Book Review for Miracle's Boys

Miracle’s Boys is the powerful story of three brothers attempting to deal with the death of their parents. The story begins after the middle brother, Charlie, has returned from Rahway, a juvenile detention center. He has changed so much in the time he was there, that his younger brother, Lafayette, refers to him as Newcharlie. The oldest brother, Ty’ree, struggles to take the place of both parents and provide for his family. As the story unfolds, we discover that Lafayette was the first to find his mother on the morning she passed away and blames himself for her death, because he froze and could only scream. We also discover that Ty’ree blames himself for their father’s death, because he told his dad to save the woman and her dog. Newcharlie has difficulty dealing with their mother’s death, simply because he was not there when she died and attempts to comfort himself by believing that he could have saved her had he been there. As the story progresses, we watch the brothers grow closer together and begin to deal with their grief in their own separate ways, Ty’ree and Lafayette holding to the hope that one day Newcharlie will become Charlie once more.

This story is very well written and draws the reader in so that we feel the emotions of the readers as if they were our own. The author expertly uses flashbacks to help the reader “get to know” the characters and understand them on a personal level. This novel grabs the reader and draws them and we find ourselves living the struggles these boys face along with them – their hopes, their dreams, and their pain. As the book closes, we realize that only two days have passed, but we feel as if we have known the boys for a lifetime. This book deals with the pain of loss, raw grief, and some teenage violence; each of these issues adds to the power of the book and the relationships described. I would definitely recommend this book, though not to someone whose grief is new.

Submitted to Barnes & Noble (still awaiting confirmation) and Amazon http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0142406023/ref=cm_cr_pr_recent?%5Fencoding=UTF8&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending