The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
by Tiffany Baker
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tiffany BakerEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-08
ISBN: 0446194204
Number of pages: 341
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Book Review: One of My Favorites
Summary: 5 Stars
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker is an awesome debut novel from this author. She has a beautiful writing style that to me was very reminiscent of Alice Hoffman. This novel kept my attention throughout and it was not one I wanted to put down.
The novel is mainly focused on Truly Plaice who from every description we get is a giant. Truly's mother dies giving birth to her because she is so big and Truly goes on to live a life of teasing and taunts due to her size. Even worse her sister Serena Jane is a true beauty-everyone is captivated by her. When the girl's father passes away Serena Jane goes to the reverend's family and lives a life getting everything she wants while Truly ends up on the Dyerson farm with not much of anything. Thankfully though this is where she meets her lifelong friend Amelia and she also has a friend in Marcus, a school chum so she's not completely alone.
The story is also about the Morgan family-the men becoming the doctors in Aberdeen. The first Morgan doctor the book talks about marries the local witch woman so there is also that element threaded through the novel and I loved that. Her name was Tabitha and legend had it that she had left a Shadow Book that had all her remedies and spells in it but nobody had ever been able to find it. Later in history, in Truly's time, there is Bob Bob Morgan who is infatuated with Truly's sister Serena Jane until he gets his way with her and is no longer interested. She becomes pregnant though and he is forced to marry her and they have a son they call Bobbie. They move away and there are many years that Truly does not see Serena Jane. Finally the family comes home to Aberdeen only to have Serena Jane leave. She leaves a note for, what Truly comes to call him-Robert Morgan, to go get Truly and have her take care of him and Bobbie.
So begins the next chapter in the novel. I think Serena Jane wanted her son protected and felt that Truly would do it. She does take care of Bobbie but Bobbie is a bit different. He's definitely not a chip off the old Morgan block. Where Truly is masculine in her features, Bobbie is feminine-not a good combination with a father like Robert Morgan. Eventually things explode and the family is torn apart by many things.
The magical part of the story I really enjoyed. Truly seems to have a knack for the old ways and begins to experiment on herself with some remedies. At the same time Robert Morgan finally convinces her to have some tests done to see what's wrong with her and we are enlightened on that situation. For him, I think she was someone he could bully and make himself feel powerful over. Truly continues to dabble and at times takes her experiments to even bigger and scarier places. Throughout the novel we feel Truly's need for revenge on those who had always tormented her.
The book ends with secrets being revealed that threaten to tumble the already unsteady bonds that are there between those left-Truly, Bobbie, Amelia and Marcus. The book ends on a good note although there were some things I still would have liked to have known before I turned that last page. I also would have liked to know exactly how big Truly was. We never know her true weight and all we're told is that she is taller than most men. For that reason I think I had a hard time picturing her clearly in my mind. Mostly when I think of Truly I picture a good soul. I don't see an outer image at all if that makes sense. All in all though I was very satisfied with the ending.
This novel left me feeling I had read a really good book. I've been lucky again lately with the many good selections I've read and Little Giant is another that will be one of my favorites this year. I loved it. The author really draws you into Truly's life. So much so that you feel her hurts and sorrows-you can feel how confused she is as to why she is like she is. She is the kind of character you follow closely behind in the book seeing what will happen in her life next. You so want the best for her because she deserves it. I also really loved Bobbie. Again the author pulls you into his life. He's different from the folks in Aberdeen and you feel sorry for him because things aren't always easy for him. The ending of this book left me wanting it to go on if only to find out a few things I wanted to know and also to see what the future held for everyone left.
I think this book would make a really great book club selection. There is a lot that goes on in this novel that would spark many discussions.
Summary of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.
When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.
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