If you had a chance to read Elizabeth Scott's previous book, Living Dead Girl, you're well aware of just what this author is capable of. Raw, painfully vivid emotions. Powerful, haunting images. Heart-wrenching tragedies. Overwhelming intensity. And a stunning, but also very disturbing look into the darkest corners of the human heart and mind. All that served in a form of a small, 200-pages long book. A book that will devastate you! While Miracle is not as disquieting and depressing as Living Dead Girl, it definitely packs a strong punch for fans of dark, heartbreakingly honest, sweepingly poignant books.
Megan wakes up in a hospital bed. She has no recollection of what happened to her, all she knows is that she's in pain and her parents are acting very weird. Her mom keeps on calling her a miracle, and acting like all of a sudden her daughter became someone else entirely, someone who needs to be watched over and protected at all times. When she learns that she was in a plane crash, at first she can't believe it. She doesn't remember a thing. Was she really on a plane? What happened? So many questions and no answers. When she learns that she was the only one who survived the crash, she knows she should be happy to be alive. Instead, all she feels is numbness. She doesn't think she's a miracle. She doesn't even feel like she's alive. Is she alive? Or is her body lying somewhere in the woods, slowly rotting away? And then the flashes from the crash start bombarding her brain, paralyzing her body and mind even further. Everyone is treating her like she's the thinnest, most fragile piece of glass that could shutter to pieces any moment. And Megan? Megan just doesn't feel anything. She's withdrawn, disconnected from reality, and, having brushed so close against death, she no longer cares whether she'll live or die...
What can I say? I was absolutely and utterly blown away by this book. It's probably one of the most disturbing, depressing and strikingly real books I've ever read. Infused with so many emotions, blood-chilling, heavy and thick, it's a book that crawls under your skin and pulls you deep under to a place that is as far away from happy as it gets. Elizabeth Scott's writing is raw, authentic, and all-too convincing. With her simple yet totally consuming prose, she weaves a tale of tragedy and hope, giving up on yourself and re-kindling your will to live. A tale so terrifyingly plausible, it makes you feel all sticky and dirty. Scott does a fantastic job portraying the dramatic shift in the dynamics of the family, and how the near-death experience profoundly affected their relationship.
What I like the most about this story, though, is the fact that the author does not victimize Megan, making her come across as the poor little thing that nearly lost her life and should now be approached with special care. Megan is not even a particularly likeable protagonist. She might have been before the crash, but at the time we meet her she's morphing into someone quite off-putting, someone who is so traumatized and broken up inside, that she does not inspire sympathy, not immediately at least. It takes a certain amount of time to even begin to understand what this girl is going through. She's in a very difficult place and it affects our perception of her immensely. She's lost, she struggles with finding herself, keeping her sanity. She's emotionless, cold, and empty inside. An empty shell of a human being, and not a miracle, not by any means. Elizabeth Scott performed a graphic and shocking vivisection of a human soul wrecked by a horrible tragedy.
Everything about this book is absolutely outstanding. The carefully executed plot line, the flashes of memories scattered throughout the story, Megan's inner monologues, the tension and the drama - all these things make Miracle an exceptionally great book, and one that will stay with you for a very long time. I can't recommend it enough!
