Godless (Paperback)

by Pete Hautman (Author)
Key Phrases: upper catwalk, water tower, Ten-legged One, Just Al, Henry Stagg (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–Jason is a smart 15-year-old, an agnostic-leaning-toward-atheism, who resists following in the footsteps of his devoutly Catholic father. Getting clocked under the water tower by the nasty and unpredictable Henry leads Jason and his friend Shin to combine their talents to posit a new religion. "Chutengodianism" sanctifies water, the source of all life, as manifested by the Ten-Legged God, aka that same million-gallon water tower. Creating the creed on the fly, Jason soon gathers a handful of acolytes, including his former nemesis. Their midnight pilgrimage to the top of the tower for worship transmutes into an impromptu baptism when Henry hacksaws through the padlock. Their swim rouses sexy thoughts about Magda, stripped to her panties and bra, balanced soon after by panic when it seems they might be trapped. Regaining the top of the tank, Henry slips and sustains severe injuries crashing onto a catwalk below. Fortunately for him, the authorities have already arrived. The Church is busted and the faithful face new trials and temptations. These are fun, wacky, interesting characters. While chuckling aloud may be common in the early chapters, serious issues dominate the latter stages of the book. The rivalry between Jason and Henry for the attentions of Magda, Jason's unrepentant certainty that doing what he sees as right is more important than following his parents' rules, and Shin's apparent continued belief in the tenets he helped create are thought-provoking and disturbing. Jason is left to ponder the meaning of a religion that has only himself as a member.–Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. Hautman knows how to project a voice. In Sweetblood, (2003), the voice was that of a diabetic who felt a kinship with vampires. Here, the voice belongs to a disaffected 16-year-old, Jason Block, who decides to invent a new religion with a new god--the town's water tower. Finding converts is surprisingly easy. His small group includes his twitchy friend Shin, a self-styled scribe who is writing the new testament (snippets enticingly appear at the beginning of each chapter), and Henry, a bully who undergoes changes when he is named high priest of the "Chutengodians." In a smartly structured narrative that is by turns funny, worried, and questioning, Jason watches as his once-cohesive little congregation starts wanting to "worship" in its own ways, some of them deadly. Not everything works here. Shin's meltdown doesn't seem real, even though it has been thoroughly foreshadowed. But most scenes are honest and true to the bone, such as the one in which Jason and Harry agree that their dangerous stunts are worth their weight in memories. Anyone who has questioned his or her religion, especially as a teenager, will respond to Jason's struggles with belief. Many individuals, upon reading this, will consider their own questions once more. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416908161
• ISBN-13: 978-1416908166
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,701 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Godless is Awesome, June 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Godless (National Book Award for Young People's Literature (Awards)) (Hardcover)

First, I loved the characters. It was great to hang out with them. Second, I loved what it was about. Godless shows you how a religion could come to be--how it could actually be created.

Pete Hautman always takes on big issues in his books: Sweetblood--vampires and diabetes, Mr. Was--abuse and time travel, Stone Cold--gambling. In this new book, he decides to take on a huge issue--what and how we believe God to be.

Godless is serious and funny at the same time, at the same moment. You can be laughing about what a character is saying and yet it can be painful and true.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Must read, June 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Godless (National Book Award for Young People's Literature (Awards)) (Hardcover)

This book will change the way you think. It's a good story, with characters I swear I know, and the main guy is too believable for words. He's funny, he's serious, he's smart, and he's not smart. Just like that guy that sits next to you in (fill in the blank). He's got questions about people telling him what to believe--he wants to figure it out for himself--and conquering his fear helps him do that. I never knew what would happen next. I've told all my friends to read it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Constitutional Rite, August 12, 2005

By	Jon Linden (Warren, N.J. United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Godless (National Book Award for Young People's Literature (Awards)) (Hardcover)

In a brilliantly authored book for young adults, Schmidt introduces a basic American Concept. Freedom of religion! The right is protected, but for one young man it is not being honored.

As an atheist, the protagonist holds the view that all religion was "all made up." So, he decides to invent his own. It does not matter that the object of their religious fervor is a water tower. It is specifically chosen because it is so unGodlike.

Yet, the story develops as all religious stories develop; with a concept, and a following. Jason does build a small following for his religion, yet it gets him virtually nothing but trouble. Yet he insists on going forward, despite the pressure from those who are not interested in his creation of a new religion.

Perhaps one of the most interesting characters of all is Shin. Shin, a close friend of Jason, becomes enamoured with the religion to the point that he starts writing a gospel of the religion. He actually hears the water tower speak to him and has recorded it. He has many, many pages of the gospel of the new religion transcribed, as he says, the "Tower speaks to me, I hear it inside my head."

Yet through all the troubles and travails, there is a persistence that Jason displays and in his mind; and the minds of most of his followers, he has prevailed. Even if it has to be sub rosa, as those around do not accept even the discussion of the topic, it is still his rite. He is still entitled to do it, in America.

The book is highly recommended for all people over the age of 13. It is especially illustrative of a phenomenon repeated all over the world many times. The book cites Joseph Smith's Church of Latter Day Saints and L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology, but does not dwell at all on their philosophies, just mentions them as new religions. And in how many places aside from America, are citizens free to do this? Not many at all.