Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh why did this book have to end??, July 16, 2009
This review is from: The End Is Now (Paperback)
I have four words for you: This book is AMAZING. I don't even know how to describe it to you. I read a review of this book claiming that it was "hilarious", which it certainly is not. Yes, there were some funny moments, but they were 'Smile Inwardly' funny moments, not laugh out loud moments. It's a satire technically I suppose, but I think it would be better described as The Left Behind books for the rest of us. You know, the same thrilling end times story without being forced to endure having the disturbing worldview of premillennial dispensationalists like Tim LaHaye shoved down your throat. To put it in simpler terms, this book is the Left Behind series minus the misogyny, intolerance, glorification of violence, and best of all minus the descriptions of our Lord as a bloodthirsty killer. Ahh I'm going off on a tangent here, but you get what I'm saying, don't you?
The book is an edge of your seat thriller. I couldn't even pick it up during the day time because once I started reading I could. not. put. it. down. One night after having devoured a third of the book in one sitting, I had to throw it down on the table and run away so I wouldn't stay up all night reading. Some of the descriptions of the events in the story were so vivid and powerful that I got goosebumps.
One more important thing: I don't think you need to be a Christian to love this book. The book is definitely written from a Theistic viewpoint, but it doesn't preach or force any particular view. I don't know if Rob Stennett actually believes in the Rapture or not. All I know is that his writing didn't insist either way, and that's a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
So, in conclusion, read this book. Better yet, buy 20 copies and pass them on to everyone who you love so that they can be so blessed as well! Then come back and find me and we'll form a Rob Stennett fan club. What are you waiting for?? Go!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable aside from the problematic final act, March 20, 2011
"The End Is Now" begins with an excellent set-up: a teen-aged Kansas boy has what he believes is an encounter with God while taking a shortcut through a cornfield. The boy, his family, and eventually others must then decide what, if anything, to do about this. Unfortunately, the entire book does not maintain the quality of the opening.
Stennett is a good, professional writer. He knows how to keep us interested, how to pace his story, how to enter into the heads of different characters. His style is bright and clever. He does an especially good job of maintaining uncertainty about what exactly the boy experienced and whether it was truly divine.
Things move along well until the final third of the book. At that point, I felt that his characters began to be jerked hither and yon without any inner logic. As a consequence, the climax seemed forced. And I'm still not sure what the point was.
All that being said, I enjoyed Stennett's writing enough to want to give his work another try. He has a new book coming out soon -- "Homemade Haunting" -- that I want to at least sample when it becomes available.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rapture fiction everyone can relate to, August 15, 2009
This review is from: The End Is Now (Paperback)
As one who's always found the rapture-apocalypse obsession pretty useless, I was excited to read fiction that took it on from a different perspective. Stennett did not disappoint, whisking me along on a breathless narrative that combined keen satire and raw humanity. Never losing pace, the adventure shifts between multiple character's perspectives in a way that's both tasteful and profound. The prose is often irreverent (in a good way), but the characters themselves were dimensional and believable. They stray into entertaining anecdotes that amuse, pull the heartstrings, and enhance the story's themes - usually all at once. Stennett's ability to do that, if nothing else, makes this a great read. Unexpected twists round out this page turner, and I couldn't put it down.
They've marketed this novel as Christian Fiction, and while the subject matter obviously concerns the Christian rapture belief, Stennett's story presents it in such a way that it is wonderfully human. The supernatural elements it depicts work because uncertainty abounds, allowing you to think for yourself. Illuminating pitfalls of belief, intra-family politics, and the ambiguity of truth and life itself, the book is a very entertaining and insightful look at one slice of humanity that anyone - Christian or atheist, agnostic or seeker - can enjoy. I would know. I've been all of the above.
In short: read this book!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
