Review of It'll Be Alright, Maggie Jiggs
Posted: 18 May 2025, 06:57
[Following is a volunteer review of "It'll Be Alright, Maggie Jiggs" by Karen Thiel.]
Title: It’ll Be All Right, Maggie Jiggs
Author: Karen Thiel
Karen Thiel has an amazing talent for wrapping her readers around with a blanket of emotion. I felt sad from the very first until the very last line. Her sadness is palpable, and I grieved with her. I cannot help but look back on my own life and remember the people I have lost, and the person I will lose soon. Her mother, her rock, her best friend, lies breathing shallowly in a hospital bed, knowing that the family has no choice but to have her life support turned off. The hospital says she is already receiving the maximum amount of oxygen, and there’s nothing more they can do. How sad! That fateful emphysema diagnosis of July 4th, 2020, has played out.
The first night without her mother was very emotional. The raw emotion written within the prose was hypnotic. The reader feels sympathy for her, but, like all things, this nightmare will pass.
There is a sense of optimism when describing all the good times the family had growing up. It is evident that Verna, aka Magggie Jiggs, raised them well and with love. It was tough sometimes, especially with her brother’s difficulties, but the family was close. The lovely memories bring the book out of the darkness.
I loved the easy prose and how simple it was to feel close to her. I was glad the book was short, as any longer and it might have ventured into the realm of tedium, and that would have been sad.
I would recommend this book to all, you and old. The editing was perfect. I see no reason, with its deep, persuasive emotion, not to award it with a full five stars.
I wish I knew what the cover picture looks like, ( I read this version in PDF), I hope it’s artistic. I also wonder how the family are now, and if things have returned to normal.
******
It'll Be Alright, Maggie Jiggs
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Title: It’ll Be All Right, Maggie Jiggs
Author: Karen Thiel
Karen Thiel has an amazing talent for wrapping her readers around with a blanket of emotion. I felt sad from the very first until the very last line. Her sadness is palpable, and I grieved with her. I cannot help but look back on my own life and remember the people I have lost, and the person I will lose soon. Her mother, her rock, her best friend, lies breathing shallowly in a hospital bed, knowing that the family has no choice but to have her life support turned off. The hospital says she is already receiving the maximum amount of oxygen, and there’s nothing more they can do. How sad! That fateful emphysema diagnosis of July 4th, 2020, has played out.
The first night without her mother was very emotional. The raw emotion written within the prose was hypnotic. The reader feels sympathy for her, but, like all things, this nightmare will pass.
There is a sense of optimism when describing all the good times the family had growing up. It is evident that Verna, aka Magggie Jiggs, raised them well and with love. It was tough sometimes, especially with her brother’s difficulties, but the family was close. The lovely memories bring the book out of the darkness.
I loved the easy prose and how simple it was to feel close to her. I was glad the book was short, as any longer and it might have ventured into the realm of tedium, and that would have been sad.
I would recommend this book to all, you and old. The editing was perfect. I see no reason, with its deep, persuasive emotion, not to award it with a full five stars.
I wish I knew what the cover picture looks like, ( I read this version in PDF), I hope it’s artistic. I also wonder how the family are now, and if things have returned to normal.
******
It'll Be Alright, Maggie Jiggs
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon