Audiobook Review: The Probability of Miracles

The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder, read by Emma Galvin, 2011. 8 discs (approx. 8 hours). Pubished by Penguin Audio. Source: Publisher for review.

Dry, sarcastic, sixteen-year-old Cam Cooper has spent the last seven years in and out hospitals. The last thing she wants to do in the short life she has left is move 1,500 miles away to Promise, Maine - a place known for the miraculous events that occur there. But it's undeniable that strange things happen in Promise: everlasting sunsets; purple dandelions; flamingoes in the frigid Atlantic; an elusive boy named Asher; and finally, a mysterious envelope containing a list of things for Cam to do before she dies. As Cam checks each item off the list, she finally learns to believe - in love, in herself, and even in miracles.

Story:

Usually I avoid books like The Probability of Miracles since I do not like sad books, but the premise of this one surprisingly enough caught my attention. It was good, but I kind of have mixed feelings about it.

While the story its self had me hooked, I did have some reservations about Cam herself and her lack faith in anything. Although I did really enjoy the Ms. Wunder's writing style and how vividly she captured the pain and heartbreak of watching someone you love be affected by cancer. Even though she did such a great job with this book, I do not see myself re-reading or listening to it because I have hit my limit for the year (or a very long time) on sad depressing reads.

On a whole, I am no sure how I feel about the main character, Cam. At some points I thought she was an interesting character, but at others I was completely annoyed by how negative she was throughout the majority of the book. Even so, what made this such an absorbing listen was how well the various emotions that Cam experienced were written; that is what made this book for me.
The one character I really liked was Cam's mom. I thought that Ms. Wunder did a fantastic job on her and how she would do anything to try and save her daughter. It was very refreshing to read a book were the parent(s) visibly cared for their child/children.
What I really liked about The Probability for Miracles would have to be how Ms. Wunder was able to perfectly capture the various emotions that Cam, her mother and sister went through throughout the entire book-from their high's as things start to look up, to the low's that they went  through. That is the one thing that I absolutely loved about this book while I was listening to it, it just did an excellent job of evoking the feelings that were so apparent in it.

While I generally enjoyed this book, the one thing that bothered me the most about The Probability of Miracles was that Cam just seemed to have lost all hope in life. It was kind of depressing to listen to because she did not believe in anything at the beginning of the book, but I liked that as the book progressed she began to lose a little of the sarcastic edge that she used to keep herself from feeling anything.

Content (will contain spoilers; highlight to see):
[Mercy me, I was not expecting nor prepared for some of the content in The Probability of Miracles. I was also a little disappointed with Cam at certain points throughout the book by the choices that she made (as well as her "Flamingo List [bucket]" (i.e. lose virginity at keg party or something like that).

The nitty-gritty: Let's see, Cam tries and fails to not have sex with a French exchange student at a party; and then winds up sleeping with her new boyfriend. While the scenes weren't graphic (they kind of snuck up on me while I was writing posts), I was quite disappointed in Cam.

There is a fair amount of swearing in TPoM, although not nearly as frequently a couple of books that I have read/listened to.]

Narration:

While I am a little conflicted on my thoughts on the story, one thing I am sure of is that Emma Galvin did a terrific job narrating The Probability of Miracles. Her reading of this book and Cam-as well as the Cam's family-really brought the pain of the story to life. I think she did an excellent job of capturing the dry, sarcastic personality that was Cam in her reading.

TPoM is the first time I had ever listened to a book narrated by Ms. Galvin, and I was quite impressed with the way that she handled the various emotions that Cam and her family went through in the book. She did a great job making you feel what the characters were going through; although, if it had not been written with as much emotion as it was I probably would would not have been so caught up in the book. We'll just leave it at both the writing and narration of TPoM complemented each other quite nicely.

Final Verdict: The Probability of Miracles one emotional ride full of ups and downs.

The Probability of Miracles earns between 3.5 to 4 of 5 pineapples.