Book Review: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

By Amanda Linsmeier

I am admittedly the type of reader who judges a book by its cover. Strolling through Barnes & Noble a few months ago, a certain book happened to catch my eye. Titled The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, it intrigued me immediately, and the synopsis on the back made me want to know more. I didn’t purchase it right away, but the memory of the cover and premise had me searching for it on Amazon.com late one evening. I bought it and devoured it in one or two nights of reading.

The novel tells the story of Truly, a larger than life woman born to be different—different from her town, her classmates, and certainly from her beautiful and delicate , Serena Jane. After her mother dies giving in childbirth, Truly and her sister are left in the care of their father. Upon his untimely death, the two young girls are separated into very different families. Serena Jane grows up adored by all, the town’s darling in every way and the love obsession and eventual wife of Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Aberdeen’s influential doctors. Bob Bob has spent his adolescence torturing Truly, who grows bigger and bigger no matter what she does. Then a tragic circumstance brings Truly back into Dr. Morgan’s life, and she is left with no other choice than to move into his home to take care of her sister’s son. There, she suffers humiliation and degradation by her brother-in-law. It’s only when Truly discovers a centuries-old Morgan family heirloom that she begins to see the power in herself, help others and possibly take a little revenge on the man responsible for her sister’s fate.

This is a great book, if a little bittersweet, with wonderful storytelling and truly (no pun intended) remarkable characters. The author did her research and felt deeply for the main character. My only beef is the slight overuse of similes. Peppered quite liberally throughout the pages, most of the time they did indeed add to the story. Once in awhile though, I was turned off by so many on one page because it felt distracting to the story. Other than that, author Tiffany Baker is one to watch out for. Go ahead, pick up this book—just don’t wait as long as I did to actually read it.