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I fell head over heels for Gadriel, Holly, and the characters in this book. Since for me, every great book begins with great characters and great characterization by the author, I was, pardon the shameless pun, in Heaven here. My thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the DRC of “Small Miracles”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
There are numerous witty footnotes spread throughout the book, again like Pratchett, that amusingly prompt the reader to keep their own personal tally of the sin lost or virtue gained on the balance books. I loved this feature of the worldbuilding, and laughed out loud at some of the footnotes. It’s simply a great mistake to think that there are miracles running all through the history of God’s people.”Until an unexpected series of events (including a lottery win) and several minor miracles occur. They offer new opportunities, jolt them out of their worried reveries, and make them view their lives differently. This delightful, gently humorous story tugs at the heartstrings. I enjoyed the character development. As the reader we are soon able to distinguish between the three nuns. Bridget was just a generally positive, happy person who loved to cook. She especially liked to cook and look after the local priest as well as a friend that attended the gardens and was the widower of Bridget’s friend. Bridget is the most positive out of the three nuns with a sunny disposition. Margaret is the youngest of the three in her late 50’s and seems to be having something of a crisis of faith and feels she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. I did wonder if perhaps it was the Menopause that was causing most of her angst to be honest but it was never mentioned. Then there’s 90 year old Cecilia who would try the patience of a saint. As you might expect at 90, she’s very old school, set in her ways and something of a snob I thought. Kudos to how Atwater approaches gender fluidity in the novel! As per many interpretations of Angels from a Christian perspective, which denotes them as not being assigned a gender in the way humans can comprehend. Atwater notes in her work, casually, The book shares DNA with Good Omens and The Good Place, so it shares the flaws of those works as well. I’m not going to critique the point system and Christian-centric ideology, though I did like Gadriel’s exasperation/cynicism with the system. If you analyze the worldbuilding too much, it’s easy to find cringe aspects but I wasn’t too bothered by the Celestial Bureaucracy structure.
His/Her purview is minor transgressions. He’s/she’s not really evil despite the fallen angel status, but rather mischievous, and his/her agenda is not really sinister. What Gadriel does is prod humans to succumb to minor temptations, and thus achieve overall increased happiness and satisfaction with their lot in life. One point of annoyance was the overuse of one phrase - I'll put it in spoilers here so as not to sensitize you to it before you read the book, but come here after and tell me you didn't notice lots of mentions of Holly's cheeks, specifically "the apples of her cheeks" . Think about the Old Testament. Here’s a typical statement: the psalmist says in Psalm 77:11, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.” When you read the Old Testament, you realize most of the saints in most of those centuries would have talked like that: “The wonders of old. Oh, remember the wonders of old.”
Advance Praise
In 1990, two iconic fantasy authors, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, collaborated to write the famed novel “Good Omens” (full title: “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch”. The third observation I would make, and this is probably what I would say to the unbeliever who is challenging me, is that the heart of Christianity is not that the kingdom has fully come and all sin and evil is being overcome now in this age. Even though there were gifts of miracles and gifts of healing and gifts of exorcism that are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12, it would be a huge stretch to think that the Christians with those gifts in the first century were performing miracles the way Jesus did. Already, in the first century, outside the life of Jesus, things had changed. Small Miracles takes the reader on a joyful and uplifting journey as these three unforgettable nuns learn more about life, love and friendship than they could ever have imagined. (goodreads) My Review
The writing is completely not my style, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it, it's just a conflict of tastes. I didn't like a lot of the humour in it, and particularly in the footnotes, which were annoying enough for me to listen to, without additional ones being added for unnecessary jokes. The change of tone to a snooty upper-class narration for the footnotes also did not work for me at all. Thomas finding solace in the Convent garden and with Sister Bridget’s cooking is desperate for his daughter to find her spark in life. This is NOT a review of that book. Yet unavoidably, there will be comparisons between “Small Miracles” by Atwater, and that seminal work by Gaiman and Pratchett.This isn’t usually my fantasy stamping ground. I frequently wade through rivers of blood and gore in the company of the most morally corrupt people that fantasy authors can create for me to read. But I have sometimes found that more upbeat reads fill a niche for me and, in general, this story did that. Although there is no impending, world-ending disaster lurking in “Small Miracles”– this is considerably lighter fare. But its lightness doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile, intriguing book.
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