Griselda and Agnes are sisters. Agnes is extremely overweight (estimated around 700 lbs). She got teased a lot as a kid and Griselda became her protector when their parents died.

Agnes no longer leaves the house. She stays home and prays for her neighbors and they are convinced that when something good happens that it is a miracle caused by Agnes' prayers.

The town wants to put up a sign saying "home of Agnes Sparrows". Most neighbors like the idea, Agnes and Griselda are against it but no one seems to care about their opinion on the sign.

The sign goes up and very shortly thereafter, some crazy stuff starts happening in town. If the people in town thing Agnes capable of miracles, they also are just as quick to place blame on her when things go badly.

I felt bad for Griselda, taking care of Agnes all the time. It seemed like everything fell on her, from the burden of Accolades about Agnes, to insults, to daily card of Agnes and also having nearly no life of her own.
She couldn't even go out on a Saturday night without worrying about her sister.

( )

Enjoyed the quirky characters.

A heartwarming story of purpose, struggle, addiction, enabling, love and miracles. I loved the flawed characters who each had their individual struggles. A lesson well learned in the end. ( )

Joyce Magnin's Bright's Pond series, which "The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow" is the first book of this particular series, interweaves faith, death, and love all within the pages of its cover. This particular book is told from the viewpoint of Griselda Sparrow, Agnes's sister. The majority of the story deals with the fact that Agnes is seen as a miracle worker whose prayers often go answered by God. This story takes you on a journey through what it means to have actual faith.

My main gripe with this book is the sheer shock that happens during on particular part of this book. There was no real indication that this was going to happen in the book, but sometimes this is how life is. I don't feel that Magnin wrote any redeemable characters in the series for the most part, each of them are flawed. Here the flawed nature of the characters feels a bit undercooked because in many spots it feels like someone should be saying something to these characters that simply is not being said for some reason. "Why didn't someone ever truly speak up until near the end of the book?" is what the reader is left wondering. It doesn't leave a refreshing taste in the mouth.

This book had a lot of potential to be the first christian fiction book that I have actually enjoyed, but because of many of the holes contained within the story I simply didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped based on almost the first 3/4ths of the book. The tail end of the book just came out of almost no where for me and because of this this book lacks a lot of what should have been there. The lesson of faith and trusting who we are. It is also about letting go of our past and moving on from sin, but these elements are overshadowed by the sheer hatred that some of these characters spew at the ending of this book.

Even though there were parts I didn't like in this particular book I do intend to read the next book in the series called "Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise". It sounds like it will be interesting in a way that this book was unable to live up to. ( )

Odd little story but good at the same time. Makes you think twice when you proclaim goodness makes you christian.