Miles from Ordinary
Author: Carol Lynch Williams
Series: ---
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
How Received: publisher ARC
Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control...
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Carol Lynch Williams has that rare talent of being able to punch out an emotional roller coaster of a story in a small amount of pages.
I absolutely loved Miles from Ordinary. It took me a few chapters to figure out everything that was going on and Lacey's relationship with each of the characters, but that was the point; it was supposed to be confusing. Even once you had a grip on the actual relationships, you felt like Lacey felt - constantly losing your grip on reality, always afraid of falling down the spiral staircase of insanity.
I'm a character driven person; the fact that I could easily feel for Lacey without having to work for it made me love this story. I never had to worry about being bored while reading it because the emotional roller coaster that Lacey was on had me intense.
The only thing that really irritated me throughout the entire story was part of the ending where Aaron, the boy who Lacey meets at the beginning of the story, does something while he's helping Lacey with something. (This is an intentionally vague sentence to keep it spoiler free.) I don't think it was necessary; he had done enough to further the relationship in one day that it wasn't necessary for it to be in the story. There was potential for the relationship at the end of their story without having that happen.
Oh, and did I mention that the entire story takes place over the course of the day? Carol Lynch Williams is one hell of a talented author.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 10/10. A short story with a heavy emotional punch.