Signs and Wonders by Alex Adena

This was an inventive novella I received for free from the Librarything Giveaway program.

The premise is fantastic, a faith healer who might or might not have the powers she professes to have and who is haunted by a death that could easily be blamed on her negligence. The plot is smooth, with the necessary twists, but without knotting up the reader in countless characters. Annie, the protagonist, is an interesting blend of emotions. On one hand, she’s someone who fells guilt at what she does, but on the other, she is a business woman with a knack for “handling” situations. She is complicated and someone very real.

I loved the way the novella started, with the reader being just as confused as Annie, wondering where we were and how we’d gotten there. Many other scenes struck me as well crafter, one that takes place in a Christian revival, another one in a parking lot of a free clinic, and one other one inside a jail’s infirmary. These are scenes that were a mixture of an almost comedic element with a mysticism that stays with the reader.

This is a story about what it means to have faith, in anything, and the decisions we take because they’re what we’re used to. I can easily recommend it to everyone, religious or not.