Ashley Stoyanoff Review: The Shack by WM. Paul Young

★ASHLEY STOYANOFF'S REVIEW★

The Shack by WM. Paul Young

Title: The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity

Author: Wm. Paul Young

Number of Pages: 248

Publication Info: Windblown Media (July 2007)

Genre: Christian Fiction

Shelf: Books I Borrowed

Rating: ★★★

Goodreads:Here

Purchase: Here

Summary from Goodreads:

Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.

My Review:

Well, this was definitely an interesting story.  Before I start my review, I need to say that I typically do not read this kind of book.  A good friend of mine made me promise to read it, which is probably the only reason why I actually finished it, and I must say that I’m kind of glad I did.

We start off this tale meeting Mack, a father, a husband, and a man that has suffered an unbelievable loss.  While on a family vacation, Mack saves his son from drowning, only to find that his daughter has been abducted.  During the search for his daughter, Mack is led to an abandoned shack, and the evidence found points to a brutal murder.

From that day on, it’s a downward fall for Mack.  His depression consumes him.  But one day, while he’s out checking the mail, he finds a note from God inviting him to come back to the same shack that his daughter was murdered.  After much deliberation, he takes the journey, saddling up with supplies and a gun, hoping for the best but expecting the worst, because well, who could believe that God actually wrote him a note?

The first 60 or so pages of this book were absolutely heartbreaking.  I had tears in my eyes more than once.  There was suspense, great characters, action.  Really, it was almost perfect and I was hanging on to every word.

As the story progressed, it started to become very predictable.  Each chapter after Mack arrived at the shack started out interesting and definitely intriguing, but after a few of them, I was bored.  See, they were all kind of the same.  Lesson from God, anger from Mack, acceptance from Mack.  Again and again.  After a while, I lost track, and interest,in the lessons as I knew that each one would end the same.  Mack would agree after a bit of anger, and we’d move on to the next.

However, with that said the ending threw me for a loop.  Completely unexpected.  I’m not going to say it was an epic ending, because honestly I didn’t really like the twist, but it was a shocker, which in my mind, whether I liked it or not, gave this book points.

Overall, it took me a while to get through this one, but in the end, it was an okay story and it was definitely an interesting take on God and religion.  If you enjoy Christianfiction then I give this one a try.