Mud Girl

By Alison Acheson

The life of Abi Jones, the Mud Girl, might be the last thing any teenager would choose. But it s her life, and Abi has to find out whether she s got the courage and intelligence to live it well.

Aba Zytka Jones (Abi) doesn t expect to get anything from anybody. Her dad's stuck in his chair and her mom s taken off, but she s going to work out what to do on her own. At least that s what she thinks. Sixteen, almost seventeen, Abi Jones hasn't got cool clothes, friends, or, since last year, a mother. What she has is a lot of questions. And a need to make a life of her own. Abi lives with her dad in an odd little house by the Fraser River. Over it, actually. It's this location that gives her the nickname "Mud Girl." Sometimes the water flowing under part of the house makes her think they ll both be swept away some day. The summer before her last year of high school, Abi s solitary life begins to change. A woman she calls Ernestine – because she s so earnest – becomes her Big Sister. The cute guy from the paint shop, Jude, starts to take an interest. And a girl called Amanda offers Abi a summer job cleaning houses, work Abi enjoys more than she could have imagined. Jude and his two-year-old son, Dyl, present some urgent new questions and Abi has to find the answers fast – what Jude wants from her; how she feels about it; and what Dyl might need from her too. The life of Abi Jones, the Mud Girl, might be the last thing any teenager would choose. But it s her life, and Abi has to find out whether she s got the courage and intelligence to live it well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Coteau Books
• Release date: Jan 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781550504361

Alison Acheson

Alison Acheson has published eleven books for all ages, from picturebooks to short stories, novels, and memoir. Her YA novel, Mud Girl, was a finalist for Canadian Library Association’s Young Adult Book of the Year. Alison has taught in the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia, and now has a writers' newsletter, the Unschool for Writers: https://unschoolforwriters.substack.com/ She lives in the East Side of Vancouver, Canada, in a little house with a wood stove.

Reviews for Mud Girl

[viccavalli · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Alison Acheson’s young adult novel Mud Girl is a good read. Set along the banks of the Fraser River, with its main character Abi living in an old riverfront home with the muddy Fraser sloshing and undulating beneath her, the stage is set to explore a collection of characters immersed in dysfunction and abandonment. At its core, the book explores the concept of vocation and the mystery of the heart’s connections. A young adult reading this book will discover an idealism, a form of true happiness rooted in caring. The central storyline follows almost seventeen-year-old Abi’s romantic aspirations for a just turned twenty supposed artist / painter named Jude. He’s a single father, and in Abi’s mind he “was supposed to stay in the blackberry field where she could gaze at him and make dreams” (258). He does not remain an object of her female gaze, however; he becomes unsettlingly real as the novel progresses. Their first kiss is the antithesis of her young romantic expectations: “She always thought her first real kiss would be something she could recognize at the time. But before she can tell herself what’s happening, it’s over” (48). Their second kiss is even worse: “Outside, he kisses her, a quick hard kiss, something that leaves her feeling as if she’s never going to have what she wants” (109). What she eventually realizes she wants is simply to be loved and to have a home. The next time Abi and Jude meet alone, there is a glimmer of hope for Abi within a playful discussion of their circumstances as analogous to those of Adam and Eve. For a moment “her body is suddenly alive,” but her emotions soon collapse and “There’s no direction anymore. There’s only down . . . ” (134). Abi’s connection to Dyl—Jude’s two-year-old son—is the good thread that connects her to Jude and keeps her hope alive. But as the novel progresses and Abi and Jude approach connection, that is, knowing each other in the biblical sense (184-88), and then later almost connect, but Abi grinds the scene to a halt because it’s obvious there is no connection, realizing that “This need [for sex] in him has nothing to do with her. Or anyone for that matter,” and Jude “sneers” and leaves Abi in tears, it’s obvious that “My Boy” (Abi’s name for Jude when he was the romantic unknown object of her female gaze) is not her boy at all (206-208). Little Dyl, whose mother abandoned him and whose father often leaves him alone, is the only goodness connected to Jude. And that connection with Dyl is the heart of the remainder of the book. I won’t say more. You won’t be disappointed by how Acheson handles the final section; while never leaving the gritty realism of Abi’s and Dyl’s lives, a warm light of hope is going to shine, and there will be a beautiful calm after the storm.