Uncommon Miracles

by Julie C. Day

A grieving man travels through time via car crash. A family of matriarchs collects recipes for the dead. A woman gains an unexpected child in the midst of a bunny apocalypse. An outcast finds work in a magical slaughterhouse. Julie C. Day’s debut collection is rife with dark and twisted tales made beautiful by her gorgeous prose and wonderfully idiosyncratic imagination. Melding aspects of Southern Gothic and fabulism, and utilizing the author’s own scientific background, Day’s carefully rendered settings are both delightful and unexpected. Whether set in a uniquely altered version of Florida’s Space Coast or a haunted island off the coast of Maine, each story in this collection carries its own brand of meticulous and captivating weirdness. Yet in the end, it is the desperation of the characters that drives these stories forward and their wild obsessions that carry them through to the end. It is Day’s clear-eyed compassion for the dark recesses of the human heart and her dream-like vision of the physical world that make this collection a standout.

Genres: Fantasy

238 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2018

About the author

Julie C. Day's novella THE RAMPANT (Aqueduct Press) is a 2020 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her genre-bending debut collection, UNCOMMON MIRACLES (PS Publishing, 2018), contains some of her most beloved work. She’s also the Editor-in-Chief of the charity anthology WEIRD DREAM SOCIETY (Reckoning Press, 2020) and the forthcoming DREAMS FOR A BROKEN WORLD (2022). Julie is currently working on the mosaic novel STORIES OF DRIESCH (Vernacular Books). She’s published over forty stories in magazines such as Interzone, Split Lip Magazine, Black Static, Podcastle and the Cincinnati Review.

John Crowley describes her fiction as "strongly strange, whether happening in a sort of now in this country or in a weirdly altered past. These stories seem to be what the term American Gothic was meant for."

Some of her favorite things include loose teas, standing desks and the tricolored prevost's squirrel.

Reviews

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 very solid stars for a wonderful read.

I wasn't one to read short story collections up until last year, so I've had my fair share of them ever since then. For some reason, Uncommon Miracles seemed real jam-packed with stories to me, while those stories (18) also packed a punch of their own. I was incredibly drawn into Julie C. Day's several worlds, and I was looking forward to seeing what the next story would be like. She's got some incredible worldbuilding skills, and isn't afraid to use them!

The reason for the missing star is that some stories were a bit hard to follow ("Signal and Stone" springs to mind first) But this is really no big deal, of course I wouldn't enjoy every single one of 18 stories equally.

My favourite story is probably "A Pinhole of Light" (not only was it expertly written, but also bonus: it reminded me of Clive Barker's "Books of Blood". I won't go into details, read and find out!), followed closely by "One Thousand Paper Cranes" (literally followed, the stories are in that order in the book as well) Also, "Florida Miracles"

I'm looking forward to Julie C. Day's next book(s)!

**Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book**

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable collection, one of the best fantasy collections I have read in recent years. Some stories made me smile, some stories made me fear for their protagonists (some do both!), but all are wonderfully written and made me care about their characters, who are doing the best they can in strange circumstances. Well worth reading.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m trying to get this book into the store where I work. I’ve read an ARC and it’s amazing. And don’t just take my word for it. Folks like Jeffrey Ford and John Crowley have praised it as well. Julie is a frequent contributor to Interzone magazine and websites that publish quality spec fiction. You’re gonna want this one, folks!

[Maria Haskins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous collection of strange, weird, and wonderful fiction. You never know what you might meet in a story by Day, or how the everyday world will be twisted and turned into something eerie, unsettling, or just plain strange. Beautiful and compelling.

[T.J. Weyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

UNCOMMON MIRACLES is one of those books you slow down in the middle of, because you can almost >taste< the odd, are compelled to roll it around in your mouth. "Speculative" is definitely the word, because you spend a long time afterwards thinking on the strange devices (ghosts and photos, creating portals through trash), but also the kinds of loneliness and desperation that can co-exist with love. There's beautiful language here, and striking images, even as things go sideways or into dark corners. And they do tend to stray to dark corners.

All of the stories are about grief and longing, about the ways people try to pull together or hold on to the tattered remnants of families (siblings, friends, parents and children) against the forces that keep shearing them apart. The strange what-ifs are rarely even what throws them into crisis; instead, they provide kind of a shorthand metaphor to talk about how it feels. You know, like that feeling when the baby won't stop crying from under the backyard. That sort of thing.

A couple of my favorites also play with form, like "The Thirteen Tuesdays of Saint Anthony" which is a grant application, or "Mourning Food: Recipes Included" because of the details that seamlessly brings impossible processes into the mundane.

Definitely for fans of AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF BEES by Kij Johnson, or JAGANNATH by Karin Tidbeck, or NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS by Nathan Ballingrud.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed these short stories which I felt were on the appropriate side of weird, although sometimes that oddness felt slightly forced as opposed to coming from a natural progression. Day's writing is excellent, however, and shifts gears well with an occasional turn of phrase or plot change that unseats or wrong foots the reader. I would easily give this 3.5 stars, but it doesn't quite make a four for me, because whilst the reading is an enjoyable journey, I find on completing this review that my memory has become vague over the content. Perhaps that's the intention with this dream-like book, but I wanted just a little something extra to grab hold of. Read it, though, because it's worth your time.

