The Miracle Inspector

Aug 23, 2012 A.B.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

In The Miracle Inspector totalitarian London is walled off from a Britain partitioned into sovereign and more or less free regional districts. In London, people disappear mysteriously. People over the age of 50 are rarely seen, and nearly everyone’s parents are among the missing. All art is suppressed, and London is governed by an overarching, and excessive, fear of rapists and pedophiles. Bleak as it sounds, author Helen Smith treats these subjects with a light touch that enlivens the dystopian...more In The Miracle Inspector totalitarian London is walled off from a Britain partitioned into sovereign and more or less free regional districts. In London, people disappear mysteriously. People over the age of 50 are rarely seen, and nearly everyone’s parents are among the missing. All art is suppressed, and London is governed by an overarching, and excessive, fear of rapists and pedophiles. Bleak as it sounds, author Helen Smith treats these subjects with a light touch that enlivens the dystopian genre, without trivializing the repressive effects and human cost of authoritarian governments.

For much of the novel one hopes Lucas will stumble on a way to improve his relationship with Angela, and later, that they can escape and find a better life outside London, or that Angela does. Successive plot developments chip away at hope until it is overwhelmed by sadness and feelings of helplessness and despair, in last two chapters and epilogue.

Lucas is an uptight civil servant, and one gets the feeling he would be in any bureaucracy. His fear of not conforming is heightened by his position in a repressive government, and his secret family connection to a rebellious outlaw poet, who is his godfather and occasionally visits their home. The government has an inspector for everything from cats to security, and Lucas is the inspector of miracles. He hasn’t found any. His wife Angela is an intelligent, repressed woman who longs for a life outside the home. They love each other but Lucas can’t communicate and Angela doesn’t; their only real connection is having sex. Both characters are hard to relate to, perhaps because of the way their society has distorted their personalities. But as the novel progressed I grew increasing sympathetic to them, and their plight.

The form of government is left mysteriously undefined; all we know about it is that it’s exclusively male, bureaucratic, arbitrary, and uses fear for social control. A repressive government exploiting the fear of sexual crimes for political control is easy to believe, and Smith makes good use of it. Women are forced to remain in their homes and pursue traditional domestic roles. They can leave their residences only to visit relatives, and must wear something like a Muslim burqa.

Helen Smith’s flowing prose style is clear and readable, and she is a literary writer in the sense that she makes the reader feel for her characters. She also has a knack for turning a comedic phrase, and some of her similes seem way out there at first, but they work.

I always have trouble rating books and rarely give 5 stars. I give The Miracle Inspector 4 stars and recommend it.
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Jul 14, 2012 Val rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is what you get for believing the Daily ****.
I shouldn't mention the name of my least favourite paranoia-inducing newspaper; insert your own.
Helen Smith has taken some of the fears and obsessions of today's society, then twisted and exaggerated them to create a dystopian vision of the future.
Fear of terrorists has closed the borders and grounded the planes, not just keeping the terrorists and tourists out, but shutting in the citizens and any hapless foreigners caught in the net.
Fear of pae...more This is what you get for believing the Daily ****.
I shouldn't mention the name of my least favourite paranoia-inducing newspaper; insert your own.
Helen Smith has taken some of the fears and obsessions of today's society, then twisted and exaggerated them to create a dystopian vision of the future.
Fear of terrorists has closed the borders and grounded the planes, not just keeping the terrorists and tourists out, but shutting in the citizens and any hapless foreigners caught in the net.
Fear of paedophiles has closed the schools and most of the churches.
Fear of rapists has confined women to their homes, apart from visits to 'relatives' during the hours of daylight while dressed in a burqa (or something very similar).
Paranoia is irrational or exaggerated fear, out of proportion to the true level of threat. This is what we have in "The Miracle Inspector". Added to that is a government and bureaucracy which are, to various extents, pointless, inefficient and random, while also chillingly repressive. Few people survive beyond fifty: most have been arrested as potential terrorists, paedophiles or rapists. Next door to the Head of Security (who is more interested in spying on his wife in the shower than state security) is a government department for monitoring cat ownership. Then there is Lucas, the Miracle Inspector, who spends his days looking at pictures of the Virgin Mary in home-baked goods. He hasn't found a miracle yet. The society is a mixture of sharia law as practised in Saudi Arabia, religious superstition from somewhere with a lot of faith and not a lot of education like rural Bolivia, surveillance and disappearances from any totalitarian state you care to name and satirical silliness from Bulgakov, Kafka or Zemyatin, plus a bit of the 1950s as depicted in washing powder advertisements. That is how I saw it. Helen Smith describes it obliquely, with glimpses of parts of the picture, never the whole at once.
Does it work as a portrait of a fractured future Britain?
It does for me.

The main characters in the story are Lucas, the Miracle Inspector, and his wife Angela. They are fairly sure they still love each other, but they do not understand each other or communicate. They decide that everything will be perfect if they can just get away from London and go to Cornwall or Wales or Australia, places they know nothing about. You just know that it is not going to work. They need a miracle, and we have already discovered they are in short supply.
Lucas does something very risky. He goes to meet Joanna Jones, the wife of the Head of Security, who he has seen naked on Jones's computer. When Jones calls at his house and meets Angela he is enraged. This incident contains the least gratuitous use of a very rude word I have seen in fiction.
Another character in the story is Jesmond, a drunken poet and friend of Lucas's parents when they were alive. Jesmond doesn't do much these days, apart from drink a lot and occasionally turn up and scrounge a free meal from Angela, but he is the focus of resistance and young dissidents gather at illegal assemblies to hear him read his old poems. Is any association with Jesmond dangerous for Angela and Lucas? Jesmond leaves a journal and some letters with Angela. What is Jesmond's story?
Lucas goes to investigate a possible miracle. Maureen has a disabled child called Christina who, Maureen says, can cure people and save lives. Instead of dismissing the claim as usual, Lucas takes Angela to meet Maureen and Christina. Christina does become a live saver in a way.(less)

