The wonder

This is the story of a young girl who claims to have gone months without eating, living off "manna from heaven." A Nightingale-trained nurse is brought in to observe her for two weeks for the purpose of proving her claim, so that she the girl be validated as a miracle and any suspicions cast on her family as potential swindlers can be resolved.

The nurse believes there is no way the child can be subsisting on a few tablespoons of water, so she's intent on discovering the means by which food is being delivered. This creates a premise for readers that's a bit like telling the audience at a magic show that if they stick around, they'll get to see how the trick was performed. This book centers around questions of faith, families, and what we choose to see.

I actually found this book somewhat deftly written - mainly due to there being a lot of cleverly used words in it - until about one-fourth into it, which is when I got into the rhythm of the book. Without spoiling anything, that's when it became a bit more interesting to me.

However, the cleverness of the book is also its biggest pratfall. Even though 19th century lingo is 19th century, this seemed like an exercise in not following Mark Twain's adage, where he said: "Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do".

The plot wore too thinly for me across the book, and I missed both atmosphere and more flavours. It was a bit too hard to swallow for me (pun most definitely intended).

I actually found this book somewhat deftly written - mainly due to there being a lot of cleverly used words in it - until about one-fourth into it, which is when I got into the rhythm of the book. Without spoiling anything, that's when it became a bit more interesting to me.

However, the cleverness of the book is also its biggest pratfall. Even though 19th century lingo is 19th century, this seemed like an exercise in not following Mark Twain's adage, where he said: "Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do".

The plot wore too thinly for me across the book, and I missed both atmosphere and more flavours. It was a bit too hard to swallow for me (pun most definitely intended).

4 1/2 stars

I really liked this one. It is a story that builds up slowly, each detail a piece of the puzzle. It is a story of compassion, of guilt of penance. The characters are enigmas at first and slowly slowly we get to see into their broken hearts.

Slow beginning but crackles into an exciting story about religion, redemption, guilt and a little girl caught in the middle of this chaos.