Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey fulfills every element of a narrative pleasing to the reader through a suspenseful plot and entailing characters in a work by a gifted storyteller. Kit Pitman, a 12-year-old young girl at the start, lives with her grandmother Lizzie and Josie, her mentally challenged mother, in Haire's Hollow, a small Newfoundland fishing community. There, isolation is all she knows, not only due to her location, but also due to the mystery surrounding her illegitimate birth and the people that surround her who form their own opinions of her situation. Nan tries to protect Kit and Josie from the townspeople, but when she dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable. Following their progression together in this state makes the novel a must-read. The reversed relationship between mother and daughter, the admirable attributes of the heroine, and the great irony of the plot make Kit's Law every bit intriguing. .
The stereotypical modern family consists of a husband, wife, and two children, but in Kit's Law, the narrator's family consists solely of the storyteller herself and her mentally challenged mother. Not only do the two become co-dependent upon each other, but their roles are reversed. Kit actually becomes a parent to her mother. Reading about this atypical situation will get anyone emotionally involved in their ordeal. Josie, often running wild along the beach where Kit cannot control her, forms a strong bond with Sid, the Reverend's son, who comes to chop wood for them. When he does not return one day, Josie puts Kit at fault. She calls Kit, "Farmed! Farmed!"(172) This is after she hears the reverend, who instructs Sid to stay away from the family, referring to Kit's webbed toes as her "deformity". (150) Kit learns from Sid that she has to try to understand her mother and have compassion, but she only sees this when her mother performs the ultimate act of protection.
