Miles from Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams

What it's about (from Goodreads): Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control....


What I learned: While it started out a little slow, once I got into it I could not put this book down. I stayed up late to finish it because the story sucked me in and I had to know what happened next. I love books that take place during a relatively short amount of time and this one did not disappoint. By the time Lacey leaves the library I couldn't read fast enough. I wanted to devour the words so I could know what was going to happen. I was by turns scared and curious. Actually, I'm not going to lie: there were a few pages that had me scared enough that my heart was beating faster than normal. I also love books where I can't necessarily tell what is actually happening and what is happening in the mind of the main character and I got that from Lacey and her mother. I like a little confusion when I read, apparently.


This book is intense. I couldn't help but think of Holly Schindler's A Blue So Dark while reading it, since they both have themes of moms with mental illness but this book takes it further and scarily deeper. I seem to keep picking up books with some kind of mental illness in them but this book is different. It shows exactly what it's like for a person when she is the only one dealing with someone who has an illness. It made me, once again, realize that there is no way that you can know what is going on in someone's life and what they're dealing with at home. Lacey mentions that she gets made fun of at school for the one time her mom showed up disheveled, asking Lacey where she put her medicine. I know I often laugh uncomfortably when I see someone acting strangely but I wouldn't laugh at someone who was obviously physically ill. Mental illness is exactly like a physical disease except it manifests itself differently and it is in no way funny. In some ways it's more frightening than being physically sick because it can alter someone's entire personality. I definitely want to read this book again at a slower pace now that I know what happens and see what else I glean from it.


If you've read Miles from Ordinary, what did you learn? Did anyone else get scared at some points?