The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

This book was chosen by my online Book Club to read. I'm not sure I would've read it otherwise.

This is the book's description:
"Mackenzie Allen Philips' 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 the 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 a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book! "

The whole storyline involving Mack's daughter was interesting to me. More like horrifying, but I thought it would be interesting to find out what happened to Missy. The first few chapters after Mack receives the note from "Papa" a.k.a. God, take you through the story of Missy and what happened to her. The rest of the book - except the very last 10 pages or so - takes place in the shack, where Mack discusses theology with Papa, Jesus, and Sarayu (the holy spirit).

I am not a religious person. Maybe that's why I was so bored. Who knows? I only kept reading the book to find out what happened to Missy and the bastard that killed her. From the time Mack gets to the shack until he leaves, I was bored to tears! Horrible. It was all too much preaching for me.

Anyway, I only recommend this book to you if you really want to go through 125 pages of theological discussion. The description tries to suck you in with this murder of his daughter, but truthfully, the actual crime/murder only take up about 25 pages.

1/5.

"Face of Betrayal" by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

"Face of Betrayal" is a mystery about a young girl named Katie Converse who takes her dog for a walk and never comes home. The story follows 3 women as they try to find out what happened to Katie: Allison the prosecutor, Nicole the FBI agent, and Cassidy the reporter. These three women are close friends, and work together throughout the entire novel, referring to themselves as the "Triple Threat Club". So what happened to Katie? Was it murder? Suicide? And where is her body?

The first thing I did when I got the book was look at the cover. The front is rather plain, just a scary looking woman's face and the standard text. But I turned it over and saw a picture of Lis and I immediately recognized her. If you've ever watched Fox News for more than five minutes, you will recognize her too. Lis chose a great topic for herself to write about, considering she has personal experience in every aspect of this book. She was a prosecutor, she works on TV, and her father was an FBI agent. Everything in the novel is very believable, and her true life experiences are what made that possible.

This is a classic crime mystery/suspense novel. I did guess the outcome early on in the novel, but there were many twists and turns throughout the book that had me questioning myself and even dismissing my ideas. I felt very connected to all of the characters. Sometimes when an author includes as many "main" characters as Lis did, it's hard to relate to each of them. In my opinion, she did an excellent job of making each of them feel "real".

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes this genre, and here's to reading the next Triple Threat novel - "Hand of Fate" available April 2010. You can catch the first two chapters at the end of "Face of Betrayal".

Check out the book here. Preview the first 5 pages here.

5/5!

You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

Before I begin this review, I want to mention that I did not know that there was a prequel to this book, called Bloodsucking Fiends. That was quite upsetting. I figured it out about 3 chapters into the book after the author mentioned this previous "event" that had happened. This caused me to do some research on GoodReads. On that note - the book was still great without reading the first one. They work well as stand-alone books. HOWEVER - I am the type of person who would've liked to read BSF and get all the background info first! Now I have no desire to read BSF because I know what happens in the end. I may read it someday, if my "Books to Read" shelf suddenly is empty. It's very doubtful that will ever happen.

You Suck opens with "You bitch, you killed me! You suck!" This line pretty much sets the mood for the entire novel. In a world where suddenly we are somewhat obsessed with vampires (ahem.. Twilight), Christopher Moore brings us the new vampires Jody and her boyfriend Tommy. Jody has been a vampire a mere few months, and she has just brought over Tommy. Join them as they learn how to cope with this new "problem". Not only that, but the very old vampire who turned Jody has escaped, the police are after them, and Tommy's old pals (who happen to be vampire hunters) are getting a little suspicious about their buddy who is suddenly very pale.

This book is downright hilarious at times. I can say that I actually laughed out loud while reading parts narrated by Abby, the vampires' daytime minion. She is a stereotypical teenage goth girl who tries so hard to be dark and edgy, but deep down is really a cute bubbly girl who likes Hello Kitty. She narrates some of the chapters in the book, and I found that when I got to a chapter titled "Being the Chronicles of Abby Normal" I would get really excited.

I have only touched on a few of the ridiculously awesome characters in this book. You can't forget Chet, Blue, Jared, or the Emperor. However, I will leave it at that. Now you have to read it to find out more!

If you like books that make fun of just about everything, vampires, and making fun of vampires, I highly recommend this. You should really read Bloodsucking Fiends first though!

"The music coming from inside sounded like robots fucking. And complaining about it. In rhythmic monotone. European robots."
— Christopher Moore (You Suck: A Love Story)

4/5!