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Jun 03, 2013 Mike Owens rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lucas, a low level government lackey (Inspector of Miracles) has just had sex with his wife, whom he suspects might be a spy: "Angela," he said afterwards, "Let's go away to Cornwell together." It was the sort of thing people in London said to each other all the time these days.
And later, If you wanted to excite or flatter a woman, you were supposed to mention Cornwell.
Why Cornwell? We never really know, except that it must be better than London which is now under some form of martial law, run b...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Todd Fonseca rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Miracle Inspector – A Sobering tale of Dystopian London

Rating: 4 of 5
Author: Helen Smith
Format: Kindle, Paperback

On his way to the office, Lucas reflects on the silliness of some of positions employed by the ministry – The Inspector of Cats and The Inspector of Hedgerows and Grass Verges for example, and other such nonsense. Clearly there were those who wrote the constitution who had a vested interest in these areas. Of course with the restriction on women being able to travel outside of th...more The Miracle Inspector – A Sobering tale of Dystopian London

Rating: 4 of 5
Author: Helen Smith
Format: Kindle, Paperback

On his way to the office, Lucas reflects on the silliness of some of positions employed by the ministry – The Inspector of Cats and The Inspector of Hedgerows and Grass Verges for example, and other such nonsense. Clearly there were those who wrote the constitution who had a vested interest in these areas. Of course with the restriction on women being able to travel outside of the home, there had to be some oversight hence the Office of Women’s Travel. Lucas himself, The Inspector of Miracles, had quite a busy schedule compared to most what with all the attention seekers claiming to have a bona fide miracle. Still, his life was unsettled even unfulfilled and his wife was clearly unhappy. There were rumors - rumors about places beyond London and certainly England where there was hope and opportunity for a better future and society. But thoughts like these were dangerous; those who had them would suddenly disappear or worse.

Helen Smith’s – The Miracle Inspector – is a disturbing peak into a dystopian world where the underbelly of society are those who create poetry and art that lament the lost past while stirring the insatiable hunger for change. Smith conveys in her characters a wonderful sense of realism in a world which from a distance might seem impossible, but as read feels all so believable. There are a number of small story arcs that felt left open to me which at first left me frustrated, but upon reflection I think now they add to the overall feel the novel is meant to convey. It is a world where many things are clear – the rules, the expectations, while at the same time it just does not make sense at a base almost unspoken level which drives the characters behavior. In many ways, I felt the same as a reader where not all the loose ends were neatly tied up – they aren’t supposed to be – just like the characters, there is something more there you just don’t exactly know what it is at a conscious level.

As I closed the final pages, I had mixed emotions. I wanted more and at the same time didn’t know what I expected if there was. I was definitely left with an emotional reaction that went well beyond the moments after closing the book. In this regard, I think the novel did exactly what it set out to do.

For fans of this genre, I suggest you pick up The Miracle Inspector.

Note: A complimentary copy of this work was provided in return for a review.
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Feb 25, 2013 Georgia rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Miracle Inspector by Helen Smith takes place 30 years in the future. London is no longer a democracy, but run by dictators. This future is misogynistic and patriarchal. Women are not allowed to leave their homes (unless visiting female relatives), must wear a burqa when opening the door (or at any other point where they can be seen by people other than their husbands), are not allowed to work, have no rights or education and must ask their husbands for permission for anything they do. A woma...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Peter Boysen rated it 2 of 5 stars

The worst parts of human nature have been on display in literature since the very beginning. The cruelty of Agamemnon, the selfish envy of Cain, and the folly of Creon are three of the oldest impressions of human nature in the canon.

However, it took the progress of the twentieth century to take the darkest parts of our nature and make them the defining tenets of our future. Writers like George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury made us wonder what the world would actually tu...more The worst parts of human nature have been on display in literature since the very beginning. The cruelty of Agamemnon, the selfish envy of Cain, and the folly of Creon are three of the oldest impressions of human nature in the canon.

However, it took the progress of the twentieth century to take the darkest parts of our nature and make them the defining tenets of our future. Writers like George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury made us wonder what the world would actually turn into if the same forces that brought us the Holocaust, the nuclear bomb, mustard gas, and the pogrom were given free reign to run the world.

These writers brought us tales about the settlement of Mars, life under the constant surveillance of Big Brother, a society in which all of us were segregated into different biological and psychological groups from birth, and a new America in which women were assigned as property, rather than free agents in their own existence. The works of these writers shocked their readers -- first, by their writings; second, by the elements of their tales that would come true, in their own way.

Dystopia now, of course, is still popular. If you turn on the program "Supernatural" or "Revolution" or "Fringe" -- if you go see movies like "The Box" or "The Adjustment Bureau -- you can see that we still enjoy looking at how awful we could become.

The problem with dystopian literature is that it loses its shock value over time. Helen Smith's "The Miracle Inspector" would have been an amazing story in 1960, or even in 1980. Lucas is the Miracle Inspector, in charge of going out into London, after an apocalyptic series of attacks that has seen the world partitioned and under tight UN control, to verify the existence of miracles. Usually these take the form of religious images appearing in odd places, like recently baked cakes. His wife is Angela, who is chafing under the burden of being forced to stay at home all day, all the jobs having been reserved for men, in order to eliminate unemployment. She is not sure what she wants in life, because she has never thought to want anything more than what she has. She and Lucas both have a vague desire to leave London and go to Cornwall which, in their minds, is an oasis where there would be none of the oppression, none of the randomly disappearing men -- just a place to start a family.

But then Lucas comes across Maureen, and her daughter, Christina. Whether you view the miracle girl, with her name a letter away from representing one of the world's major religions, as a picture of the ideal or not is strictly up to you. Maureen did nominate her daughter as a miracle, but other than an ability to smile when someone she likes is in the room, it is unclear why Maureen nominated her daughter; other than the fact that she is a child, it is unclear why Angela feels such an attachment to the two of them. Given that Lucas is trying to sneak himself and his wife out of London, it is also unclear why Lucas would take the dangerous step of taking his wife on a forbidden trip to visit Maureen every day.

