Miller, Mary Beth 1964–

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Miller, Mary Beth 1964–

Personal

Born 1964; married; children: four. Education: Attended Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT). Hobbies and other interests: Quilting, horseback riding.

Career

Writer. Previously worked for a medical and nursing publishing house.

Writings

Aimee (novel), Dutton Books (New York, NY), 2002.

On the Head of a Pin (novel), Dutton Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Sidelights

In her first young-adult novel, Aimee, Mary Beth Miller tackles the subject of a teen suicide. The novel's narrator is a young girl named Zoe whose best friend, Aimee, is dead. As Zoe tells the story in a journal she is keeping as part of her therapy treatment, she drifts back and forth from the past to present, revealing that she has been accused of murdering Aimee. Living in a new town with her parents, Zoe must deal with anorexia and her parents' eventual breakup, which comes not only as a result of the ordeal over Aimee but also due to their own faults as people and parents. As the novel progresses, readers learn what drove Aimee to kill herself.

Aimee was described as "a fascinating character study that will intrigue readers wanting to go beyond sensationalistic headlines," by a Kirkus Reviews contributor, while in Kliatt CLaire Rosser found there to be "a tale of woe almost on every page." In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Karen MacPherson noted that Miller "masterfully controls the book's narrative so that the reader isn't quite certain until the very end of the book exactly what happened the night Aimee died." A Publishers Weekly reviewer predicted that "readers will readily recognize the feelings and conflicts that fuel this engrossing novel," and Debbie Carton, writing in Booklist, called Aimee an "edgy" work in which "the portrayal of therapy is especially good."

Miller's next novel, On the Head of a Pin, tells a story death and lies. High school student Andy accidentally shoots and kills Helen, the high school's homecoming queen, while fooling around with a gun at his father's cabin. Panicking, Andy and his friends Josh and Victor drug Helen's boyfriend, an artist named Michael, and then go out and bury the dead teen. Josh, a devout Catholic, is impelled by his faith to tell the truth, but he is threatened by Andy and Victor to keep silent. As a result of the boys' deception, Helen's boyfriend Michael, who comes from a poor family, becomes the prime suspect in Helen's murder. Ultimately, the story's catastrophic denouement changes the boys and their parents' lives forever. "Alternating between Josh's and Michael's perspectives, the author delves deep into the psyches of these two sensitive and vulnerable boys," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. On the Head of a Pin "is a book that asks big questions," stated Myrna Marler in Kliatt, the critic noting that the novel "also brings up religious themes." Frances Bradburn commented in Booklist that Miller "skillfully weaves together numerous strands to create a horrifying yet thought-provoking and disturbingly real scenario." In School Library Journal, Johanna Lewis concluded of the work that the author's "beautifully rendered [teen] narrators manage to compel readers on to the last page."