McQuerry, Maureen Doyle. The Peculiars.

McQuerry, Maureen Doyle.      The Peculiars.    Amulet see Abrams, Harry      359p $16.95 978-1-4197-0178-8       ms/hs       E-BN  Misc.

Lena has basically lived a normal life but for one thing.  Her fingers have an extra digit, making her an oddity in society.  There are no explanations for this curiosity, and, although her mother has given her an ordinary upbringing, her life is anything but ordinary as she has tried all her life to hide her deformity (as she calls it) on her hands and feet.
 

Now she is beginning to discover that her deformity is inherited from her father, who left the family before she can even remember.  Where did he go and why did he go?  As she turns eighteen, Lena knows that she must discover the answers and find her father to uncover her heritage.

As she embarks on her trip into the unknown, Lena will also discover the thing her mother never told her about her father.  Now she needs to find where she fits in all of this and how will she live her life, because living with her mother is not an option!

This is an intriguing story with a mystery that will begin to unfold as the story becomes complicated.  The characters are connected in strange ways, and what seems wrong could be right, and vice versa.  There seems to be a hint of a possible second book            

Adventure, Fantasy                                                -- Magna Diaz

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