Friday, February 10, 2017

Kirkus-style Review

Proof of Angels
Mary Curran Hackett
William Morrow

A firefighter with a painful past follows an angel out of a burning building and into a mediocre story.    

Sean Magee has spent his life running from his problems. A broken relationship and the death of a nephew to whom Sean acted as a father figure led to a life of drug and alcohol addiction. By the time Sean follows an angel out of a deadly fire, his life is in shambles. While recovering from his life-altering injuries, Sean decides to right past wrongs, including reconnecting with his family and apologizing to the girlfriend he abandoned. He also immediately begins meddling in the lives of his friends, all in need of their own angel. Each person in Sean's life, past and present is a stock character, from his Irish Catholic mother to his therapy dog trainer, a recovering heroin addict.         

Proof of Angels is the author's follow-up to her debut, Proof of Heaven, also about people struggling with faith. Hackett admirably believes everyone is deserving of redemption, but she does not have enough respect for her readers to not spell it out for them. At one point our protagonist proclaims, "...ever since I followed that angel out of that building and took that leap of faith, I've started to believe that we're all in need of angels and second chances." Hackett attempts authenticity by adding curse words to her rougher characters' lexicon. While this book is billed as inspirational fiction and has a clearly religious message of forgiveness, the language will be off-putting to inspirational fiction readers used to lighter fare.   

What could be a poignant look at making amends and restoring faith is lost in an overly sentimental and predictable plot peppered with clichĂ© characters.  

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