The interrogations to which Lucas is necessarily subjected (this IS a dystopian novel, after all, in which the government operates a bunch of shadowy ministries) have the finality of Orwell's Room 101, but none of the thematic resonance. We do not know why Lucas' world is the way it is; we just know that we never want to end up in a prison like his. The beauty of the novel comes in its final chapters, and in the epilogue, even as the plot winds up in a way that is as unpredictable and inexplicable as it is lyric.

This novel is written on an interesting idea -- namely, that the governments of the world's superpowers are slowly discrediting anyone who opposes them, and that it is only a matter of time until the blanket of oppression covers us all, especially since the blanket is of our own knitting. However, the idea never populates the spirits of its characters to the point where they have a new story to tell us. Yes, we can be depraved; yes, we will do awful things to one another. Orwell had the advantage of surprise, though, when he told us this; before, we hadn't quite thought of it. For new dystopian works to be worth our time, though, they must plumb new ground. They must, in other words, confront the miracle -- not simply drag us through the same sandboxes that the writers before them have already plundered.(less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Marc Nash rated it 5 of 5 stars

What's your favourite cause of dystopian society? Nuclear apocalypse? Viral pandemic? Economic crash and burn? The London of this book has contrived to put itself under a dystopian yoke through democracy! Entrusted with power, the people have demonstrated either apathy or irony in their chocies. Consequently London has saddled itself with a mad self-aggrandising bureaucracy of nonsensical jobs, such as Lucas' Inspector Of Miracles. Though there is a vague unstated threat of worldwide terrorism,...more What's your favourite cause of dystopian society? Nuclear apocalypse? Viral pandemic? Economic crash and burn? The London of this book has contrived to put itself under a dystopian yoke through democracy! Entrusted with power, the people have demonstrated either apathy or irony in their chocies. Consequently London has saddled itself with a mad self-aggrandising bureaucracy of nonsensical jobs, such as Lucas' Inspector Of Miracles. Though there is a vague unstated threat of worldwide terrorism, more local threats of rapists and paedophiles at large, have led to women being prohibited from work, having no political rights, are being largely confined to the house and having to wear burka-like garments when outside in public.

Art too falls foul of this regime, since art offers outlets for protest and politicisation. In a world without art there is a diminished notion of love. The novel's husband and wife main characters struggle across the kitchen table to communicate to one another, let alone approach any notion of love. They cast their fantasies and desires outside of their shared house. Angela although she doesn't understand the concept, wants to be a poet's muse. Her mind flies with some love letters she's been entrusted with which like her, dream of escape beyond London. Lucas visits the wife of his security chief who has been under surveillance so that Lucas wants to put flesh on the fantasy figure he has been a witness to on screen. In the flesh however, she is covered up behind her burka-like raiment. In his job as the official investigator into claims of miracles, he becomes attached to a mute girl who only communicates by smiling. He knows she has no miraculous powers, yet something about her and her mother who was formerly a news reader means they are included in his plans to escape from London

The characters' thought processes are impressionistic and mainly inconclusive. After all, they are overwhelmed by trying to match their own analytical abilities with the thoughts and necessary conditions on their behaviour embedded by the system. Echoes of Orwell's "1984" here. Put this together with the feminist perspective suggested by the regressive legislation affecting women and you might conceive this to be a political novel. But Smith is far more subtle than that. The novel is more an investigation into the true nature and possibility of love. Characters come to empathise with others around them, make sacrifices, demonstrate an awareness of the 'other'. Verbal communication itself may remain stunted, but a real emotional mutuality is attained. The ending for Lucas and Angela is utterly heart-rending. The young poet who has the novel's final words makes your mouth fall open with the simple but poignant observation he offers.

I described Smith's previous novel as 'slyly subversive'. This novel is all that and more. (less)

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Nov 14, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Miracle Inspector is a grim, dystopian tale of the near future. The main characters, Lucas and Angela, are a young couple living in a London almost entirely cut off from the outside world, ruled by a military dictatorship and a complex bureaucracy. Following some kind of unexplained disaster, Britain has been partitioned into separate regions. The citizens of London long to escape to Cornwall or Wales, where rumours speak of freedom, beaches and sunshine, but no one really knows what life is...more The Miracle Inspector is a grim, dystopian tale of the near future. The main characters, Lucas and Angela, are a young couple living in a London almost entirely cut off from the outside world, ruled by a military dictatorship and a complex bureaucracy. Following some kind of unexplained disaster, Britain has been partitioned into separate regions. The citizens of London long to escape to Cornwall or Wales, where rumours speak of freedom, beaches and sunshine, but no one really knows what life is like outside the city. Author Helen Smith has worked as a writing mentor for the refugee agency ‘Freedom from Torture’, and has described The Miracle Inspector in part as an exploration of the experiences of exiles forced to enter a world where nothing makes sense to them (http://goo.gl/SP20s).

There is dark humour in the novel, particularly in Smith’s descriptions of bureaucracy. London’s government has permitted citizens to draw up their own constitution, and a peculiar series of rules must now be rigorously enforced by an army of overworked officials. Lucas himself is the Inspector of Miracles, upholding the constitutional right to believe by checking reports of apparitions, healings and rumours of “the face of the Virgin Mary in a flan” (p19). I would have loved to discover more about how the world reached this point and how this constitution was created – a prequel could be really interesting.

Lucas’s colleagues also enforce more unpleasant regulations. Obsessed by the fear of terrorists, paedophiles and strange men, London has closed all schools and banned all women and children from public spaces. Women are forbidden to work outside the home, and men older than 35 disappear without explanation. Smith shows a few hints of rebellion against these restrictions, including secret love letters and underground poetry clubs, but these moments end in tragedy and disaster.

One of the most powerful themes of the book is Smith’s depiction of what her characters, growing up in this environment, consider to be common sense. Lucas himself sees the restrictions of London life as natural and necessary, and is taken aback in one early scene by the possibility that his wife might be capable of thinking for herself: “if he could prise open her head with a penknife and put a straw in her brain and siphon out the thoughts… he would have been surprised to uncover anything more profound than the expression of simple wants, needs and instructions to herself” (p5). A few weeks after reading the book, it’s these chilling ways of thinking that have lingered with me most.

