Title: Freak
Author Marcella Pixley
Review: Booklist September 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-374-32453-7
Twelve-year-old Miriam is considered a freak by the popular girls at her middle school. Eventually she explodes and fights back after doing so she learns that she and her tormenter have more in common than she thinks. It's unfortunate that a teacher who plays a small and rather weak part in the book has to point this out for her to take notice. This book is a good read and a powerful book, but it just skates on the surface of a really deep issue.
The plot is normal and predicable. Wierd girl, picked on, no adult notices...or if they do they don't do anything, she attempts to tell her parents, no help, explodes....comes into her own, and in the end some reconsiliation is made with the main bully.
Many girls will love it and I recommend it, but not something that rocked by world.
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What I found amazing about Freak was how vividly Pixley described Miriam's weirdness. There is one passage, in which Miriam is driven to brink, scared and lonely, trying to be more like her popular sister, which I found especially powerful; it was almost as if the writing itself was foreign and isolated (no, no, in a good way). I won't describe what' happening in the scene because I don't want to give it away! Girls everywhere who don't quite fit in, and even those who do, will give a sigh of relief when they realize that someone else really does feel what they're feeling. Another thing that I liked about this is Miriam's crush on the teenage boy who comes to stay at her house. He eventually goes out with his sister. This is a good example of how UNpredictable the book is. The fact that Miriam never gets to be more than friends with this boy is harsh but beautiful. That's what really happens in real life.
In Freak, by Marcella Pixley, it's the little things that count and weave together to become a magnificent story that will linger with you long past the final pages.
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