A Book Review ~ #2

The Shack

by William P. Young (his blog)

"Where Tradegy Confronts Eternity"

"Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence taht she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, 'Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?' The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!"

First off, I am NOT a bandwagon jumper-on-er nor am I a debater...I don't like debating and don't want to debate. This is simply my own personal review of the book. And second, this is a FICTION book (meaning, you can't take the book as gospel truth, y'all cause it AIN'T the BIBLE!!)

Ok, that said...Wow! Honestly, I don't know where to even begin with my review...I think this is just one of those books you are going to have to read it for yourself. You know books are funny because they hit different people in different ways. Alot of it is timing, for me the timing was perfect. God's been talking to me alot about forgiveness. Here are just 2 quotes that stood out to me from The Shack..."Forgiveness is not about forgetting...It is about letting go of another person's throat" and "Forgiveness is first for you, the forgiver, to release you from something that will eat you alive; that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly."

William Young gives us such a crystal clear picture of some fundamental truths in story form, it's breathtaking. I laughed, smiled, cried my way through this book. It challenged me and provoked my thinking on a deeper level. I DEF encourage you to read this book...keep in mind that it IS fiction...however, if you are a Believer, you then have the Holy Spirit living in you (as I do) then He can choose to reveal Truth to us through any medium, be it a fictional book, a friend or the sports page of the newspaper! And because He is the Holy Spirit, He'll give you discernment on what things to come away with from the book and what things to disregard! If you're interested, then read it. I'd love to know your thoughts about it but again, I am NOT debating anything!! :)

Happy Reading, everyone! Check out Katrina for more reviews and book-lover blogs!! :D