Reading The Miracle Inspector can be a rather dispiriting experience, filled with unsympathetic characters trapped in desperate situations. There are no heroes in this world, and even the most admirable characters – like Jesmond, the illegal poet – are deeply flawed. Smith is showing us a world in which prejudice and suspicion are completely normal and nonconformity can be fatal, and she chooses to focus on the small details and everyday crises of lives lived in constant fear of arrest and disappearance. If you like your fiction bleak but thought-provoking, you should give this book a try.(less)

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Nov 07, 2012 Krystal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Smith writes a breathtaking Dystopian world that revolves around suppression, fear, and two younger adults who have a chance at a better world. The Miracle Inspector is about London’s future. The arts have been concealed; women can’t go outside of their homes unless it’s directly for family; schools have been shut down because of rapists and murderers. The government takes total control by killing and imprisoning their citizens. It’s sad that fear is literally something people do nowadays, so th...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Allizabeth Collins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review:

Helen Smith's The Miracle Inspector blew me away with its bleak and gnarled view of the future and its fear-driven inhabitants! The book blurb may seem somewhat unconventional, but this disturbing dystopian thriller's look into the fractured, chaotic, and desecrate future of Britain grabbed my attention at page one. I did not expect to be so intrigued by Helen Smith's well-placed prose, full of startling depictions as well as biting, yet somehow lyrical, humor. Her ability to create such...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Heather Boustead rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopia, ebook

The Miracle Inspector
By Helen Smith

In the near future, London has become an oppressive society, one in which women are not allowed out of the home to work or even socialize with other women. Lucas and Angela is a young couple who have become restless in this society, Angela is tired of being a captive in her own home while Lucas is tired of working as the miracle inspector and facing day in and day out of women fabricating miracles just so they can have some company. Soon they decide they will t...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Shalini Ayre rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set in a Britain where there are border controls between counties, Lucas and his wife Angela lead a hum-drum life. They live in a world where the government have either killed or imprisoned the majority of the population. The Arts has gone underground, zoo animals roam free and there are departments that investigate cats. Lucas, investigates miracles checking out the many reports which often result in the miracle being a strategically placed pepper in a flan. Fear of terrorists has closed the en...more Set in a Britain where there are border controls between counties, Lucas and his wife Angela lead a hum-drum life. They live in a world where the government have either killed or imprisoned the majority of the population. The Arts has gone underground, zoo animals roam free and there are departments that investigate cats. Lucas, investigates miracles checking out the many reports which often result in the miracle being a strategically placed pepper in a flan. Fear of terrorists has closed the entry in and out of the country trapping its citizens, fear of pedophiles has closed schools, education is in decline, libraries in disrepair. Mortality is low, yet what can be done to lift people out of it?

In a society where women are no longer allowed to work, when they leave their homes they can only visit a relative (and even then they have to be covered up), Lucas wonders if his wife is bored at home. His law defying godfather, Jesmond, a poet and an infamous one at that, leaves a journal in which Angela escapes in to. But Lucas soon destroys it as it's evidence that he is connected to him. Acting older than their twenty something years, their life together is fragile, but Lucas suggests leaving London and heading to Cornwall; they dare to imagine a different life. It will be a difficult journey and they'll need passes. Will they be able to cross all the borders undetected?

Well written with a dark, wry humor that is quintessentially British, Smith's dystopian novel is an interesting read. Lucas, is sometimes pompous yet has an endearing trait to nurture and look after his wife. Angela is dreamy and almost a wallflower. Both are likable characters and whilst the premise of the novel is quite cheerless, the black humor doesn't make it too depressing. There's an almost disjointed feel to the chapters yet the story continues to flow.

Overall, I enjoyed reading The Miracle Inspector despite it being outside of my comfort zone. It's a tale of utter bleakness, mistrust and longing hope - but the moments of humor does stop it from becoming a dire read. It has an abrupt ending and there are hints of why the country fell apart but I would have liked to have read a prologue of sorts to aid the whole story. However, it's a recommended read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author to review. The opinions expressed are my own and I am not required to give a positive critique.(less)

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Dec 13, 2010 Alice Yeh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hide-and-read-reviews

The tale begins with Lucas, a man whose job is to inspect whether or not reported "miracles" were indeed miraculous. As many might expect, his days are spent researching hoaxes, and while the occupation itself might seem a bit far-fetched, it makes complete sense in a society where people with a lot of passion and little logic took over the government. They have restricted women and children to their homes, limited transportation, and inserted civilian spies in true Orwellian fashion. The book i...more The tale begins with Lucas, a man whose job is to inspect whether or not reported "miracles" were indeed miraculous. As many might expect, his days are spent researching hoaxes, and while the occupation itself might seem a bit far-fetched, it makes complete sense in a society where people with a lot of passion and little logic took over the government. They have restricted women and children to their homes, limited transportation, and inserted civilian spies in true Orwellian fashion. The book is almost a sardonic commentary on the results of unchecked paranoia over pedophiles, rapists, and the dangers of free thought: we are safest when children, women, and philosophers are invisible or nonexistent in society at large.

As with any story that begins with confinement, the protagonists plot to escape. The result is a journey as bleak as those through the Underground Railroad or North Korean refugees — one aiming towards some glorified location and solely dependent upon a combination of luck and the trustworthiness of strangers. Smith is thorough in capturing the seeming hopelessness of it all without belaboring the point, referencing instead the weariness of the walkers and the meagerness of their rations. Instead of evoking pity, she elicits the reader's sympathy for the predicament of these refugees.

In her usual style, Smith starts with multiple story lines, linking them together loosely before tightening the connections. With fewer subplots than usual, however, The Miracle Inspector proves relatively easy to follow, and each of the seemingly disconnected tales is given the richness that they deserve. One is able to immerse oneself in each scene fully, instead of dabbling a bit before jumping to another part of London and another set of characters.

For the record, there was more explicit sexual content and violence than there were in either Alison Wonderland or Being Light. They bordered upon the limits of what I will willingly read at times but were just vague or brief enough to avoid overstepping my bounds. Given the content of magazines, comic books, and movies nowadays, the material might seem borderline tame, but the sensitive or conservative reader might still want to keep this in mind.

