Review 122 – Stubbs and Bernadette by Levi Montgomery

Stubbs and Bernadette

Stubbs and Bernadette
Levi Montgomery
CreateSpace (September 2009)
ISBN 9781448680573
202 Page
$12.95 paperback

I dare you not to like Stubbs and Bernadette by Levi Montgomery.  Double dog dare you!  This book made me late for work on more than once, its that hard to put down.  There is something so compelling and sweet about the way that Montgomery describes Bernadette, you just want to shield her from the world.  Bernadette in this case is Bernadette Elsbeth McIntyre and the name is bigger than the girl that wears it.  She is described as a waif, an elf, a sixteen-year-old in a twelve-year-old’s body and you’ll be able to immediately picture her.  There was always someone in everyone’s High School that resembles her.  She is the artsy girl, the one that doesn’t dress just right, the one that never quite fit in.

Tyler Stubbs doesn’t have a chance.  By completely ignoring him, she enchants him as none of the more ‘available’ girls in school can.  From the first glimpse of her painting her toenails before class, he’s hooked.  As the new kid, he’s supposed to be more worried about fitting in with the popular kids, or the jocks, or some other group that is socially acceptable.  Instead he finds himself attracted to the misfit.  She’s attracted to him too, but so socially awkward that it takes half the book before she even really admits it, to herself or to us.

The conflict in this book is Bernadette herself.  She has a condition or a syndrome or something that’s never fully defined but it’s a big one.  She has very little impulse control and it comes out in inappropriate ways.  This scene is typical of several in the book, as Bernadette takes it on herself to dress the naked watermelons she and Stubbs encounter in a store:

“Amid the shouts and laughter and confusion, the grocer comes running.  Tyler can’t really tell what the grocer’s saying.  There’s a bit of a language barrier, and he’s pretty upset, but he can tell he wants her to leave! Now! Go! Get! Shoo!  She isn’t paying any attention to him, just wrapping melons methodically, sticking her tongue out the tiny little concentrating bit.  He’s beginning to fear they’ll call the police or something, so he goes to her, shakes her elbow, gets her attention…

This may be the first time Stubbs has to shake her out of this reverie, but it won’t be the last, and eventually it becomes too much.  As much as he loves her, he can’t save her from herself.  Ever had a friend like that?  A lover?  It’s frustrating, and this book will resonate with you.  You’ll find yourself agonizing along with Tyler Stubbs as he tries to figure out what to heck to do about his weirdo girlfriend.

The problem with Bernadette, and really with many of us, is that she doesn’t think she has a problem until it’s finally pointed out to her.  She’s convinced that the rest of the world is wrong and she’s the only one that gets it.  Even when her impulse control almost kills someone, she doesn’t own it, it owns her.  Stubbs finally has to sacrifice their relationship to save the girl he loves, and only then does it sink in to Bernadette that she needs to change.

How she changes and what happens next will just have to wait until you read this book, because you really owe it to yourself to give it a read.  All of Levi Montgomery’s books are good, really good, but this one is my favorite so far.  There is something about the characters that is compelling, and his writing is always fresh and hard to put down.  My
only lament about this book is that it ended too soon.  I really was left wanting more.