Novel Review: Miracle by Elizabeth Scott

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster)

Release Date: 2012

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Megan survived the plane crash—but can she survive the aftermath? An intense, emotional novel from the author of The Unwritten Rule and Between Here and Forever.

Megan is a miracle. At least, that’s what everyone says. Having survived a plane crash that killed everyone else on board, Megan knows she should be grateful just to be alive. But the truth is, she doesn’t feel like a miracle. In fact, she doesn’t feel anything at all. Then memories from the crash start coming back.

Scared and alone, Megan doesn’t know whom to turn to. Her entire community seems unable—or maybe unwilling—to see her as anything but Miracle Megan. Everyone except for Joe, the beautiful boy next door with a tragic past and secrets of his own. All Megan wants is for her life to get back to normal, but the harder she tries to live up to everyone’s expectations, the worse she feels. And this time, she may be falling too fast to be saved....

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It represents the book really well, gives a good idea and feel to it, and it's nice to look at. Simple, a little understated, which works really well for the story.

Review:

·         “He still missed Beth enough to remember that she wasn’t perfect. He still missed her enough to see her as real.” (Hardback, pg. 62)

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with this book, but I really enjoyed it. I was a bit surprised, too.

Megan is having a really hard time. She’s not feeling anything for anyone, just plain frustration, wanting her parents to be honest and stop hiding. Having been in an accident and not remembering, she doesn’t feel much like a miracle, which is what everyone is calling her.

The way she acts is frustrating. She's being mean to everyone, particularly her friends and her brother. But she doesn’t know how else to act, because she’s frustrated and miserable and numb. Still, I liked being in her head, seeing her react the way she was, almost watching herself do it at times. Some of her self-destructive actions reminded me of myself, in a distant but bad way.

I liked where she was at the end, though. She was finally growing past it, accepting it, and talking to people about it. That was really good to see. And it seemed like things were getting better with her parents and her brother.

There was also the romance, which there was not a lot of focus on, but was still really nice. It was fitting, too, how much focus was given to the romance, given what Megan was going through. It was obvious that the two felt similarly, understood each other, and connected in a very good way. They also seemed to be going in a good direction by the end.

This was definitely a very good book. I enjoyed it, and now I’m going to have to pick up another of Scott’s books, as it’s been a while since I last read one.