kaylal 's review for:

The Shunning by Beverly Lewis

4.0

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I liked this way more than I expected. I thought it would be terrible, but I read it quickly and wanted to know what happened next. Some of the writing is a little clumsy. The writer keeps referring to a "secret," and since she constantly tells you to know there's a secret, I figured it out pretty instantly. It'd be a little more elegant to not be so direct. I loved the main character Katie and her struggles with loving her Amish family and friends and yet feeling like she doesn't fit in. I was especially touched by her relationship with her mother Rebecca and appreciated that the author gave a lot of attention to her mother's inner life as well. Many of the characters were pretty flat, but Katie and Rebecca were well written. Also, I enjoyed reading about Amish life and culture and found it really interesting and complex. I don't know much about Amish life, but the writer has a family background in the culture and has done her research. I understand why her books are so popular though I don't know if I'll keep reading the series. Also, it is categorized as Christian fiction but I didn't feel at all bombarded like I expected to be. This was a pretty complex and nuanced portrayal of people unlike much of the Christian fiction I've read before and didn't feel any different from mainstream fiction expect maybe the exclusion of sex and cussing. It is about the Amish after all.