You can read my experiences trying to learn to fly here.
No house-warming critique.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this postThe cover of the book looks pretty good.
I wish I'd quit falling for that.
That, and the critical reviews that lace the cover.
"Taut thriller!"
"Page turner!"
"Keeps you guessing until the end!!!!"
Um, no.
Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti got together and co-wrote a book and what's that they say about too many cooks? I've never read anything of Dekker's because too many Christian magazines have been proclaiming him to be like some kind of Christian-thriller genius making me doubt it, which is a lesson I obviously can't carry over 100 percent.
What is a "Christian thriller" anyway?
But the cover of the book looks good, the book in question being House.
The summation even sounds chilling: The only way out is in.
The start of the book is decent, I'll admit. But, as in the tradition of Stephen King who cooks up a great story but fumbles in the final closing delivery, this book bombs in the denouement. And there wasn't one character that I really cared about. I wanted someone to just kill them all off so I could call it done and read another book.
A violin string is taut. A bow is taut. This book is not taut. I'll admit to page turning, as in "I'm just going to start skimming so as not to waste any more of my time." And, sorry to say, I've been well-trained in ferreting out a clumsy Christian allegory and I figured out what was going on in this book at the halfway point.
I stand with Tolkien on this one, and add to it my opinion that forced Christian allegory is no treat. When I read Amazon.com reviews of the book with readers saying it is the "best horror story I've read", I can only recommend a reading of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.
Of course, that's not a "christianized" story, which may explain why it rings true (despite being bout Dracula) and has more to glean morally and even spiritually than this forced effort by two well-known Christian authors. It also might not be considered a "page-turner" which really isn't, in my opinion, necessarily a positive attribute for a book. Kostova's book is a book of mulling and amazement and gradual revelation. House is...meant to sell books to a certain sector of readers. It likely does that well. However, I was disappointed. Peretti was an author I loved as a teen and young adult.
Perhaps I've become a jaded reader and am not willing to put up with it anymore, but I don't think that the case. Instead, I think of this as another example of a sub-par Christian product beget from a mind that thinks Christians can only write in direct allegory or with the subtlety of a Mack truck driving over you.
Essentially, the book is about sin.
Read it if you want. I didn't care for it.
Labels: book reviews, christian books
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 4/07/2008 02:26:00 PM
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1 Comments:
I have not read this particular book, but Ted Dekker was quite popular on shoutlife (the emerging 'Christian MySpace')...
Last Spring when I myself had a 'Christian' book coming out in the fall--I tally ho willingly jumped into the internet trap of self promotion, in the name of God promotion...and marketed myself/book on shoutlife.
Sigh.
I learned much and was eventually strengthened from seeing the ugly truth about what I was doing and getting myself dis-entangled from the mistake...God disciplines those He loves.
Anyhoo, I digress: I am familiar, VERY familiar, with the emerging behemoth of all things marketed 'Christian'.
I find it unsettling.
You really hit the nail on the head about what has happened to the actual writing itself. It is anything but what it claims to be, and I believe that is a result of mass marketing and trying to write things that are appealing to the masses...
There are books on the market entitled 'How to write a Christian best-seller'. There are articles in trade magazines and publications on 'how to market your Christian book'...
Books and articles of that nature tend to stifle, not inflame, creativity- in my opinion...not to mention they make writers water down Truth to become 'universally appealing'.
The industry has now created a 'formula for creating' (sellable works...). That is alarming to me as a creator!
Likewise, a formula for creating Christian work has now also been created. That is alarming to me as a believer.
Ah, well, all of it makes reading the Good Book more appealing :)
...not a bad thing...
By 
Andrea, at
April 08, 2008 9:13 AM
