Review: Some Small Magic by Billy Coffey

Mattingly, Virginia, can be a very dark place yet it is also a place where the light is given a chance to shine. In Billy Coffey's latest Mattingly novel, "Some Small Magic," the light comes from two of the town's misfits: Abel Shifflett, a middle school student whose small stature and brittle bones makes him a target for the school bully, and Dumb Willie, the 22-year-old man whose parents are abusive, cold, and indifferent to him and who may or may not be responsible for why Willie is the man he is today.

Synopsis: She whispers, “I’m supposed to take you home.”

“Not yet,” Abel says. “Please, just not yet.”

All Abel wants is a little bit of magic in his life. Enough money so his mom doesn’t cry at night. Healing for his broken body. And maybe a few answers about his past.

When Abel discovers letters to him from the dad he believed dead, he wonders if magic has come to the hills of Mattingly, Virginia, after all. But not everything is as it seems.

With a lot of questions and a little bit of hope, Abel decides to run away to find the truth. But danger follows him from the moment he jumps his first boxcar, forcing Abel to rely upon his simpleminded friend Willie—a man wanted for murder who knows more about truth than most—and a beautiful young woman who was already on the train. From Appalachia to the Tennessee wilds and through the Carolina mountains, the name of a single small town beckons: Fairhope. That is where Abel believes his magic lays. But will it be the sort that will bring a broken boy healing? And is that the magic that will one day lead him home?

Life in Mattingly is raw and exposed even when its citizens try to keep things hidden. Yet it’s when the flaws – the ugliness . . . the infection, so to speak – is revealed that healing begins for all involved. Coffey’s prose is painstakingly slow at times as he delves into his characters’ lives and discovers nuances that are hidden in depths far below the surface. At the same time, however, mining those depths to reveal secrets also allows for the beauty – the magic – to be revealed as well.

I don’t know that I’d want to live in Mattingly, but I appreciate the opportunity to visit every chance I get. Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 Stars

I received a copy from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.