The Book: Blink, by Ted Dekker

The Story: Miriam is a Saudi princess who is being forced to marry a guy that is pretty gross and that she can’t stand.  With the help of one of her friends, she makes a break for it.  She studied previously in California so she heads back there to get away.

She ends up bumping into Seth Borders.  He is a grad student who has just started being able to see into the future.  He can tell little bits of what is going to happen and the consequences of what is going on.

They are as opposite as can be but they are thrown together as Seth’s “gift” helps Miriam escape the Saudi men that are chasing her.

As they run from the “bad guys” they also learn each other’s cultures and together seek safety and truth.

What I Thought: So I’ve heard rave after rave of Ted Dekker.  I gave up Green back in December because I just wasn’t loving it. I figured I’d give the Circle series another go later. Now I’m not so sure.

Wow.  This was frigging awful.  I mean really, really bad.

I know that Seth was supposed to be this “hero” type character, but I just absolutely hated him.  He had this huge IQ (that no one has ever achieved), he’s gorgeous, he’s tan and a surfer and cool and… blah.  Just too much.   I think that was the first thing that really turned me off.  He was just totally unbelievable.

It turns out, though, that the entire book was completely far fetched.  Maybe he writes more for men?  It was like an action movie just written out.  There were all these car chase scenes, shootings, dodging bullets… yadda yadda. And somehow it was still boring and just drug.  I found myself skimming these crazy action scenes at a certain point because they just all seemed the same. Bleh.

The whole book had this obvious “Christian-ness” to it, which I was expecting but not like this.  It was just so… blatant.  I don’t know, there was just something pushy and “TV preacher” about it that just bugged me.  At the end (oh no! Spoiler!) there are all these conversions that just seem out of place and strange.  Not to mention the “God swoops in to save the day” that goes on. It was just… too much.

You know what? I think I’ve trashed this enough, but I have to add that this book has one of the worst covers I’ve ever seen.  It looks like a Photoshop Disaster and I’m shocked that someone got paid to design that.

I should have judged it by its cover and I never would have wasted my time on this.

Conclusion: Please, please skip this.

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.