As with Being Light, there are deeper messages to be drawn from The Miracle Inspector if one is open to them. The philosophical arguments, ethical conflicts, and open-ended conclusion might just leave you wondering what exactly constitutes a "miracle" and if indeed one was finally found.(less)

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Oct 12, 2012 Anagha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Anagha by: Dorothy Thompson

3.5 stars

I'm finding it near impossible to figure out exactly what my feelings are at the end of this book. There's been some good parts and some not-so-fun parts.... but the complicatedness should be expected. It's such a unique combination of genres - it's a dystopian novel, which as you know I read as much of as I can. Yet I've never, ever read anything quite like it. Which makes me wonder if the parts I didn't love is just because it's so different. First off, just how many dystopian books h...more 3.5 stars

I'm finding it near impossible to figure out exactly what my feelings are at the end of this book. There's been some good parts and some not-so-fun parts.... but the complicatedness should be expected. It's such a unique combination of genres - it's a dystopian novel, which as you know I read as much of as I can. Yet I've never, ever read anything quite like it. Which makes me wonder if the parts I didn't love is just because it's so different. First off, just how many dystopian books have you read in the past two years that were adult books? Still thinking? I thought so. If you have read some, how many were literary tales that reminded you of Hemingway? Mhmm, I told you it was unique.

The scary thing about this novel is the world is so absolutely believable. The author took some of our actual fears today and envisioned a future where the government (that stays very much in the shadows) uses these fears against its people to control them. People were afraid of terrorists-that was used to enforce border controls and walls and barriers to keep out (or keep in?). Fear of rapists and pedophiles are hugely exaggerated and in this future London, women are forced to sit at home and cook and clean for their husbands, and can only meet approved relatives. Lucas doesn't abuse his wife, but it is a common enough practice that no one blinks an eye when the Head of Security uses his cameras to spy on his wife in the shower.

The Miracle Inspector isn't something you read for entertainment. It's something you read when you are in the contemplative mood, when you can handle the depth of despair and fear of this book. There is no sassy young protagonist to provide the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. There are no outright explanations as to why the world is in such a state of desrepair. You aren't given the explanations on a platter, instead, the author wants you to puzzle it out for yourself. And there isn't a sequel to elaborate on any of this. The author leaves me with more questions than answers, which for once I can appreciate - think about the classics. You aren't told all the hows and whys - you're supposed to fill in the blanks yourself, which might vary greatly. Is the couple going to survive? Was that finally a miracle at the end or some sort of 1984-esque ending?

This is a very adult book, not in its content (though there are plenty of explicit references to sex) but in the level of intelligence needed to approach this book, an amount that I admittedly don't have yet.

TMI (hee hee) is not your typical rebel-against-evil-government read. There is very little action, instead concentrating on character development. It's more realistic - sort of like a combination of 1984 (especially the last few chapters) and Lord of the Flies. There was no plague or famine or epic war (that I know of), but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try.
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Sep 19, 2012 Alice Stuart rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book surprised me.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. Dystopian is right, this future London is dark and oppressive and horrifying.

Women are confined to their homes and not allowed to leave except with their spouses or to approved family members houses. They cannot work, and when they do leave the home they must be fully covered.

Men disappear in middle age, never to be seen again.

Everyone watches everyone else. The fear of terrorism has taken over the entire city. Out...more

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May 05, 2011 TC rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have already read a couple of Helen's other books but this was the one that sounded closest to my taste, described as a dystopian thriller.

Lucas and Angela live in a very different London, one that has been partitioned, where schools and theatres are shut, women are not allowed to work and may only visit family, going out veiled, and men are employed by an abundance of new government departments. Lucas is the miracle inspector, checking out many and varied reports of potential miracles. They a...more I have already read a couple of Helen's other books but this was the one that sounded closest to my taste, described as a dystopian thriller.

Lucas and Angela live in a very different London, one that has been partitioned, where schools and theatres are shut, women are not allowed to work and may only visit family, going out veiled, and men are employed by an abundance of new government departments. Lucas is the miracle inspector, checking out many and varied reports of potential miracles. They are a young couple who believe they love each other but can't quite work out where their relationship is going wrong. They decide to try and escape London to get to Cornwall, envisaging a wonderful new life there, Angela it seems mostly looking for a more fulfilling life, Lucas to please Angela and get out before his connection to rebellious elderly poet Jesmond is discovered. In a place where most men die young, having joined the ranks of the Disappeared, he has reached a good age living underground and is a legendary figure.

The worrying thing about this novel is that it isn't too hard to believe this dark and very miserable picture of the future, where women are imprisoned in their own homes and lives are governed by fear of paedophiles and rapists. Yet despite the gloomy setting there is humour to be found in the book, albeit mostly dark humour. I very much like Helen's style of writing, her satirical humour and wonderful descriptions.

I have to admit I didn't particularly click with either of the main characters, although they do seem more hopeful and less downtrodden or cynical than the others we encounter. I think my favourite was Jesmond, and I would have liked to have found out more about him and his past. In fact generally I would have liked to have found out more about the intervening period and what had happened to get to the London featured in the book. Was it one major event or a series of rights being eroded and gradually accepted?

This was definitely a book that got me thinking, was well formatted for the kindle, and left me wondering whether ultimately Lucas had found his own miracle.

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Sep 21, 2012 Wendy Hines rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in the future in London, the government is run entirely different. Lucas has a job with the government as The Miracle Inspector. He hasn't found one yet, and isn't entirely sure what will happen when he does. But until then, he spends his days inspecting would-be miracles that are called into his office.

