The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous by Suzanne Crowley

Merilee Monroe leads a Very Ordered Existence (V.O.E. for short). She’s pretty much got everything in her semi-boring life in Jumbo, Texas all planned out, practically to the minute. For Merilee, there is no room for messing around, because that would only ruin her precise schedule. But what Merilee doesn’t realize is that while she can try to control her life as best as she can, she can’t stop others from intruding, namely little Biswick and big Veraleen. With these two newcomers to Jumbo, Merilee’s V.O.E. has just about vanished. But although Merilee is upset about losing all the order in her life, it’s through interacting with these two new friends that Merilee learns to love and be loved.

I have mixed feelings over The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous. On the positive side, the story was cute and had a nice ending; on the other, much of the middle was lacking. It was hard for me to get into this story because, frankly, it was rather boring. There were times that I sympathized with some cruel treatment of Merilee, but then later I would forget because of the lackluster plot. One issue I had with Merilee was that I could never figure out how old she was; she was so precocious yet sometimes she seemed so immature, creating a unique but strange main character. Plus, Merilee’s love for her V.O.E. seemed like a compulsion, bordering on a disorder, which would make it seem like she is one of those left-brained thinkers, but then Merilee also had an imagination when she liked to draw dragons. It was all a bit confusing, and I have to say that I preferred many of the minor characters, such as Biswick, to Merilee. There was a multitude of subplots, which sometimes kept the plot mildly interesting, but didn’t help the story in the end because most of them were just left off in the middle of the story. The one possibly redeeming part of the story may have been Merilee’s journey as she learned her place in the world, but unfortunately, this lesson came at the very end of a mediocre story.

In all, I would not recommend The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous except to very patient readers, or readers who love wacky minor characters.

Rating: 3.0

Review copy from BookDivas