MH Thaung reviewed Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater
A pleasant and unchallenging read
This book came to my attention as one of this year’s SPFBO finalists. It’s categorised as Christian fantasy, so (not being interested in religion, whether Christian or other) I was a bit dubious when I picked it up. However, I needn’t have worried. I’d say the Christianity features as part of the setting rather than the story being Christian-themed.
The prose was tidy and only tripped me up a couple of times (still scratching my head over the use of “Juste” in French. Maybe I’m missing some subtext cleverness). I didn’t like the footnotes. To me, if felt like they were trying too hard.
There will inevitably be many comparisons to Good Omens. I’d say the storyline here is much simpler—that’s just an observation, not a criticism at all. Despite the introduction of a Big Bad maybe halfway through, and characters having sad pasts or current circumstances, the stakes …
This book came to my attention as one of this year’s SPFBO finalists. It’s categorised as Christian fantasy, so (not being interested in religion, whether Christian or other) I was a bit dubious when I picked it up. However, I needn’t have worried. I’d say the Christianity features as part of the setting rather than the story being Christian-themed.
The prose was tidy and only tripped me up a couple of times (still scratching my head over the use of “Juste” in French. Maybe I’m missing some subtext cleverness). I didn’t like the footnotes. To me, if felt like they were trying too hard.
There will inevitably be many comparisons to Good Omens. I’d say the storyline here is much simpler—that’s just an observation, not a criticism at all. Despite the introduction of a Big Bad maybe halfway through, and characters having sad pasts or current circumstances, the stakes never felt really threatening. I found the final outcome a bit “happened to work out like this” rather than being able to appreciate the characters’ efforts.
I got very little sense of the environment/setting. I don’t remember if specific locations were mentioned, but all I took away was that we weren’t in America. Presumably this is a world where hardly anyone knows about the supernatural. The “regular people’s” lack of surprise (or alternatively, complete acceptance) regarding odd happenings felt contrived—not played up enough for humour/satire and not realistic enough to play it otherwise.
Overall, a pleasant and unchallenging read.