[Carina Bissett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked with the first story in this collection, "Everyone Gets a Happy Ending," a story I returned to more than once. (The familiar setting of the American Southwest gave this particular tale the perfect edge to balance this stunning supernatural tale.) Although the themes of love and sacrifice and transformation are deftly woven throughout this lovely debut collection, not one of the stories feel as though they are a repetition of any other piece. These tales travel the countryside from the Southwestern deserts to the Florida swamps, and they do so with ease. Day's characters step outside of expected conventions. The women were my favorite, especially when they make those oh-so human mistakes. Even though I stretched the experience out as long as I could, I unfortunately reached the end. My only solace is that I will be able to read these tales again while I'm waiting for more of Day's work to come out. In the meantime, I keep a close eye on my shadow, take special care when picking out pixie sticks, and never ever believe the voices that urge to into the dark. Gorgeous debut, and a reader worth waiting for.

[Elizabeth George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these stories. Day has a remarkable breadth of knowledge about some pretty esoteric topics, and weaves that knowledge into unique and disconcerting fantasy narratives. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read "Raven Hair"(no spoilers here) but my favorite was "The Thirteen Tuesdays of Saint Anthony"-oddly comical, sorrowful and horrifying all at the same time. While ghosts and ghouls abound in this collection, so do real human fears, love and frailty. Day's prose is beautifully descriptive, and she has real skill writing modern gothic horror. I found this to be a page turner!

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This free-wheeling story now points to the fact that each story in this book is a vehicle that crashes into the reading mind. And stories that crash into each other, too. Yet they have met my match in me, I claim. I have created a smooth or levelled-up gestalt from these crash merchants in my mind, and it’s my synapses that crash together instead of them – in a good way, creative and catalytic. The Light of Day as a writer to watch and travel with, her stories to get in and off with, to put things in the boot of the mind (boot is English for car hood in USA): and to reboot, to hawl into a new Ricochet City of metal and paper cranes, towards realms of feistiness and mischief … and manplaning beyond the cosmic crashes of smart devices left without a signal … along with a soupçon of choice sex-drives, to boot. This book is one level up. Or several. Time will tell.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb collection of short stories of fantasy, horror and speculative fiction from Julie C Day. I very much liked the way differing formats were played with in The Thirteen Thursdays of Saint Anthony masterfully subverting the application from, and Mourning Food: Recipes Included deftly poking at the TV chef cook books.

Although I enjoyed all the stories it is worth a mentioning some in particular, the macabre ‘Raising Babies’ the innocence of the child disguising the horror taking place in the garden. ‘A Pinhole of Light’ a husband obsessed by searching for the spirit of his lost wife, Julie does not hold back on the effects of the chemicals and the ghosts on the photographer’s arms. ‘One Thousand Cranes’ how do we treat those below the poverty line, those with without hope. Taking in split time lines this story was never going to end well. ‘Idle Hands’ generations of women have travelled away from the Azores when the time is right, Joseph felt like a predator, grooming the women for his own purpose each succumbing. The conclusion very tense. ‘Raven Hair’ feels like a fairy story with references to wolves and monsters, there is a dark secret to be found, Julie plays with the imagery to provide an unsettling sense of predatory monsters that live among us.

This is a wonderful rich collection of themes and story telling.

[Renee S. DeCamillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fabulous and varied collection of short stories, one that kept me guessing what to expect with each successive tale. I cried. I cringed. I gasped. And all the while I kept wanting to read more. Day writes with passion for each and every troubled character she's created, and that care carries over to the brutal honesty each tale uncovers. The writing is crisp and vivid and superbly imaginative, filled with details that put me in each character's space, experiencing everything with them as they go through the troubles of their tales. This book makes me eager to read every work of fiction Day creates in the future.

[M.E. Garber · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories here are sharp-edged and unsettling, but compelling and beautifully written. The locations used as settings are nicely drawn, each one different and very real in the unreal worlds of the protagonists' tales, touchstones to ground the reader. A very nice collection of literary speculative short fiction.

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of some fairly decent sci fi stories. Most are well-written, being fully fleshed-out ideas with recognizable characters and plot elements. Not all of the stories themselves were appealing to me, simply due to subject matter, but that's OK. She did a good job and it's worth a read.

[Valerie - Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gorgeous collection of dark and tangled tales is for the lover of the strangely beautiful. Each short story is disquieting yet bizarrely poetic. Releasing the imagination, this compilation of weird fiction blends horror, fantasy, and magical realism into stories that are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always unnerving.

Read more at Cats Luv Coffee

[Catherine Schaff-Stump · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edgy, feminist, and mysterious, Day's collection has the literary feel of Margaret Atwood and the spec fic sensibility of Cat Valente. The stories are painstakingly crafted.