ROGUE

ROGUE by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

What do  ROGUE, MUTANT, BMX and ASPERGER’S  plus MR. INTERNET have in common?

 This book.   ROGUE   Written by Lyn Miller-Lachmann.  She does not hold back any punches but with each chapter pushes the reader further along the sharp edge of suspense, wondering, what happens next?

Kiara, main character, is an eighth-grade student soon to have an official diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, so relating to other people, especially peers, is not exactly her specialty.  Most of the time the world doesn’t make sense to Kiara, but Mr. Internet does. 

And then the new boy, a new neighbor, moves in across the street.  The politics of friendship become complicated.  Sometimes Chad is a friend.  Sometimes he uses Kiara to protect his drug-distilling family.  Sometimes….Kiara is not sure what Chad’s real intentions are.

After reading ROGUE in one tense but wonderful, wham-bam sitting, I interviewed Lyn for The Pirate Tree:

 

Nancy: This book is somewhat autobiographical, right?  What inspired you to take the risk and write it?  When did you begin and how did you decide where to begin?

Lyn:

My difficulties growing up were something I had avoided in my writing, preferring to write about other people’s struggles rather than my own. Perhaps I had internalized the dislike that others felt for my younger self, because every time I tried to create a character like myself, she turned out to be a complete loser.

 

In my first semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts, I worked with An Na and was inspired by her honesty and courage in presenting Young Ju, the semi-autobiographical immigrant protagonist of A Step from Heaven. Young Ju isn’t always likable, and she doesn’t always make good decisions, but her powerful and unique voice drew me in and made me care about her. I wanted to create a similar character in Kiara, with a voice that was completely honest and completely hers as a girl on the autism spectrum trying to figure out how the world works and the secrets of friendship that everyone except her seems to know.

 

I begin the novel with an incident that actually happened to me in seventh grade. I wanted to be one of the popular girls and thought all you had to do to be popular was to sit at their table in the cafeteria. So one day, I bought my lunch and set it on the table where the popular girls always sat. But before I could sit down, one of the girls, without saying a word, pushed my tray onto the floor. I started to cry, and since I already had a reputation as a crybaby, the other kids delighted in my tears and humiliation.

 

All my life, I wished I could have fought back, but I had very strict parents who would have severely punished me. Kiara’s parents are more disengaged, so she does fight back. She slams the tray in the face of the girl who pushed it onto the floor, thereby earning herself a suspension from school for the rest of the year. Her exclusion makes it even more difficult for her to find a friend, so that when Chad and his family move in a block away, it really is her only chance.

 

Nancy:  What would you describe is the real “heart” of the story – the emotional understanding you hope the reader will have?

 Lyn:

Although I wasn’t officially diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome until adulthood, I always knew I was different from the other kids. I wanted to have friends and be part of school and social activities but grew accustomed to isolation and exclusion because of my poor social skills. I always felt I had something to contribute, if only people would pay attention to me, and at times I sought that attention in negative ways.

 

Like me, Kiara wants nothing more than to have a friend, but beyond that, she wants to find the “special power” that will make her a valued part of her community. For inspiration and courage, she looks to the X-Men, mutant superheroes who band together to save each other and the world from prejudice and evil. People who think and act differently because their brains are wired differently or because they have faced more challenging circumstances tend to get written off as troublemakers. But different ways of thinking may be just what’s needed to solve a difficult problem, and we as a society need to embrace those who are different and make the effort to help each person find his or her own special power.

From Francisco X. Stork, author of Marcelo in the Real World:

 

“Kiara is an important contribution to the literary portrayal of Asperger’s syndrome.  With an insider’s knowledge and a gift for creating suspense [indeed!], Lyn Miller-Lachmann gives us the realistic and hopeful story of a young person seeking to find her unique place in the world.”