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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
I read this as an 12 year old and couldn't put it down until the last page was turned. It masterfully portrays the warfare we are not generally aware of outside of our physical realm.
I have read several times. I adore it. I firmly believe that things like this are happening around us and we are blessed to not have to witness them with our human eyes.
I started reading this out of curiosity. My boyfriend had it on his bookshelf and he got it from his mum who is very religious and also an enthusiastic missionary... And by boyfriend is kind of neutral and I come from a christian family. He also told me that this book is ought to be rubbish.
It wasn't.
It was interesting, the plot was really thrillng. I actually found it hard to put the book down and felt sorry for leaving it behind at his place whenever the weekend was over and I came home. But in January we moved to our own place and the book came with him. So I could finally get to the end of the story.
I really liked this book because even though it had its extremities in terms of religion and well the plot had sci-fi or fantasy elements, it still held the messages I think I needed. I won't say I got my belief in God back, because I was already a believer when I started the book. But since I am in quite a stressful period of my life, it was kind of a relief to read about problems worse than mines.
It wasn't.
It was interesting, the plot was really thrillng. I actually found it hard to put the book down and felt sorry for leaving it behind at his place whenever the weekend was over and I came home. But in January we moved to our own place and the book came with him. So I could finally get to the end of the story.
I really liked this book because even though it had its extremities in terms of religion and well the plot had sci-fi or fantasy elements, it still held the messages I think I needed. I won't say I got my belief in God back, because I was already a believer when I started the book. But since I am in quite a stressful period of my life, it was kind of a relief to read about problems worse than mines.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whereas This Present Darkness has lived vibrantly in my imagination for the last two decades, I remembered next to nothing about Piercing the Darkness. So I knew that, after finishing my first reread of This Present Darkness in close to twenty years, I definitely needed to revisit the sequel. I recalled just enough about this book to assure myself that I had in fact read it before, but that was it. I was immediately swept up in the legal thriller, courtroom drama aspect of the story, though that’s not my usual genre of choice. While this book hasn’t had quite the staying power for me as its predecessor, Piercing the Darkness is just as intense and propulsive, with even higher stakes.
Our story begins with a botched murder attempt. Sally Beth Roe is supposed to have “committed suicide,” but she somehow manages to kill her assassin instead. She has no idea why she’s been targeted, but she is determined to dig into her own memories while she’s on the road in hopes of finding out. In the same town, the headmaster of a small Christian school has just had his children ripped from him by Child Protective Services, and is immediately thereafter sued by a parent from the school for child abuse—namely, for trying to cast a demon out of this parent’s ten-year old daughter. But the little girl really does have a demon. And that demon is why Sally Roe is now on the run for her life. As the story ratchets up in tension, we see how these two stories are connected, and how they are merely the surface ripples of a much larger, cosmic battle brewing beneath their surface. But if the Christians in the area can’t stop fighting and gossiping for long enough to come together in prayer, they and the angels working behind the scenes will have little hope of piercing the darkness surrounding them.
As I stated above, I’m not the biggest fan of legal thrillers. That might be why I remembered so little about this book. But I enjoyed the story far more than I expected. I shouldn’t have doubted Peretti. Over the past few months, I’ve fallen in love with his storytelling all over again. I will say that Piercing the Darkness, while incredibly engaging and filled with even higher stakes, doesn’t seem quite as strong a story to me. For one thing, it throws all attempts at subtlety to the wind. There is more straight-up Satanism here. It’s heavier handed in terms of the spiritual warfare, and some of the demonic dialogue is cheesy. It’s just a bit over-the-top in comparison to This Present Darkness. But the pacing is so excellent, and the tension so propulsive, that I can’t really hold those elements against it. This book houses an incredible story. And if there are a slight few missteps along the way, that story and the message it houses more that make up for them.
And even though I found a few of these spiritual elements cheesy, another spiritual element was my favorite scene the entire book. And that scene is Sally Roe’s conversion. She has fought mightily to reach that point. She has asked hard questions of herself and the God she once refused to believe even existed. She has faced horrendous truths about her past and her own decisions. So this conversion, and the treatment of it in the spiritual realm, feels like an earned culmination. Her prayer in the physical realm, and the spiritual view of the moment she gave her heart to Christ, were a beautiful duet. The angels rejoicing over—and the demons raging against—the redemption of a solitary person was powerfully portrayed. I just really loved that scene.
While not the lifetime favorite This Present Darkness will always be for me, I still thoroughly enjoyed Piercing the Darkness. Once I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down, and read it every spare moment I had. I highly recommend this duology!
Our story begins with a botched murder attempt. Sally Beth Roe is supposed to have “committed suicide,” but she somehow manages to kill her assassin instead. She has no idea why she’s been targeted, but she is determined to dig into her own memories while she’s on the road in hopes of finding out. In the same town, the headmaster of a small Christian school has just had his children ripped from him by Child Protective Services, and is immediately thereafter sued by a parent from the school for child abuse—namely, for trying to cast a demon out of this parent’s ten-year old daughter. But the little girl really does have a demon. And that demon is why Sally Roe is now on the run for her life. As the story ratchets up in tension, we see how these two stories are connected, and how they are merely the surface ripples of a much larger, cosmic battle brewing beneath their surface. But if the Christians in the area can’t stop fighting and gossiping for long enough to come together in prayer, they and the angels working behind the scenes will have little hope of piercing the darkness surrounding them.
