Miracle Beach

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JUN 20, 2011

The inertia that initially dogs the narrative of Celello's debut makes finding the heart of this story of life after loss harder than it should be. And not helping matters is Macy Allen and her mother, Magda, two extremely difficult characters to like. Macy's life with her husband, Nash, ends abruptly when he's thrown by a spooked horse and dies. Cycling between the perspectives of Magda and Nash's father, Jack Allen, Celello mines the depths of memory in search of Nash's essence. The real point, however, is how these three people will climb out of the rabbit hole of grief and what they will find when they do: Nash, it turns out, had lived another life. Unfortunately, this fertile premise never comes to fruition, as Celello only scratches the surface of loss, missing the terrible depths. She's more confident with the competitive equestrian world to which Macy belongs, eventually revealing a good side to this character, albeit a little too late to gain the reader's sympathy. Celello brings a fine sense of place to this earthy small town in Vancouver, Canada.