Small Miracles

Product Information

Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, is persuaded by her angelic bookie to pay off her gambling debt. No big deal; she has to tempt a sinless mortal, Holly Harker, into sin. Just a little bit, so her cumulative sin metric isn't so low. A piece of chocolate here, a white lie there, done. Only Holly doesn't like chocolate and seems untemptable. I’ve often described the plot of Small Miracles as ‘genderfluid angels and demons argue over chocolate’. Obviously, there’s more to it than that—there’s commentary on the nature of love and grief, lots of dramatic irony, and copious amounts of footnotes. In many respects, Small Miracles is an homage to Good Omens , but I wanted it to be a story about small-scale, personal catastrophes rather than world-ending ones. 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”.

Anyway, an angel and a fallen angel who are on friendly-ish terms vie gently over the fate of a woman (and later her adopted child) in a comparitatively low stakes (because it involves the happiness of at most a handful of people rather than the fate of thousands), cozy, tale. I have provided an honest review of this book – “Small Miracles” by author Olivia Atwater – below for purposes of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Number 8 competition, in which this book is one of ten finalists. Before We Go Blog (where I am one of the judges) is assigned the book, along with the other 9 judging blogs, to help determine which one of 10 books will emerge as the SPFBO 8 Champion. I have provided an honest review of this book –“Small Miracles” by author Olivia Atwater – below for purposes of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Number 8 competition, in which this book is one of ten finalists. Before We Go Blog (where I am one of the judges) is assigned the book, along with the other 9 judging blogs, to help determine which one of 10 books will emerge as the SPFBO 8 Champion. 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.”a b "Half a Soul". Publishers Weekly. March 29, 2022. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. Of course even a gentle chocolate infused story such as Small Miracles requires a villain and a threat, and there is more at stake for Gadriel than losing face with Barachiel. Those who have dabbled in C.S.Lewis’s The Screwtape letters may be familiar with the name Wormwood (or indeed if they have perused the Book of Revelations). Suffice to say the character is not a positive one and their arrival in the midst of Gadriel’s mission significantly ups the stakes, without losing the gently whimsical nature of the narrative. You know, that’s hard to say! In a lot of ways, I don’t fit neatly into my own setting. I’m not Christian anymore, so the angels and demons in the story wouldn’t be able to affect me. Some days I’m spiritual in a general sense and some days I’m agnostic and some days I feel atheist. So I guess for the most part, I’d drift along completely unaware of all the people being tempted or inspired around me.

Small Miracles has often been described as “cosy” fantasy; what do you make of the rise of this subgenre recently, what do you think is driving its popularity? 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.

FBC Info

The text is peppered with Pratchett-esque footnotes. These fall into two categories, the first being authorial asides that raise a smile, or an eyebrow or both, for example the one about how This one is very likely to appeal to anyone looking for a cozy, low-stakes comfort read. The characters are well constructed and the book is well-paced while being short. It pressed almost all the right buttons for me and I’m glad it got assigned to me to review. I think this is my favorite book from this year’s SPFBO. I am currently working on a Victorian faerie tale, however, which I’m very excited about! Now that I’m writing in the Victorian era, I get to explore the gothic genre, which is a bit darker. I still have some whimsy and some humour in the book, but I also get to flavour it more like a ghost story, and add a bit more gallows humour to it. The characters are allowed to be a bit more flawed, and the atmosphere feels more dangerous. This first Victorian faerie tale takes a lot of inspiration from the movie Labyrinth —so if you had a thing for David Bowie in eyeliner taunting the young heroine, this one might be for you. The writing is what I found most impressive. It is so hard to carry this kind of a tone without going too far and overworking and overburdening the prose. I think it’s so ambitious to try and be Good Omens adjacent, but create something unique to you and your voice, and not fall on your face. An uncomplicated plot but with complicated, conflicted characters that were so relatable. Over the years I've either been or met people like the humans in this story. The angels too also reminded me of some non gender specific friends and when I read excerpts of this book to them they too were impressed with the way Atwater smoothly writes of gender fluidity. No showing, no info dumps or "telling" it just was. I quote one paragraph that I particularly liked…