Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: Asylum, by Nan Corbitt Allen

The Story: Ian, a little 10 year old kid, is in his house when it catches on fire.  His parents both die in the fire, but he survives.  He moves away to live with his great-aunt Jo.  We kind of find out that his parents were wrecks anyway and just drank all day.  They didn’t have to work because of a car wreck that they had been in before Ian was born.

While he’s staying at Jo’s, a man comes and starts asking questions about the fire.  It freaks Ian out because he thinks that the man is implying that Ian started the fire.  He thinks he’s in big trouble, so he takes off.  He ends up in another state, and accidentally stumbles into this city church.  He eats communion crackers and lives in the room behind the organ.  From this vantage point, he kind of gets to “know” the pastor and the other people who go to the church.

Meanwhile, there is a massive search going on for Ian.  His aunt Jo is searching for him, but so is the man, Frank, who had come to the house asking questions.  It’s revealed that Frank doesn’t have the nicest of motives.  The tension in the book comes from this search: will Jo find him first or Frank?  Or will Ian just run again?

What I thought: I stole this book from my mom’s house during Thanksgiving.  I didn’t realize til I was about halfway through that it was published by Moody and written by someone who has won Dove Awards.  As a general rule, I avoid Christian Fiction- not because I don’t like the message, but because the writing is generally sub-par.  This book was no exception.

While I enjoyed the story, I felt like I would have enjoyed it just as much had I been 10 or 12 years old.  And this isn’t a YA book.  The writing was simple and the dialogue was completely unbelievable.  Even the guy who was supposed to be the really bad guy was fairly polite.

My other issue was how preachy it got at the end.  I am a Christian and I was annoyed at the full sermons that were included.  Ok, we get it.  He’s in a church.  He needs Jesus. Here are some Bible verses.  Ok.

But, like I said, it was a good, fast story.  And I guess that the end was inspiring, although it was 100% predictable. Eh.

Conclusion: Skip this one.