The women are to be protected at all costs, so they are not allowed out of their homes. They remain inside and cook and clean and take care of their husband's at night. They are allowed to vi...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Eyehavenofilter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: other-worlds, arc

Smith writes with such a dark humor, it's difficult to not laugh and cringe at the same time. It seems like familiar territory in the beginning of this book.Its a bleak future,for sure, especially for women. All jobs are held by men, but seriously?a Minister of Cats? to make sure there are enough cats and everyone that wants one has one? That's how absurd this world has become. ( I personally think it might be a good idea?)
What would it be like to live in a world, that controlled your ability t...more Smith writes with such a dark humor, it's difficult to not laugh and cringe at the same time. It seems like familiar territory in the beginning of this book.Its a bleak future,for sure, especially for women. All jobs are held by men, but seriously?a Minister of Cats? to make sure there are enough cats and everyone that wants one has one? That's how absurd this world has become. ( I personally think it might be a good idea?)
What would it be like to live in a world, that controlled your ability to visit your neighbor, or even a member of your family? What if you could not leave your house without permission? That means paperwork, Mountains of paperwork. That's what it's like for Anglea. She feels like a prisoner in her own home. But that is what life is like in London. Even poetry has been forced underground, so an aged family friend, Jesmond, best known for setting all the animals in the London Zoo free at one point, drifts from one clandestine poetry slam to another looking for acolytes and alcohol, as he's been doing for decades.
Lucas, Angela's husband works for the Ministey as The Miracle Inspector, debunking "miracles" . He spends most of his time pushing paper and wishing there were a way that he and his wife could escape this bleak existence, and head for the coast, perhaps a nice cottage at the beach? Lucas has no reccollecrion of how life was before the partition, "It was difficult to imagine that the flaking yellow or red lines still visible along the edge of some of the streets he drove through, or the zebra stripes that spanned them had once had some purpose other than purely decorative" .
His co-workers frustrate him, Jones, head of security who secretly films his own wife at home, in the shower, and Jenkins who has the IQ of a bag of hair,who delt with the cat issue, just intensify his desire to " get out of Dodge". When he is sent to investigate a so called miracle his mind wanders so far he can't even figure out what the miracle actually is and somehow gets himself and Angela more involved with the situation than he should.
Lives collies in unlikely ways, and a permanent vacation to the beach isn't looking good.

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Apr 29, 2011 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Shelves: all-time-faves, own-ebook, read-in-2011, blog-reviews

I thought this book was one of the strangest, far out, and mind boggling books I have ever read. Not only that, it was the one of the best books I have ever read. It's set in the near-future London where things like art and theater and poetry are a big no no. I wasn't sure what to think at first when I started reading because you are soon tossed in a world where women are not allowed to work outside the house and the only time they can leave the house is when they are visiting relatives. They ha...more I thought this book was one of the strangest, far out, and mind boggling books I have ever read. Not only that, it was the one of the best books I have ever read. It's set in the near-future London where things like art and theater and poetry are a big no no. I wasn't sure what to think at first when I started reading because you are soon tossed in a world where women are not allowed to work outside the house and the only time they can leave the house is when they are visiting relatives. They have to wear veils to cover their faces and bodies, and never allowed out at night. Or where people are taken away from their homes for having certain beliefs and never heard from again.

You meet Lucas, a ministry man who's job is Miracle Inspector. His job is to answer claims of miracles from the Virgin Mary's face in flan or Jesus' face in toast. Lucas comes and investigates and makes it known that no such thing has occurred, and deduces that it was usually done on purpose.

I felt myself having a lot of mixed feeling towards Lucas. I found myself disliking him because he believes the views as far as thinking a woman having a job outside of the house is ludicrous. On the other hand, I realize that it's the life that he was born and raised in. It's something that has been instilled in him since his parents are gone. He holds a prominent place in the ministry and must live by the rules in order to keep him and his wife safe.

Another view point of the story is from the point of view of his wife, Angela, whom I loved and admired since I first “met” her in the book. She dreams of getting away from London and living with Lucas in a place where woman and men are treated equal and they can have and raise a family with better views than where they are now. Instead of being home all day trying to keep herself occupied while Lucas is making a living outside of their home.

Compared to the other couples that you meet in the book I love the relationship between Lucas and Angela. I believe it's apparent from the first time we meet them that they are deeply in love, but also have conflict with each other. She wants a life outside of the home and Lucas above all wants to give that to her at whatever cost.

Their story has ups and too many downs, and at the end I was left wondering what is to come of these two. I like to draw my own conclusions, as many readers do and envision they have the life they each wanted for each other, just the way a miracle should be. Be prepared for British humor at it's best, and a story that will have you believing in miracles even when life isn't so kind.(less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Ruth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

This story is set in London in the near future; it’s a London that in some ways feels very familiar, but in some ways is scarily different from the London of today. Counties have been partitioned off, and Londoners are effectively trapped in their city. To escape, they have to literally go underground, and risk their lives. Women are not allowed to work – indeed, are not even allowed outside their house unless they are covered with a veil. The fear of paedophilia is so immense that men are frigh...more This story is set in London in the near future; it’s a London that in some ways feels very familiar, but in some ways is scarily different from the London of today. Counties have been partitioned off, and Londoners are effectively trapped in their city. To escape, they have to literally go underground, and risk their lives. Women are not allowed to work – indeed, are not even allowed outside their house unless they are covered with a veil. The fear of paedophilia is so immense that men are frightened of spending time with any child who is not their own, and even then, only with their wife present. Theatre and books are banned, and any kind of culture is considered anarchic.

Living in the middle of all this are young couple Lucas and Angela. Lucas works for the sinister Ministry, as a Miracle Inspector – his days are spent visiting people who claim to have discovered a genuine miracle, but so far every ‘miracle’ has been a fraud, or the wishful thinking of the claimant. Lucas and Angela make plans to leave London, but it turns out to be much harder than anyone could imagine.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Dystopia is one of my favourite genres, and fans of such books as Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale, would almost certainly enjoy this novel. I found it scarily believable; a world that was all too easy to imagine, where fear of paedophilia and terrorism has curtailed people’s freedom to an extreme level.

It is not spoilerish to say that at one part, Angela finds herself outside London, as a refugee, and the story drew parallels with how asylum seekers are treated in the real world, with mistrust and fear.

