The Peculiars

April 9, 2012
Though Lena Mattacascar is a decisive 18-year-old, her journey from middle-class respectability to adventuress has a youthful air of fantasy about it. She leaves the city, where she has grown up, by train to travel to Scree, an uncharted wilderness of “indigenous folks” and deported convicts, with an earnest young librarian named Jimson Quiggley as her seatmate and the dour eye of marshal Thomas Saltre upon them. Lena cannot stop thinking about her mysterious father, who disappeared in a cloud of infamy when she was young, or about the possibility that there is a soulless “Peculiar” in her family tree (Lena is highly self-conscious about her large, extra-jointed hands and feet). Scree is the place where Lena’s questions might be answered, but arriving there just multiplies them. Readers graduating from the stories of C.S. Lewis and Edward Eager will be right at home—and cat lovers will adore Jimson’s employer’s pet, Mrs. Mumbles. McQuerry’s extensive world-building leaves open the possibility of future installments, though the questions Lena is left with are the kind answered less by adventuring than by growing up. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sandra Bishop, MacGregory Literary Agency.

April 1, 2012
Lonely Lena Mattacascar heads to the border to find a father she barely remembers and an answer to her unusual appearance. Armed with a letter and money from her absent father, 18-year-old Lena leaves her dour mother and grandmother and takes the train toward Scree--wilderness, penal colony and rumored reservation for Peculiars, humanoid creatures with tell-tale abnormalities. Cursed with elongated fingers and feet, Lena both fears that she may be a Peculiar and hopes that she may find acceptance in Scree. Obstacles plague Lena's journey, and she is soon stranded in the faded seaside town of Knob Knoster. While seeking a guide and more money for her expedition, she finds herself working at Mr. Beasley's steampunk-esque Zephyr House alongside the endearingly earnest librarian Jimson Quiggley, on a secret mission from the charismatic blackmailer Marshal Saltre. Set in a vaguely Victorian world, Gothic elements permeate the story: a mysterious house, an abundance of secrets, odd servants and competing romantic figures, though Lena's shame over her abnormalities alienates her from both Saltre and Quigley. The sporadic action scenes feel artificial, but the ambiguity surrounding the existence of Peculiars and the origin of their physical deformities--magic? genetics?--is thought-provoking. A slow but richly atmospheric read. (Steampunk. 12 & up)

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November 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Set in an alternative version of the late 1800s, The Peculiars successfully weaves fact, fiction, and fantasy into a riveting adventure tale. Lena Mattacascar is a particularly sympathetic protagonist struggling to find a sense of self under difficult circumstances. On her 18th birthday she's given a letter and a small legacy from the father who's been absent most of her life. Since hearing about his "goblinish" ways her entire adolescence and wondering if she takes after him, Lena sets off to Scree, a wild land on the edges of civilization where "peculiars" are thought to gather. The action starts on the train ride there when a prisoner being transported to Scree is kidnapped and Lena meets a scientific-minded young gentleman who is intrigued, but not repulsed by her unusually large hands and feet. A well-paced plot and compelling characters that develop throughout the book make this easy to read and hard to put down. Themes of acceptance, character, and self-determination are explored without superseding the beautifully crafted story. A wonderful read, recommended for all collections.Sunnie Sette, New Haven Public Library, CT

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2012
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Lena's long, spidery hands and elongated feet mark her as something different. Her grandmother has always maintained it is her goblin blood showing, inherited from her long-gone father, Saul Mattacascar. In the City, where Lena lives, Peculiars, as they're known, are just creatures from legends. On her eighteenth birthday, Lena opens a letter from Saul. It doesn't answer her questions, so she decides to find the truth by heading up north to the uncivilized province of Scree, a place where odd things happen and that might even be home to Peculiars. On the train there, Lena meets Jimson, a young librarian who will be organizing the collection of an inventor, Mr. Beasley, and the district's marshal, Thomas Saltre, who takes an interest in her right from the start. McQuerry offers a brooding Northwest setting touched by steampunk elements to tell a story that is in equal parts inventive fantasy, light romance, and thrilling adventure. Underneath it all runs the current of Lena's questionable lineage, and what she must do to live with the answers. With a backdrop as strong as its heroine, this one is a page-turner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)