Like a Thorn

School Library Journal

Gr 6-8

Mélie, nine, lives with her father and her "two" mothers. Sometimes the woman is warm and loving, but more often she is cold, angry, and verbally abusive. But because she is adept at acting like a proud, caring parent, no one understands why the child is so unhappy, although no one appears to care very much. Mélie doesn't know why her father is becoming more distant and her mother more hateful, but she attempts to control the situation with rituals like walking around her room 10 times in one direction and then in the other, and stopping to pray at a crucifix on the wall. She steps only on white tiles in the hallway with the hope of bringing her "rosy" mother back. The story becomes tedious and repetitious as the lonely child creates more compulsive behaviors, her father essentially abandons her, and her mother becomes more spiteful. In desperation, Mélie confides in a grandmother, who accuses her of misinterpreting and being ungrateful. Even the child's only friend doesn't believe her. It's only when her mother takes 14-year-old Mélie to a psychologist ("Since you're behaving like a nut...") that there's a glimmer of hope for the girl. The author or translator keeps readers at a distance and this, combined with the story's abrupt, open-ended conclusion, causes a disconnect. Emotions are explained but not successfully conveyed. Mélie's circumstances should elicit empathy, but the dry, matter-of-fact narrative creates a detachment and an indifference to her plight.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI

Kirkus Reviews

Melie lives with an erratic, terrifying mother who has two personalities: Rosy Mother and Dark Mother. One bakes sweets, the other spits venom. Melie's consequent psychological torment, creeping madness and emotional paralysis drift quietly just beneath the surface of this novel, which eschews traditional plotting in favor of a series of unnerving scenes that convey all. Vidal's brilliant evocation of color and imagery deftly describes how the mercurial Mother shatters her child's psyche. Simple, abbreviated language strings together horrific memories, frightening imaginings and unending abuse. Pinks and blacks saturate the novel, while thorns and claws tear at the corners of Melie's mind. Childhood memories surface as glimmering shards-beautifully rendered, painfully acute tableaux. Vidal's minimalism, her economic use of breathtaking scenes and images, manages to capture bottomless despair. Fairy-tale motifs enrich a modern-day story, endowing it with a good mother, a wicked mother, a lost girl and even incantations to ward off darkness. This tightly woven novel leaves the reader entranced, hoping Melie can survive her teen years and somehow live happily ever after. (Fiction. 12 & up)