The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

Non-YA
Rating: 4/5
Age R: 15+ (It's not appropriate for younger audiences and it's aimed more towards older audiences)
Release Date: January 8, 2009
Synopsis:
When Truly'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.

Thoughts:
In her first novel, Tiffany Baker, takes us into quite the interesting adventure full of captivating writing, complex characters, a "giant"and so much sadness.
At first the story started off kind of slowly for me but after the first chapter it really picks up. I immediately wanted to know more about Truly and how her life would be. It was indeed very interesting but at times I found myself really frustrated with her. She could have made it better by not letting Robert Morgan boss her around. I understand the reason why she had to stick by him, being threatened and because she wanted to be there for Bobbie but at the same time she could have just run away with him or something! Not just stand there all those years and take all that harshness from the guy. Other than that I often felt sad for Truly. She's not your average protagonist which I absolutely loved. I get tired of all those perfect great looking protagonist who whine about this or that. Truly's life is pretty difficult because as she's growing up people always compare her with her beautiful and perfect sister Serena Jane. After Serena Jane leaves town, Truly is still not respected because of her size. Later it turns out she's going to continue to grow and grow (like the boy from Big Fish, love that movie BTW). She basically only has three friends in her life that she loves and who love her but then she doesn't really see them/talk to them at all. I did not like this. I understand that basically she was forbidden to communicate with them much but ..not really. She could have done something about that, which is another thing that irked me about Truly.
For all her character flaws I still grew (honestly, no pun intended) to like her and her life, even if it did make me sad. I just couldn't help but love the writing and the story in this book. It seriously got me hooked and for a debut novel, that's incredible.
I have to say, my favorite character was Marcus. The guy was just SO lovable I wanted to somehow get in those pages and hug him for his adorableness and sweetness. I also loved how he knew all these facts about Russian dogs, plants, and such. As I was reading the book, I practically lived for those moments until unfortunately they stopped. :(
About the sad parts in the book-
There were times where I thought certain situations that would normally be extremely sad just were not executed properly. The reader did not feel too much because we don't get many details as expected. It's just "look at her, oh, she dies" that's it. The emotion in some parts of the novel was just not that great and at times information was just thrown at you. In a way it shocked you in a surprisingly good way but other times it just left me thinking "what the fruit?"
Another thing I most definitely loved was that even though people judge Truly for her looks and she never has a boyfriend, her story is told realisticly. There's not romance that suddenly comes out of nowhere and hits you in the face. Oh but there's a romance indeed. :) That's not the main point of the story so don't get this book just for that okay? It's also not all about how Truly feels being an outcast. It's just about her life if that makes sense. There are moments where she talks about how people treat her but those are pretty rare.

Overall a very enjoyable read. It may have some flaws but you can't help but enjoy the ride. I really, really liked it. :D
Note: The story takes place not in this century I completely forgot when exactly. Definitely around a war..I forgot which I'm sorry :( It's not really a main thing so don't blame me too much for forgetting okay? :D I feel it's important to note that this doesn't take place in the 21st century because then you won't be thinking "why doesn't she just do this? or that?" Back then certain things were just not a possibility. :(

Quote/s:

Truly's father telling her she doesn't resemble her mother
'Not a lick of your mother in you,' he said, then chuckled. 'More like three licks...' I thought about the X-ray glasses advertised on the back of the cereal box we'd bought last week. Right then, I wished my father could have put them on. Then maybe he would have seen that I was more like my mother than it appeared....'Just fine,' he repeated into the empty air, ignoring the tiny razor teeth that were nibbling at my soul and quietly eliminating it, making me small in spite of my heft. Making me less than half the girl I wanted to be.

YOU WILL ENJOY READING THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE/ARE INTERESTED IN:
-witches
-big people
-outcasts
-small towns
-homosexuality
-frienship
-medicine/doctors
-sisterly troubles
-parent/s that has/have passed on
-evil teachers!
-tough childhood
-Big Fish