affliction means that she is very self-conscious, the object of gossip, and, according to her grandmother, a goblin.

As Lena begins her journey, she meets an unlikely friend, Jimson, who is on his way to a new career as a librarian for the mysterious Mr. Beasley at Zephyr House.  Then she is robbed on the train and, as a result, she meets a suspicious marshal.  Throughout this dark and thrilling adventure, Lena finds herself crossing paths with these new acquaintances on a regular basis and meeting others who misjudge and disapprove of her because of her extra bones.  These meetings begin to unravel a complicated web of circumstances that explain who and what Lena is, where her father is, and the reason for her strange digits.

Maureen Doyle McQuerry has written a thrilling fantasy novel that embodies the ways that diversity often leads to criticism ignorant people. In the story, as is often true in reality, a new society is created by the outcasts, surrounded by only the few who understand and want to help.  This solidly written fantasy, filled with morality and symbolism, will hold the reader’s attention from beginning to end.
             Virginia McGarvey       Goblins, Fantasy, Diversity