Niner (review)

"I'm the only person I know who's had four mothers, and not one of them is left." So says twelve-year-old Macey, known as "Niner" on account of her missing thumb, who was adopted at the age of six months after two stints in foster homes. Now her adoptive mother has left the family abruptly and her communications have dwindled away to nothing in the intervening months, leaving Macey oppressed by the conviction that something about her drives mothers away. When she finds a locket inscribed with her mother's birthday next to their Philadelphia front step, she's sure it's some kind of message, but it ends up entangling her in a dangerous drama that involves a homeless boy named Eugene, Macey's mean, slightly addled grandmother, a bullying classmate, and drug money. Macey's longing for her mother is compelling and understandable, and her relationship with her stroppy, willful, and yet beloved younger sister is tenderly depicted. Overall, though, the events are contrived for maximum drama rather than believability, with obese Eugene a martyred cipher rather than a dimensional character, and Macey's various anguishes the result of her family's convenient tendencies to leak out only the most hurtful information and keep the truth secret until reveal impact would be maximal. Readers with a taste for the family dramas of Kimberly Willis Holt or Audrey Couloumbis, however, may nonetheless be drawn by the strong yet vulnerable heroine caught in a tough situation.