Synopsis
Dusie always knew puberty was going to be confusing, but she never realized it was going to be catastrophic—until she wakes up one morning to find that her hair has turned into a writhing mass of slithering snakes and discovers the real truth about her family: her mother is a Gorgon—right out of Greek mythology—and she was named after her mother's younger sister, Medusa. Her mother had hoped that Dusie's being half-mortal would protect her from inheriting the family curse.
Still reeling from this revelation, Dusie tries to keep her snakes under wraps. But after a boy she likes in school almost exposes her, she discovers another family secret—just one look from Dusie's snakes has the power to send someone right into his own personal Stone Age. Talk about "if looks could kill"!
Dusie better figure out how to control her snakes and her rage, and find a way to get her life back—before anything else disastrous happens.
VOYA
AGERANGE: Ages 11 to 15.
On the first day of her first menstrual period, thirteen-year-old Dusie Gorgon's hair turns into snakes-twenty-seven of them, coiled on her head. As if that were not enough, she learns that her mother, famous Manhattan sculptor Euryale Gorgon, really is a gorgon. She is thousands of years old and also has a head full of snakes. She named Dusie after her Athena-accursed sister Medusa. Horrified and confused, Dusie stops going to school and wears large hats to conceal the reptiles. When Troy, a boy Dusie likes, discovers her secret, she cannot stop herself from giving him a "gorgon look," and Troy turns to stone. Euryale and Dusie attend a meeting in Central Park to seek advice from the Sisterhood, a group comprised of gorgons, goddesses, muses, and a Grecian Sphinx. The Sphinx presents a riddle, which if solved, may help Dusie get rid of the serpents. Dusey's horror subsides as she studies herpetology and begins to listen to the "voices" of the snakes who mysteriously communicate with her. (They call her "Dusssie," thus the book's title. Their "speech" is in a squiggly font.) In the end, her newfound love for her snakes releases her and them. Far-fetched? Springer pulls it off with convincing aplomb and laugh-out-loud humor. Once the initial premise is accepted, the rest follows logically. Dusie discovers that appearances are not all-important, and that accepting one's imperfections and acting with love are true paths to maturity. The cover art portraying Dusie's head of colorful serpents will grab the reader's attention. Reviewer: Florence H. Munat
April 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 1)