The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott Review and Giveaway!

The citizens of Stone Temple North Carolina have a Fall Festival every year, with the highlight being the air show by hometown hero Matt Cooper.  This year, the show goes irreparably wrong.  After the incident, Sheriff Macon Campbell searches frantically for his daughter Ava.  He finds her huddled in the rubble with her best friend Wash, and in this moment a miracle occurs and all of their lives are changed forever.

Ava’s miraculous cure of Wash was caught on a phone video camera and is replayed around the world.  The small town of Stone Temple is soon swarming with thousands of out of towners who want a cure of their own from Ava.    These include people with a dying family member, a television pastor, and those just looking for the unexplained. The truth is that every time Ava can do a miracle, it takes a bit out of Ava.  Is it Ava’s responsibility to use her power for the good of others?  Will life ever return to normal?

The book also alternates to episodes in the past when Ava spent time with her mother Heather before Heather’s suicide.  These build to help you understand Ava’s inner feelings, but also added questions for me on what exactly was going on with Heather and Ava.  I’m still pondering this.

I thought this novel was a wonderful coming of age novel for both Ava and Wash.  The best quote for this in the book was the following:

“There’s a word for that feeling, Macon,” she said.  “It’s called childhood.  And once it’s gone, it’s gone.  And that sense that the world is this large magical thing gets taken away with it.  In that moment, you become an adult, and you lose your ability to see the wonder of all things.  All you see from that point forward is how broken everything will be one day.”

There is more to this quote, but I thought it was one of the best explanations for growing up and out of childhood that I’ve ever read. I always explained it as seeing through rose colored glasses, and one day they are gone and you see it all clearly.  This entire page of the book was moving and written poetically.

I also enjoyed the scenes of young love.  My favorite scene and quote for this was “Beneath the roof of the old cabin, among the dust and the cold night wind that came in through the broken window, carried on the legs of the moonlight, beneath the gentle crackling of the fire and the warmth that was filling the cabin more and more, beneath it all a boy held tightly to the girl he loved and a girl slept in the arms of the boy she loved and the rest of the world did not exist.”

The relationships also were wonderful in this novel.  Macon and his daughter, Wash and his Grandma and Dad, the pastor and his brother, and Ava’s relationship book with her stepmom and mother.  These relationships were very realistic and moving.  I also loved the vivid descriptions and lyrical writing.  There is also a great set of book club questions at the end of the novel and an interview with the author.

Overall, The Wonder of All Things is a moving novel with realistic relationships, fantastic characters and beautiful writing.  It is a novel that you will be thinking about long after the last page is turned.

I reviewed this novel as a part of the TLC booktour.  Visit more stops to learn even more about this great book!

Monday, July 27th: Jenn’s Bookshelves

Tuesday, July 28th: A Bookish Way of Life

Wednesday, July 29th: Dreams, Etc.

Thursday, July 30th: Kritter’s Ramblings

Friday, July 31st: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Monday, August 3rd: Sweet Southern Home

Tuesday, August 4th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Wednesday, August 5th: Laura’s Reviews

Thursday, August 6th: Bibliophiliac

Monday, August 10th: Bewitched Bookworms

Tuesday, August 11th: Mom’s Small Victories

Wednesday, August 12th: A Night’s Dream of Books

Thursday, August 13th: Books a la Mode – author guest post

Friday, August 14th: A Bookworm’s World

Monday, August 17th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, August 18th: The Book Wheel

Friday, August 21st: From the TBR Pile

Monday, August 24th: Broken Teepee

Tuesday, August 25th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Wednesday, August 26th: 5 Minutes for Books

 

Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive a copy of The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott courtesy of Mira Books and Jason Mott.  If you would like to win The Wonder of All Things, please leave a comment on why it sounds interesting.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. 

 

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments. 

 

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!). 

 

No P.O. Boxes. 

 

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday August 21st!

 

Please make sure to check the week of the 24th to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

 

Good luck!