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Miles from Ordinary

by Carol Lynch Williams

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15029180,531 (3.81)2
As her mother's mental illness spins terrifyingly out of control, thirteen-year-old Lacey must face the truth of what life with her mother means for both of them.
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This summer day is going to be a fresh start both for fourteen-year-old Lacey and her mother. Lacey has a job at the library and her mother has one at Winn-Dixe, both of them have their first days today.

It's also going to be a day where Lacey gets to follow in her Aunt Linda's foot steps and work by working the library-something she knows she'll love. And, most of all, it's s a day where she won't have to look after her Momma, something she's been having to do more and more, lately.

But when, due to her Momma, Lacey's day doesn't go as planned, readers get to see just what Lacey's been dealing with at home and her hope of being normal for a day flies out the window.


Miles from Ordinary is a novel to pick up when you are going to have several hours to read it start to finish, not if you only have twenty minutes to see if you'll like it. It's one that gets you right from the beginning and because it's about a single day in the main character's life and there aren't gaps in time, it feels even more like something you need to read through right to the end.

Though it is just one day in Lacey's life, through memories she has, we learn a lot about her, her mother, her aunt and their lives and how Lacey's mother has affected her life, especially, at school.

Like The Chosen One it's the story of a young teenage girl who's held captive by something physically and/or emotionally and feels incredibly alone. But who's also trying to, maybe find a way out.

There are more things that happen (that are in other summaries) but because they happen a quarter or so of the way through the book and it is only 197 pages, I'm wary of including them. I will say that I love them and they add a lot to both Lacey's day and the story.

I think Carol Lynch Williams is quickly becoming (or has already quickly become) someone that readers can easily look to for powerful young adult literary fiction. (And stories that I think adults will also enjoy.)


10/10


Humongous thank you to Paul from @StMartinsPress for sending me this book (and absolutely making my day)
  BookSpot | May 18, 2015 |
A daughter desperately tries to help her mentally ill mother. Dark, riveting, superbly written story. ( )
  Sullywriter | Apr 3, 2013 |


This book literally had me sleeping with the light on. It's not just sad, it's very creepy towards the end. I spent about two thirds of the book thinking it was good and really captured the pain and loneliness of a young girl who is ostracised and has no friends because of the situation with her severely depressed mother. How sometimes she'll come home and find the house empty and have to go out searching for hours until she finds her mum wandering up the street in her nightgown. How she is forced to live with her mum's rantings about granddaddy - a man who died before Lacey (the protagonist) was even born.

That was the first two thirds of the story.

The last third scared the living hell out of me. It was like a weird combination of Poltergeist and Psycho, and the kind of ending that has you listening to every slight sound your house makes as you're trying to fall asleep. This might not be what everyone wants to hear, and probably why the book has quite mixed ratings but - for me - the strongest books stay with me for a long time, they shock me, affect me deeply, they make me feel something even if that something isn't necessarily good. That's what [b:Miles from Ordinary|8814993|Miles from Ordinary|Carol Lynch Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317792370s/8814993.jpg|13689291] did for me.

I really enjoyed the author's other novel - [b:The Chosen One|5303373|The Chosen One|Carol Lynch Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791510s/5303373.jpg|5370813] - but whether you enjoyed that or not doesn't really come into play here. The only vague similarity that the two books share is the creepiness, and that was much more pronounced in this book. Other than that they are very different. [b:Miles from Ordinary|8814993|Miles from Ordinary|Carol Lynch Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317792370s/8814993.jpg|13689291] focuses much more on the internal struggle of the main character, you find yourself experiencing her sadness and loneliness as the story progresses; where I felt [b:The Chosen One|5303373|The Chosen One|Carol Lynch Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791510s/5303373.jpg|5370813] explored the detrimental effects of a certain way of living and the way a whole society behaved, [b:Miles from Ordinary|8814993|Miles from Ordinary|Carol Lynch Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317792370s/8814993.jpg|13689291] took a close look inside Lacey's mind, it was very sad and very frightening and I'm sure I won't be forgetting this book anytime soon.
( )
  emleemay | Mar 30, 2013 |
I could have stopped reading this book at any point and never thought twice about it. It was repetitive, boring, and just plain weird.

The whole story takes place in a 24-hour period, which I normally love. However, in this case there was not enough of a plot to even fill that 24 hours, instead it was full of repetition and scenes being dragged out painfully slow.

The best part about this book was that Lacey is an easy character to connect with. She has a really hard life for a thirteen year old, and spends all of her time outside of school taking care of her mother who is mentally ill. You are instantly pulled into what it’s like for Lacey, the stress, worry, and fear she lives with make you wish there was something you could do to help. Although she’s just thirteen years old, Lacey has had to deal with stuff way beyond her age level so she seemed a lot older to me.

I felt like this was intended to be a suspenseful story, but it just came off as strange and a little creepy rather than suspenseful. The author took the ending in a different direction than I thought, so that was a nice twist (I use that word very loosely). ( )
  BornBookish | Jun 6, 2012 |
Lacey, age 14, lives with her paranoid schizophrenic mother, who refuses to take any medication. Lacey tries her best to care of her momma, but it’s a huge burden, and she would like to have a friend, just once. In fact, just once she did have a friend, but that friend never came back over after one frightening episode with Lacey’s mother, and moreover, told everyone at school what happened. Lacey’s mom’s sister, Aunt Linda, used to live with them and help take care of Lacey’s mom Angela, but Angela kicked her out and got a restraining order taken out on Linda lest she try to take Lacey away.

This is a circadian, or one-day novel, in which all the action takes place within a single 24-hour period. In this story, it begins with Lacey trying to get her mom to start a normal job as a checker at a Winn-Dixie, since they are out of money. While her mom is there, Lacey plans to volunteer at the library, where her Aunt Linda used to work. On the bus to their jobs, Lacey sees a neighbor boy, Aaron Ririe, who is very cute. He tries talking to her, but she is defensive at first, because no one talks to her without making fun of her. But Aaron is different. Maybe this day will actually work, and maybe everything will turn out okay. But maybe not….

Evaluation: I hated this book. That is not to say it isn’t good, but the circumstances of the story were frightening and all too common. I hate the horror that ensues when a sick person gets a bit better from medication and then decides that he or she can therefore stop the medication. It is no one’s fault. It just happens. A lot. It’s a very dangerous situation. I hated “experiencing” vicariously the abusiveness of a very sick mother influencing the mental integrity of her young offspring and no one being able to intervene. I hated what almost happened at the end of the day, and I hated thinking about the long-term effects of her upbringing on that poor little girl. In other words, yes, it’s another one of those books that I wish some other blogger had read so I could say in the comments, “Wow, I’m so glad you read this so I don’t have to!” ( )
  nbmars | May 9, 2012 |
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As her mother's mental illness spins terrifyingly out of control, thirteen-year-old Lacey must face the truth of what life with her mother means for both of them.

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