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Miracle
The entire town turns against her family. And then her dad is arrested.
The trouble started when Miracle's dad scored a job at Compassionate Cremations. A spate of sudden deaths got everyone twitching.
Miracle takes the full weight on her shoulders. Named because she was born in Australia’s biggest-ever earthquake, fourteen-year-old Miracle is tormented by her classmates, even by Oli, the boy she can’t get out of her head. She fears for her agoraphobic mother, and for her angelic, quake-damaged brother, Julian.
When Oli plays a cruel trick on Miracle, he sets off a chain of devastating events.
How can she convince the town of her dad’s innocence?
Shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards 2023: the winner yet to be announced
A teenage mystery book which will appeal to young adults and their parents.
The trouble started when Miracle's dad scored a job at Compassionate Cremations. A spate of sudden deaths got everyone twitching.
Miracle takes the full weight on her shoulders. Named because she was born in Australia’s biggest-ever earthquake, fourteen-year-old Miracle is tormented by her classmates, even by Oli, the boy she can’t get out of her head. She fears for her agoraphobic mother, and for her angelic, quake-damaged brother, Julian.
When Oli plays a cruel trick on Miracle, he sets off a chain of devastating events.
How can she convince the town of her dad’s innocence?
Shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards 2023: the winner yet to be announced
A teenage mystery book which will appeal to young adults and their parents.
316 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 3, 2022
3 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Lane
2 books16 followersJennifer Lane lives in Wellington, New Zealand, with her husband and daughters, and feels equally at home in New South Wales, Australia, where she was born and Miracle is set. Her debut novel All our Secrets (Rosa Mira Books) won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel in 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 9, 2022
Being a 14 year old girl is never an easy undertaking, but living in a dying town, in a family beset with problems makes Miracle's life that bit more complicated.
She's known as Miracle because she was born in the middle of Australia's biggest-ever earthquake. The same quake that so traumatised her older brother that he's been left living with an ongoing mental health / nervous issue. Her mother's agoraphobic, her father's not coping with unemployment, and the boy she really likes, Oli, is playing really cruel tricks on her. All in all, a bit of a mess. Anyone who has read Lane's first book ALL OUR SECRETS might see the ghost of Gracie in Miracle - she's a dab hand at the creation of strong, young girls, surrounded by chaotic families, stepping up and in.
Which would make you think that her father's new job at Compassionate Cremations would be a good thing, but that just ends up adding to Miracle's feelings of guilt because she's the one that pushed her father towards the job. When the Crematorium becomes the centre of town gossip about a spate of sudden deaths, and her father is arrested after a brutal attack on the boy she fancies there, the job seems less important, and her role in putting her father it, and her reactions to Oli's behaviour seems like the tipping point.
The connection that all readers will have to have to get MIRACLE to work is obviously going to be with Miracle herself. A brave, conflicted, complicated young girl, she's believable and really real - alternatively bolshie and fragile, whip smart and thick as a brick. The story really does centre around the concept of bravery, coping and pressing on. It's also about learning empathy and understanding, and finding the good in what seems like absolutely dreadful situations, and dreadful people.
The plot is cleverly constructed to keep the focus on Miracle, while all around her events seem to swirl and move into and out of focus, never quite giving the reader time to settle, or necessarily to pick up on a direction. In the early stages the role of the Crematorium, and its boss, her parents, her brother, her aunt and the extended family, and other members of the town shapeshift into and out of the main story line, with Miracle dealing with a very big signal to noise ratio at points. Her confusion is palpable, her panic very real, and the reactions of everybody around her used to highlight a complicated scenario.
At the end of the day though, as events spiral further, Oli succumbs to his injuries, and doubts start to emerge about Miracle's dad's involvement, the family pushes and shoves against each other, and Miracle finds out a lot about growing up. It's an interesting layer to place within a crime story, and one that I found utterly fascinating and disconcerting all at the same time.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...