The writing is very ‘clean’ – no words are wasted here – and it flows beautifully. The different subplots tie together nicely and despite the subject, there is genuine humour here as well.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this book, and will be seeking out Helen Smith’s other books. Definitely recommended, especially to fans of dystopian fiction.(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Tânia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, for-review, read-2012

In the near future, England is divided and oppression rules the world. The prosperous city of London as we know it today is unrecognizable, because there’s little prosperity in an almost deserted city where few people wander the streets. Culture has been banned, schools and theaters closed, women are not allowed to work outside the home. This is the oppressive London where Lucas and Angela live, a young couple who shares the dream of escaping to freedom. This reads like a fascinating dystopian t...more In the near future, England is divided and oppression rules the world. The prosperous city of London as we know it today is unrecognizable, because there’s little prosperity in an almost deserted city where few people wander the streets. Culture has been banned, schools and theaters closed, women are not allowed to work outside the home. This is the oppressive London where Lucas and Angela live, a young couple who shares the dream of escaping to freedom. This reads like a fascinating dystopian thriller, both complexed and subtle, letting the reader get into the story at his own rhythm, in order to understand what is happening. I thought it kept a steady pace, which flows perfectly with the course of the story told by alternating chapters, and jumping between characters, providing us with different perspectives. I connected with Angela at some level, because I understood her immense loneliness caused by the forced imprisonment. It was also obvious that her desire to escape was greater than the fear of being caught. However, it was difficult to empathize with Lucas, because he is such a strange and complexed character. In one moment, he shows his love for Angela, and the next he’s driving his ministry car on the way to Joanna Jones’s house, because he can’t get the images seen on the computer of his coworker Jones out of his head. For this reason, I never connected with his character.

I thought it was interesting having inspectors for all sectors. Lucas is the miracle inspector, which is often associated with the church, but in this case this type of research is carried out by this singular man who owns an office in the ministry, and goes from house to house like a seller advertising the quality and veracity of the product. This is how we come to know Maureen and her sick daughter Christina. I don’t think we know what the exact miracle was, but I think that in the end, the miracle of all was that this little girl kept Angela alive in their journey to freedom. I really liked Jesmond’s character, and I would have liked to know more about this man fighting for the right to poetry, as well as Jason Prince, the young man who came across his path and became a sort of disciple, proclaiming his legacy.

This is a book with a well-constructed world, if somewhat confusing, containing separate stories that come together in the end, which made this an enjoyable read. The writing style is fitting for this story of possibilities, the most powerful of them being that miracles can happen. We never really know, unfortunately, because in addition to the moral and philosophical issues, we are left with an open ending. But I like to think that Angela, Christina and Luke found their miracle, which can come in the form of an illustrated door, a meadow with flowers of various colors and many, many butterflies flying free.
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Oct 25, 2012 Howard McEwen added it

England has been partitioned. London is now under a totalitarian regime. It now has a written constitution.* Codicils of the constitution give rise to petty bureaucrats charged with micro-managing the lives of its citizens. One such petty bureaucrat is the Miracle Inspector and his pretty wife. The Miracle Inspector is, of course, charged with inspecting miracles.

I hate mixing art forms but reading this book kept bringing to mind the powerful German film The Lives of Others. Not so much in that...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-books

‘Remember: you can’t make a difference when you’re dead.’

This novel is set in a dystopian near future: England has been partitioned and London is a walled and suspicious place. Theatres, libraries and schools have been closed and women are no longer allowed to work outside their homes. The older generation have mostly disappeared, as does anyone who speaks out about the government.

Lucas, who lives in London with his wife Angela, is the miracle inspector. It’s his job to investigate and report on...more ‘Remember: you can’t make a difference when you’re dead.’

This novel is set in a dystopian near future: England has been partitioned and London is a walled and suspicious place. Theatres, libraries and schools have been closed and women are no longer allowed to work outside their homes. The older generation have mostly disappeared, as does anyone who speaks out about the government.

Lucas, who lives in London with his wife Angela, is the miracle inspector. It’s his job to investigate and report on claimed miracles. And, in an oppressive environment with few creative outlets many miracles are claimed. Angela is lonely and unhappy. They dream of escaping to Cornwall where, they believe, people are free to live as they choose.

A woman named Maureen requests a miracle inspection in respect of her daughter Christina. Lucas investigates, and finds himself taking Angela to meet Maureen and Christina. This is forbidden: women are only allowed to visit other women to whom they are related.

‘Men made the laws. Women set out to exploit the loopholes in them.’

This is an unsettling and bleak world: Angela dreams of escape, fuelled by reading letters dropped off at her home by Lucas’s uncle Jesmond – an outlawed poet. Lucas sees himself as largely invisible as he operates outside the law. Plans are made to leave London, but nothing goes according to plan. The wisdom of elders is needed, but missing. The consequences of choices are not anticipated, the outcomes are never comforting.

In fewer than 250 pages, Ms Smith creates an unsettling and incomplete world. Aspects are disconcertingly recognisable, others are alien. Many parts of the world have harsh restrictions on citizens – the cause is not always clear, even if the immediate effect is. And what of the long-term? Beyond the memories of the past?

I found this novel unsettling, disturbing, and worth reading.

Note: I was offered, and accepted, a copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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Nov 11, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Miracle Inspector is very different to Alison Wonderland and this is part of what makes it so enjoyable. There are some authors I enjoy because they stick to the same genre and offer the same style of writing whereas there are others who are equally enjoyable because they cover a huge range of different genres and writing styles, Smith is in the latter group. Before I get too rambly, here's a quick synopsis of the novel:

A dystopian thriller set in the near future. England has been partitione...more The Miracle Inspector is very different to Alison Wonderland and this is part of what makes it so enjoyable. There are some authors I enjoy because they stick to the same genre and offer the same style of writing whereas there are others who are equally enjoyable because they cover a huge range of different genres and writing styles, Smith is in the latter group. Before I get too rambly, here's a quick synopsis of the novel:

A dystopian thriller set in the near future. England has been partitioned and London is an oppressive place where poetry has been forced underground, theatres and schools are shut, and women are not allowed to work outside the home. A young couple, Lucas and Angela, try to escape from London - with disastrous consequences

Not the longest synopsis and not one that I'd suggest gives the novel the full credit it deserves. If I hadn't read the other book first I may not have given The Miracle Inspector a go based on this short description, however, I'm extremely glad I did. Dystopian fiction isn't usually the kind of thing I go for but in this context I really enjoyed it, particularly because of the dark humour Smith employs throughout. The Miracle Inspector introduces us to a London markedly different to the one we know today, walled off and kept as a separate state from others across the UK. In this strange dystopian London nothing is recognisable, women are not permitted to work outside the home and men are employed in faceless office jobs, with weird titles. The novel focuses on young married couple Lucas and Angela and from the off it's hard to tell whether their relationship is genuine or a product of their confused society. Lucas is the eponymous Miracle Inspector and he spends his days looking at pieces of toast which bear the face of deities and other far fetched potential miracles mainly hatched by women going slightly mad in their society-induced house arrests.

