Tina Walton is a poor little girl who has Tourette Syndrome. Unfortunately, Tina is not aware of what is happening to her. She believes that she is behaving badly and will go to hell for her actions. Sadly, her teacher and classmates reiterate the messages that she is a "bad girl" who must be punished. When a natural disaster strikes, resulting part of her village destroyed and some local residents losing their lives, Tina is struck with utter terror, hiding out in the cottage, believing the darkness is actually her being taken to hell. Fortunately, hope is found in friendship: the unusual combination of the wonderful Mrs. Lily and former renegade Kenneth. But can Tina find faith in the God who, for years, she has resented for not protecting her?
Amazon.com
★★☆☆☆
Young Tina Walton has been given a bad deal in life. She came into this world with what locals call "The Devil's Signature", a birthmark on her leg in a shape vaguely resembling a demon's tail. Just with this mark, Tina's aunt raises her to believe she's already destined to end up in hell. As Tina moves through childhood, more than once she resorts to various means of self-harm to get "the badness" out. (Note to readers: the topic of self-harm is only quietly and subtly referenced in a few brief lines out of the whole book, so the threat of possibly triggering material is minimal.)
As she grows, so do the physical problems: bowed legs, a tongue too big for her mouth, a stutter that becomes more pronounced when she's upset, and an undiagnosed case of Tourette Syndrome. Not being very popular in school, Tina has a lot of disciplinary action flung her way. Classmates give her the moniker "Snake Mouth" (or specifically, "Snake Mouth Idiot"), complete with accompanying chant, because of her tendency to bite people when she's stressed or feels threatened.
Her personal daily hell isn't limited to school. Since the whereabouts of her parents have been kept a secret her whole life, Tina grows up under the care of mean Aunt Elizabeth with the frequently sour demeanor, whom Tina secrets thinks of as "The Ghost" because of her talent for entering a room silently and scaring people. It's easy to feel for Tina, witnessing her being forced to grow up under the "care" of this guardian who is often such a moody, abusive beast to live with, one who feels her horrendous behavior can be excused simply by maintaining a Christian exterior and making it into church every Sunday.
Though her neighbors in the river community of Lynmouth are generally kind to her (perhaps largely out of pity), there are very few around her Tina can truly call friends. Her primary friend is neighbor Robbie Reynolds, one year younger than her and with a mild developmental delay. Beyond that friendship, Tina has Angela, a doll she found discarded in the street and decided to rescue. Tina tells all her daily events and secrets to Tina at the end of each night before hiding her in the floorboards so Aunt Elizabeth won't be tempted to snatch her and throw her away.
Lynmouth Flood video #1
Realizing that self-harm isn't the healthy way to process pain, Tina takes to watching the river on her emotional low days, focusing on the movement of the river to help her process her thoughts and emotions in a productive manner. It is by the river that Tina first meets Mrs. Lilly. Though Tina is moved by Mrs. Lilly's kindnesses towards her, her experiences up to that point make her wary of anyone being nice to her. But she does let the friendship develop over time, and that interaction seems to open doors for other good people to come into Tina's life. When she is hospitalized with a case of measles, Tina meets fellow measles sufferer Carol, who helps Tina work through a reading disability, mainly through the use of a copy of Heidi by Johanna Spyri.
I walked to my window and opened my curtains a little bit... the day had dawned pastry-golden. I opened my arms wide and circled its pale hug. I needed it. At least the sun was glad to see me. It cheered me up a bit.
There's a halfway decent story here with plenty of potential but oh my, could this have benefited from a few more drafts and / or a better editor! The execution of everything, from plot to straight up book layout, is just MESSY. A few of the main problems that stood out to me:
* The plot is meant to revolve around the actual Lynmouth Flood Disaster of Devon, England in 1952... but in actuality, very little of the plot rides on that event. The author does nothing to build up the feeling of anxiety in the reader for the impending doom. In fact, the storm that led to the flood is not mentioned at all until Part 2, about 95 pages into a book that's less than 200 pages total.
Lynmouth Flood video #2
* The Tourette theme is also not well established. Though it's mentioned, and there are occasional descriptions of something triggering a fit in Tina's face, for the bulk of the story she shows virtually no symptoms of any sort of impairment.
* On the back cover of the book, the synopsis says Tina "wants to be a good person like Grammer Esther".... it's not explained who Grammer Esther is until near the end of the book.
* Also on the back cover, Tina is described as a teen, so for the early chapters I was confused because Tina's voice, and that of her classmates, read MUCH younger. Then I get to the chapter that states she's only NINE. Tina doesn't even START her teen years until the third to last chapter of the book.
* Some of the dialogue comes off a little wooden.
* Christian tones feel forced.
* Opening the book with a passage from the POV of a river pixie ended up being confusing and unnecessary IMO, as this wasn't a fantasy novel at all, there's no magical realism woven in to the main plot, and Tina only mentions pixies in passing a few times as she's feeling contemplative by the river.
So, the TLDR version of all this: while the story ideas in general had potential, and Tina is a character who is easy to empathize with, much of the book still read like a rough draft to me.
FTC DISCLAIMER: Bookcrash.com and Sarah Grace Publishing (aka Malcolm Down Publishing) kindly provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
Comments
Post a Comment