Review: The Wonder of All Things
The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott
My rating: [rating=3]
Summary:
On an ordinary day, at an air show like that in any small town across the country, a plane crashes into a crowd of spectators, killing and injuring dozens. But when the dust clears, a thirteen-year-old girl named Ava is found huddled beneath a pocket of rubble with her best friend, Wash. He is injured and bleeding, and when Ava places her hands over him, his wounds miraculously disappear.
Ava has a unique gift: she can heal others of their physical ailments. Until the air show tragedy, her gift was a secret. But now the whole world knows, and suddenly Ava is thrust into the spotlight. People from all over the globe begin flocking to her small town, looking for healing and eager to glimpse the wonder of a miracle. But Ava’s unusual ability comes at a great cost—her own health—and as she grows weaker with each healing, Ava begins searching for an escape. Wash agrees to help Ava, but little does she know he has his own secret he’s been harboring, and soon Ava finds herself having to decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice in order to save the one she loves most.
Review:
(I got a copy from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
A novel that raised interesting questions, but that in the end failed to deliver some answers. I don’t mean THE answers, because I don’t think there’s any definite one. It’s more a feeling on my part that it didn’t go as far as its premise could (and should) have taken it.
The story deals with Ava, a thireteen-year-old girl who suddenly reveals a healing power. Unfortunately, this power comes with a price, and the more she uses it, the more her own health suffers. However, as news the event that revealed her existence spreads throughout the country, she and her family are confronted with the many opinions of many people about what she should do with her newfound ability… and those opinions are quite revealing of what drives human beings.
Ava’s father, her stepmother, other people around her, are all tempted, at some point, to ask her to perform some healing, each for their own motives. Macon (her father) because he’s at a loss, seeing his only daughter wither, and trying to find a way to put an end to it, even though this might mean pushing her through more healing at first. Carmen (her stepmother) because there’s a baby on the way, and who knows what might go wrong? In a way, they’re somewhat justified in their “demands”, and one may wonder: are they selfish? Or are they only being people, with their own temporary weakness when confronted to something so awe-inspiring? At the same time, other people, such as Wash’s grandmother, don’t demand anything at all—and those who don’t demand anything aren’t always those who’re the less in need.
I think The Wonder of All Things makes us question those hypothetical motives in ourselves as well. If someone with such a healing power was to appear, would we be entitled to demand they heal just about anyone, regardless of the cost to their own health? Would we deem them “selfish” if they were to keep their ability for their loved ones only, knowing that doing more would kill them? Would such a person have a “responsibility” to everyone, should s/he be expected to sacrifice his/her own future? Some may say yes, some may say no, some may not know. I don’t know. Part of me would likely want such a power to be used; yet another part kept revolting, thinking, “Guys, this is Ava’s life. You have no right to tell her what to do with it.”
This is where, in my opinion, the novel could have gone further, and didn’t. For instance, we know early on that news about Ava spread through the internet, but not once do the main characters try to use the same media to tell the world the truth about her ability: that it’s hurting her. Not once do they force other people to face their own demands, if only by simply asking: “You want me to heal your child/father/spouse, but considering I can’t heal a lot of people, tell me, why should I choose him/her over someone else? Tell me. Give me a reason that isn’t a selfish one, you who’re calling me ‘selfish’.” (This is definitely something I was expecting some character, any character, to do at some point.) In a way, they may have been too passive about this, maybe expecting things to calm down on their own—wishful thinking, that.
On the other hand, there was also a lot of beauty in this story, in how Ava and Carmen had the opportunity to find an unexpected common ground in a situation that could just have well have divided them even more. And the parts where Ava remembered her own mother were touching.
I liked this story, I did. I just wanted the characters to be more on the confrontational side, regarding other people around them.