BOOK REVIEW: Alicen McCaffrey finally has the life her mother always dreamed for her: beautiful home in Santa Monica, successful husband, adorable daughter. Then tragedy blows her carefully assembled facade to pieces. Worse yet---Alicen feels solely responsible. At rock bottom, she decides to accompany a childhood friend back to Red Lodge, Montana, where they spent summers together as kids.
The peaceful mountain landscape, accented with lush forests and small-town charm, brings back happy memories of time spent with her beloved, eccentric Grandma Josephine. Alicen starts to hope that perhaps things could be different here. Perhaps the oppressive guilt will lift---if only for a moment.
But when Alicen starts hearing voices and seeing mysterious figures near the river in the woods, she begins to fear she's completely lost her sanity, as it's rumored her grandmother did. Might there be more to Red Lodge than meets the eye? Could the voices and visions be real---and her only means of finding the healing she so desperately needs? Or will they prove to be her final undoing?
MY REVIEW: I have never disliked a book as I disliked this one. It was eerie and weird. A psychological fantasy mystery---I should have expected this. I really don't know how it can be called a Christian book. References to God were extremely rare and always vague. For a fantasy book it could be good, but really, why is fantasy even considered good Christian reading material?
Alicen keeps seeing four children appearing and speaking to her about things her grandmother told her years ago. She hates their presence and can't make them leave. She attends a psychotic facility where the director is controlled by a frightful demon of her past---a horrid uncle who, while dead, still plagues her. She has an twisted need to placate her past sins by hurting those she is supposed to be helping, thinking their suffering alleviates her sin.
If the reason for writing a book is to demonstrate God and His Care in the life of another (albeit fictional), then Rachelle missed. I will admit, Alicen finds release from the terrible guilt and despair she carries, but as I mentioned above, it is vague and feels slightly Satanic, rather than being God who showed her true redemption. This is a book I would warn against. Even if slivers of truth can be found, it really isn't worth the influence of the rest of the book.
I received a copy of this book from TYNDALE PUBLISHERS and was not required to write a positive review.
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