She's known as Miracle because she was born in the middle of Australia's biggest-ever earthquake. The same quake that so traumatised her older brother that he's been left living with an ongoing mental health / nervous issue. Her mother's agoraphobic, her father's not coping with unemployment, and the boy she really likes, Oli, is playing really cruel tricks on her. All in all, a bit of a mess. Anyone who has read Lane's first book ALL OUR SECRETS might see the ghost of Gracie in Miracle - she's a dab hand at the creation of strong, young girls, surrounded by chaotic families, stepping up and in.
Which would make you think that her father's new job at Compassionate Cremations would be a good thing, but that just ends up adding to Miracle's feelings of guilt because she's the one that pushed her father towards the job. When the Crematorium becomes the centre of town gossip about a spate of sudden deaths, and her father is arrested after a brutal attack on the boy she fancies there, the job seems less important, and her role in putting her father it, and her reactions to Oli's behaviour seems like the tipping point.
The connection that all readers will have to have to get MIRACLE to work is obviously going to be with Miracle herself. A brave, conflicted, complicated young girl, she's believable and really real - alternatively bolshie and fragile, whip smart and thick as a brick. The story really does centre around the concept of bravery, coping and pressing on. It's also about learning empathy and understanding, and finding the good in what seems like absolutely dreadful situations, and dreadful people.
The plot is cleverly constructed to keep the focus on Miracle, while all around her events seem to swirl and move into and out of focus, never quite giving the reader time to settle, or necessarily to pick up on a direction. In the early stages the role of the Crematorium, and its boss, her parents, her brother, her aunt and the extended family, and other members of the town shapeshift into and out of the main story line, with Miracle dealing with a very big signal to noise ratio at points. Her confusion is palpable, her panic very real, and the reactions of everybody around her used to highlight a complicated scenario.
At the end of the day though, as events spiral further, Oli succumbs to his injuries, and doubts start to emerge about Miracle's dad's involvement, the family pushes and shoves against each other, and Miracle finds out a lot about growing up. It's an interesting layer to place within a crime story, and one that I found utterly fascinating and disconcerting all at the same time.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...
March 19, 2023
This was a good read with a good story. But I had to make myself keep reading it until I had read 100 pages. Then it took off. By the time I was finished I was very happy I had read it.
October 1, 2022
A funny sad romp through a boondock Australian town through the eyes of 14 year old Miracle, who gets caught in a predicament that veers between hilarious and awful when the boy she has a crush on bullies her, and then her own Dad is framed for attacking him.
Recommended for fans 0f Kate de G0ldi and Catherine Robertson,
Recommended for fans 0f Kate de G0ldi and Catherine Robertson,
December 19, 2025
3.5 stars. This is a YA novel, but not one that I think would be appealing to many young adult readers - a teenaged girl in 1980s small town Australia dealing with her mother's mental health issues and alcoholism, and her father being jailed for a crime he didn't commit - isn't what I think of as being appealing to teen readers. It's well- written, the story is compelling, and it all comes together very nicely, but it wouldn't be something that I think of recommending to other readers.
October 28, 2022
Gripping and page turning mystery, funny and poignant. The central character Miracle is finding life hard enough, dealing with the awkwardness of being a teenager with an embarrassing set of parents in a small town, when her family finds itself at the centre of a major crime.
September 13, 2024
I enjoyed this book; it's a look at life from the viewpoint of a 14-year-old girl who's life is falling apart around her, and she's doing all she can to keep 'it' - herself and her family - together. This is my first Jennifer Lane book, and I hope there will be more.
October 11, 2022
Brilliantly woven plot, gripping and suspenseful, and a delightful protagonist. Definitely a book you should read!
December 7, 2022
Poignant, funny, sad, suspenseful. Miracle and the Jamieson family will stay with me for a while, I think. Highly recommend!
April 8, 2023
Enjoyed the read especially the narration from Miricle throughout the book .. I did expect more of a ‘twist’ at the end but otherwise a great read.
July 17, 2023
Very fun YA novel.
August 2, 2024
There was quite a lot going on in this book. The main character was well-written and I think our students will identify with the dramas of friendship and small-town life.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews