Small Miracles

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It’s witty, whimsical and with some nice plot ideas. For example, I think I recall that angels, in traditional mythology, don’t have a defined gender and I thought it was clever how the author allowed the main Angel characters (the three main ones, I think) to select the gender they’d appear in that day almost on a random basis! Confusing sometimes for the human characters in the story but they seemed to get used to it. An interesting, though perhaps underplayed aspect was the numerical sin-count maintained on two of the characters.

I knew I was going to like this, but even I hadn’t anticipated how much. I’ve liked all of Olivia’s books in the past and so I just opened this one up without knowing what the inspiration for the book was. 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. As Gadriel digs deeper into the secret of Holly’s virtue, Holly’s teenage niece Ella puts in an appearance and this draws Gadriel into some school based shenanigans. I do enjoy seeing how different authors present the realities of school life, the stresses and squabbles and the staff room politics, and Atwater delivers a credible depiction of a somewhat dysfunctional school, not least in the image of the school disco “The disco was in full swing…The swirling lights highlighted an empty, yawning gap between tables where no one dared to dance.” The second category of footnotes provide a running score update to quantify Gadriel’s successes and failures in de-miserifying Holly’s excessively virtuous existence. For example “+10 Points of Virtue (Holly Harker): Rescuing a Lost Kitten.” One can’t help feeling that Atwater must have had an excel spreadsheet open alongside the manuscript document as the precise accounting of these numbers is both the substance of Gadriel’s challenge and an important plot-point as the story approaches its denouement. Holly’s gruff niece Ella was also a fabulous character, and her teenage life at school provided more exceptional opportunities for character development for all three: Gadriel, Holly, and Ella. Both Holly and Ella are dealing with emotional and psychological pain, and the bond between the three becomes one of catharsis and healing, in unintended ways for all of them.Atwater takes slice of life, regular folk’s existence that has more depth than at first realized, combined with playfully misbehaving angels doing petty pranks that turn out to have bigger consequences, compelling themes handled light and very adroitly, brilliant characters, wonderful prose, satire, and that cozy feel that is so popular right now, to spin an absolute delight of a novel. Burkhardt, Joanna M. (December 1, 2022). "Ten Thousand Stitches". Library Journal. Archived from the original on March 3, 2023 . Retrieved March 5, 2023. Overall, I’m surprised and pleased that such an upbeat book won SPFBO. It’s nice to have a variety in your reading and this has set me up nicely for a return to the more apocalyptic themes I often read! The world is more or less based around the modern day without a whole lot added to it other than the religious aspect of angels being real and all that. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I didn’t personally mind since that’s fairly common when you’re writing kind of a biblical fantasy satire kind of thing. Small Miracles is Team Queen's Book Asylum's SPFBO 8 finalist. Our group review can be read on Queen's Book Asylum, and our overall rating was 8.3/10.

a b c d "Feature: Interview with Olivia Atwater, Author of 'Half a Soul' ". betwixtthesheets.com. April 7, 2020. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023 . Retrieved March 5, 2023.We meet Gadriel using her small powers of persuasion to shorten a queue of customers before meeting her unfallen counterpart, Barachiel the Angel of Good Fortune. As they catch up over coffee Atwater sneaks in references to the story’s central plot device – the accounting of sin. As with the charming TV show The Good Place Gadriel and Barachiel are involved in the maintenance of celestial balance sheets, you might think of it as the accountancy of sin (not to be confused with the sin of accountancy), with chocolate counting as ½ a point of sin, while heartfelt compliments and other modest good deeds earn points of virtue. Wilson, Nigel Robert (October 21, 2022). "Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater". The British Fantasy Society. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023 . Retrieved March 2, 2023.