Lucas and Angela make the decision to try and escape London and make their way to the much dreamed of Cornwall but there's always a underlying feeling that neither knows what the other truly wants and indeed, society has made it so that they might not even know themselves. This results in disastrous consequences and tragedy.

Writing this review has made me realise this novel can sound extremely complex but this isn't the case at all, it's extremely direct and well plotted so the reader is kept engaged from beginning to end. The characters aren't particularly deep but they don't need to be as it's the society which is the most interesting element of all, for me anyway. Smith has created a fascinating and unnervingly believable world. This novel could have been deeply depressing, plunging the reader into absolute despair but in reality as Smith injects dark humour throughout the reader can thoroughly enjoy this novel as well as finding many unanswered questions to plague them at the end.

A great read.(less)

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Jun 23, 2010 Donna Fasano rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story is described as "A darkly comic literary novel set in the near future".

Dark? Surely. Comic? Absolutely. Enjoyable? Thoroughly! However, I do have to confess that I hope this author's reflection of the future is off--way off! I wouldn't want to live is such a world, but unfortunately, in this 'terroristic' day and age, such a society is all too easy to imagine. It's frightening, actually, how realistic Ms. Smith's musings are; she paves a path for the reader to envision a clear view of...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Carrie Ardoin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own-this, tour, ummm-really, dystopia

I'm not entirely sure what I just read. I don't feel like writing a proper intro, so consider this it.

There was so much I was waiting for this entire novel that I just never got: the reason for society's downfall, finding out whether Christina really could work miracles, knowing what the hell happens to ANYONE. It's not so much that I mind open ended novels, but this left everything up in the air. Combine that with the fact that I really didn't understand what was going on a majority of the time...more

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Sep 26, 2012 For Books' Sake rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Set in a world recognisably , but not quite, our own, and combining aspects of Nineteen Eighty-Four with a good helping of feminism, with this novel Smith has created a world that ensnares readers, and characters that capture our hearts.

The story follows a young couple, Lucas and Angela, who are trying desperately to escape the confines of a corrupt, patriarchal London for the safety of Cornwall, which has become a haven for refugees." (Excerpt from full review at For Books' Sake).

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Mar 21, 2013 Kristin (Blood,Sweat and Books) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Review ~~Kinda,sort of,maybe~~:

The Miracle Inspector can only be described as a very British Dystopian. I imagined the lovely Helen Mirren narrating this in my head. Once I switched from my normal internal monologue to that with her narrating The Miracle Inspector transformed into quite an enjoyable read. Of course that is not to say that this book didn't have some hiccups along the way.

To me, The Miracle Inspector was part V for Vendetta part Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (minus the alien aspect...more Review ~~Kinda,sort of,maybe~~:

The Miracle Inspector can only be described as a very British Dystopian. I imagined the lovely Helen Mirren narrating this in my head. Once I switched from my normal internal monologue to that with her narrating The Miracle Inspector transformed into quite an enjoyable read. Of course that is not to say that this book didn't have some hiccups along the way.

To me, The Miracle Inspector was part V for Vendetta part Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (minus the alien aspect). The Miracle Inspector's Dystopian elements were terrifying yet it had whimsy and humor about it. I found this mix to be odd and unsettling at times. It's really hard describing in detail without giving away to much of the premise.

On the other hand,The Miracle Inspector is so far left field of what I expected it to be that I'm not even sure how to write a proper review of it. Was the book good? Sure, the writing was lovely and I found the characters to be quite charming. However, the plot and all of the rules felt beyond excessive, downright crazy even. I'm all for Dystopians that push the barriers of society but the Miracle Inspector didn't just push its citizens it shoved them over the cliff. Then, when they hit bottom they made them get up and walk back up the cliff only to be pushed off again. Yes it was that bizarre. I think the Author pulled it off but then again with the way I'm struggling writing this maybe it wasn't as successful as originally assumed.

Overall, I'm really not sure how I feel about The Miracle Inspector. If it wasn't for the writing and of course imagining Helen Mirren narrating in my head, I don't know how enjoyable it would of been. I am not even sure who I'd recommend this one to or if I'd recommend it at all it was just so bizarre. I mean hell, I can barely even comprehend what I read myself as you can clearly see. Therefore, I am going to list this one as a read at your own risk. I won't dissuade you from doing so because some elements were worthwhile but I won't encourage you either. Think of me as Switzerland on this one. In the end, I will be rating The Miracle Inspector by Helen Smith ★★★. (less)

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Dec 31, 2012 Sage rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lucas is a twenty-something miracle inspector during an oppressed time in England. Life in the future is bleak for women, and those involved in the arts. Men disappear without warning and women are barred in their homes most of their lives. Lucas and his wife Angela dream of escape and starting over far away. Readers follow the young couple as they try to survive during these trying times in London. Being a miracle inspector seems to be a safe job and like the other local women, Angela stays at...more

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May 29, 2013 Brandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Brandy by: layeredpages.com

Shelves: nook, reviewed

As published at Layeredpages.com: A refreshingly original piece of literature, The Miracle Inspector will spur you to think in new ways. Helen Smith has created a world where women are so marginalized in futuristic London that they cannot leave their homes without full body coverings. Although the setting is in the future, the story is not set so far in the future as to be unbelievable or unrecognizable which only serves to further invest the reader in the journey.

While weaving the separate str...more

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