Mallory.

Lori A. Dunn is a ESL teacher, instructional designer, and freelance
writer in New Westminster, B.C.

Gunning introduces the character of Mallory in a variety of forms—as a toddler with her first memories, and as an eight-year-old fascinated by nature and unhappy with the friends that life brings, but the bulk of the story is of Mallory as a teen who hides the cuts on her arms with the long black sleeves of her “costume of invisibility” and burns her attempts at poetry.

Mallory is an unhappy young woman, an outcast socially, who smokes up with her older brother Victor and cuts herself to release her rage and hatred of herself. But all is not lost, as she finds a place in a group of other outcasts, the Club, with her growing talent as a writer helping her to find a place. All is well, until most of the local youth fall under the maniacal spell of a charismatic youth preacher, the Rev, and it is up to Mallory to find the moral strength to save herself.

To tell this story of giftedness and social ostracism, mental illness, and parental cluelessness, Gunning uses a simple, episodic style in the beginning, interspersed with teen-angst-ridden diary entries, then settles into a more traditional narrative as the action progresses. She makes powerful use of sensory imagery, and gives Mallory a sense of wonder that is shared with the reader: “Mallory is enthralled. Watching people is her sport, but watching them come apart is beyond fascinating.” Tantalizing foreshadowing promises more than the normal tale of the troubled schoolgirl, and Gunning delivers on that promise.