The Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1 to 19

The Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1 to 19
By Jocelyn Brown
Ages 12 to 16
Published by Coach House Books
Reviewed by Martha Beach

We meet Dree while she’s on her way to her dad’s pancake brunch memorial, after he’s had a fatal heart attack. It is also Dree’s fifteenth birthday, but she’s not really thinking about that little fact.

Mostly she’s thinking about Edmonton’s awful bus system, her ugly hand-made skirt, and the special fund her father promised her for her birthday. With that money, Dree will be out of Edmonton, on the WestJet Flight 233 to Toronto and more specifically, on her way to the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair.

Dree is not really very social and she’s not very interested in Biology, or English, or Social Studies-actually she’s not very interested in school at all. Dree likes to make things and she keeps a blog about how to actually do DIY crafts without spending money on fancy art supplies. The Renegade Craft Fair in Toronto is her chance to start over, away from Edmonton and the misery of high school.

But Dree comes to realize that her father may not have left her this special account. He left behind a lot of other things though-an ex-wife, two daughters, a new wife, debt, and a whole lot of open-ended questions that Dree feels the need to answer.

The answer to these questions can not be easily answered. While trying to solve the mystery surrounding her father, Dree encounters fire, family scandal, a new friend, and nineteen tiny sock-creatures named Marcel.

The Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1 to 19 is a smart young-adult novel. It’s a coming-of-age story about a young woman who is looking for the correct way to grieve a lost father.