As I stated above, I’m not the biggest fan of legal thrillers. That might be why I remembered so little about this book. But I enjoyed the story far more than I expected. I shouldn’t have doubted Peretti. Over the past few months, I’ve fallen in love with his storytelling all over again. I will say that Piercing the Darkness, while incredibly engaging and filled with even higher stakes, doesn’t seem quite as strong a story to me. For one thing, it throws all attempts at subtlety to the wind. There is more straight-up Satanism here. It’s heavier handed in terms of the spiritual warfare, and some of the demonic dialogue is cheesy. It’s just a bit over-the-top in comparison to This Present Darkness. But the pacing is so excellent, and the tension so propulsive, that I can’t really hold those elements against it. This book houses an incredible story. And if there are a slight few missteps along the way, that story and the message it houses more that make up for them.
And even though I found a few of these spiritual elements cheesy, another spiritual element was my favorite scene the entire book. And that scene is Sally Roe’s conversion. She has fought mightily to reach that point. She has asked hard questions of herself and the God she once refused to believe even existed. She has faced horrendous truths about her past and her own decisions. So this conversion, and the treatment of it in the spiritual realm, feels like an earned culmination. Her prayer in the physical realm, and the spiritual view of the moment she gave her heart to Christ, were a beautiful duet. The angels rejoicing over—and the demons raging against—the redemption of a solitary person was powerfully portrayed. I just really loved that scene.
While not the lifetime favorite This Present Darkness will always be for me, I still thoroughly enjoyed Piercing the Darkness. Once I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down, and read it every spare moment I had. I highly recommend this duology!
It really is exceptional.
TL; DR: The battles between heaven and hell continue, both within the courtroom and without. Peretti has mastered the craft that is spiritual warfare in literature and proves it with this gripping thriller.
Again, Christian fiction is hard, especially when you have a variety of things that can go wrong. Granted, there are a lot of people who write mediocre books in the genre and you’re basically guaranteed an audience because some homeschooling mom will say “it’s good because the author is a Christian.” No…just no. There’s a pile of garbage out there, but Peretti proves time and time again to be the master. Piercing The Darkness is an improvement on everything from This Present Darkness and I cannot overstate how excellent it is, both as a thriller and as a mystery, plus the incorporation of the spiritual sense is exceptional.
Characters: Some old faces, but most new means that we have a whole new set of names and faces to learn and I was eager to see each and every one develop. I had my guesses and my theories on everyone and it was fun. Without too many spoilers, Tom and Sally are great focal points for the series and I really enjoyed Carrigan too. These characters made it for me, though we of course can’t discount the effect of the heavenly hosts and the crawlers in the dust. They brought the whole story together so well.
Setting: Bacon’s Corner is a great starter setting and the other locations offered enough variety that I was never bored. It’s well done, what else is there too say.
Story: I personally liked this way more than the first book. There was more cleverness involved in order to get people and plot moving. It wasn’t anything painful either. The pacing was great and I wasn’t getting unmotivated partway through. One gripe I think some people had is that ultimately,*SPOILERS* (but not really) evil was defeated, but not destroyed. That’s not the point; in Christian religion, the only true defeat of Evil is in the end times. Until then, we hold evil at bay.
Writing: Always exceptional; I’d say this book is even cleaner than the last. I have no complaints.
As I stated before, I liked this more than the previous book. I’m thrilled to have gotten through it again and this remains one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read.
5.0 🌟
TL; DR: The battles between heaven and hell continue, both within the courtroom and without. Peretti has mastered the craft that is spiritual warfare in literature and proves it with this gripping thriller.
Again, Christian fiction is hard, especially when you have a variety of things that can go wrong. Granted, there are a lot of people who write mediocre books in the genre and you’re basically guaranteed an audience because some homeschooling mom will say “it’s good because the author is a Christian.” No…just no. There’s a pile of garbage out there, but Peretti proves time and time again to be the master. Piercing The Darkness is an improvement on everything from This Present Darkness and I cannot overstate how excellent it is, both as a thriller and as a mystery, plus the incorporation of the spiritual sense is exceptional.
Characters: Some old faces, but most new means that we have a whole new set of names and faces to learn and I was eager to see each and every one develop. I had my guesses and my theories on everyone and it was fun. Without too many spoilers, Tom and Sally are great focal points for the series and I really enjoyed Carrigan too. These characters made it for me, though we of course can’t discount the effect of the heavenly hosts and the crawlers in the dust. They brought the whole story together so well.
Setting: Bacon’s Corner is a great starter setting and the other locations offered enough variety that I was never bored. It’s well done, what else is there too say.
Story: I personally liked this way more than the first book. There was more cleverness involved in order to get people and plot moving. It wasn’t anything painful either. The pacing was great and I wasn’t getting unmotivated partway through. One gripe I think some people had is that ultimately,*SPOILERS* (but not really) evil was defeated, but not destroyed. That’s not the point; in Christian religion, the only true defeat of Evil is in the end times. Until then, we hold evil at bay.
Writing: Always exceptional; I’d say this book is even cleaner than the last. I have no complaints.
As I stated before, I liked this more than the previous book. I’m thrilled to have gotten through it again and this remains one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read.
5.0 🌟
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A história é muito boa e muito bem escrita, mas acho que ela é muito enrolada em alguns pontos. O livro poderia ter umas 100 páginas a menos e não afetaria a história. Mas é muito bom
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
I read this to ✔it off the great American read list. I confess christian fic is not my cup of tea. I found this book basic and just sort of dumb.
Never gets old. I am not sure why it wasn't marked read before now. I have read this one multiple times since I was a teenager, and it's every bit as wonderful now as it was the first time.