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suze_1624's review
3.0
Short, narrative style story delivering Scrooge Mick, fairy godfather Jim, christmas trees and a happy ending - just like the films they want to show.
No surprise who Jim is when he turns up - just takes Mick a while to catch on.
No surprise who Jim is when he turns up - just takes Mick a while to catch on.
the_novel_approach's review
3.0
Author Pat Henshaw offers up a short holiday story full of whimsy and hope with the latest release, The Orpheum Miracle. Focusing on a young man who has been dealt a rough life that included a childhood with a drug addicted mother, and then bouncing in and out of a local shelter, needless to say Mick doesn’t believe in much–and definitely not Christmas good will. For him, it’s an over-inflated time of greed, and he’d rather not get his hopes up when they have so regularly been trampled on and dismissed. Still, Mick is tired of living hand to mouth–and in secret. You see, he’s currently living clandestinely in the very aging theatre that he has had the luck to work at for the last seven years.
So, when the new owner arrives on the scene, Mick tries hard not to get excited about all the changes he sees happening, especially when he is asked to take on the role of manager. Despite his caution, Mick throws himself into making the Orpheum Theatre great once more by making such changes as hiring better staff from the homeless shelter he still has ties with, to spending his hard earned rainy day stash on a more sophisticated wardrobe. But when the new owner has one final surprise for Mick, it’s nearly his undoing, for it can only mean that miracles really can happen and dreams just may come true—even for a homeless boy who refused to believe in either, in order to survive.
At fewer than thirty pages, this story tried its best to pack an emotional punch and yet, there just needed to be a bit more detail for it to really qualify as a home run in my book. Due to the fast pace and sketchy storyline, it was difficult to get drawn into this particular tale, mainly due to the fact that we had so little time to digest the myriad emotions that ran through Mick over the course of events. In order to have real empathy for him, I felt we needed a bit more page time to digest his story, to perhaps hear a bit more about his life on the streets and how important his one and only friend, Randy, was to him. I believe with a bit more detail and structure, this story would have had a more lasting effect. Instead, it was just a nice story—short, a bit unfinished in its feel and, unfortunately, a bit forgettable as a consequence. The Orpheum Miracle by Pat Henshaw had great bones but not enough meat to make it a holiday tale to remember.
Reviewed by Sammy for The Novel Approach Reviews
So, when the new owner arrives on the scene, Mick tries hard not to get excited about all the changes he sees happening, especially when he is asked to take on the role of manager. Despite his caution, Mick throws himself into making the Orpheum Theatre great once more by making such changes as hiring better staff from the homeless shelter he still has ties with, to spending his hard earned rainy day stash on a more sophisticated wardrobe. But when the new owner has one final surprise for Mick, it’s nearly his undoing, for it can only mean that miracles really can happen and dreams just may come true—even for a homeless boy who refused to believe in either, in order to survive.
At fewer than thirty pages, this story tried its best to pack an emotional punch and yet, there just needed to be a bit more detail for it to really qualify as a home run in my book. Due to the fast pace and sketchy storyline, it was difficult to get drawn into this particular tale, mainly due to the fact that we had so little time to digest the myriad emotions that ran through Mick over the course of events. In order to have real empathy for him, I felt we needed a bit more page time to digest his story, to perhaps hear a bit more about his life on the streets and how important his one and only friend, Randy, was to him. I believe with a bit more detail and structure, this story would have had a more lasting effect. Instead, it was just a nice story—short, a bit unfinished in its feel and, unfortunately, a bit forgettable as a consequence. The Orpheum Miracle by Pat Henshaw had great bones but not enough meat to make it a holiday tale to remember.
Reviewed by Sammy for The Novel Approach Reviews
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