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A review by brannleymiller
The Oath by Frank E. Peretti
4.0
Made the mistake of reading the review on this before reading the book, which tainted my view of it for about the first third. I had easily chalked this up as a 3 star read.
This was my first time using audio books to help me get through a longer book though, and I think the great voice acting improved my view of the story. This one was much more fun to listen to than to read, which ended up putting it at 4 stars for me.
Frank did a great job with building the town of Hyde River. I found myself intrigued by the town itself and its secrets. That by far was my favorite part. I didn’t care too much about the characters.
I think this book gets a lot of flak because it’s a Christian fiction book. Readers on both sides of the aisle have their reservations and I think judge it more harshly. Writing a book on sin can be like walking a tightrope, as people become more sensitive when addressing the subject. I must applaud Frank here though, as I think he addressed sin in a genuine way. People say this book is a glorification of ‘murdering sinners’ but I didn’t see that at all.
The main issue with the book, in my opinion, is the tone. In the first 3/4 he is very subtle about the Christian worldviews and undercurrents. In the latter portion, he drops all subtlety and changes the tone completely. I think it was an abrupt shift and did not align with the tone promises he made earlier on. I think he could have done more to setup the messaging in the end, which is probably why so many people had issues with it.
Overall, it was a fun experience with some thought provoking symbolism and messaging.
This was my first time using audio books to help me get through a longer book though, and I think the great voice acting improved my view of the story. This one was much more fun to listen to than to read, which ended up putting it at 4 stars for me.
Frank did a great job with building the town of Hyde River. I found myself intrigued by the town itself and its secrets. That by far was my favorite part. I didn’t care too much about the characters.
I think this book gets a lot of flak because it’s a Christian fiction book. Readers on both sides of the aisle have their reservations and I think judge it more harshly. Writing a book on sin can be like walking a tightrope, as people become more sensitive when addressing the subject. I must applaud Frank here though, as I think he addressed sin in a genuine way. People say this book is a glorification of ‘murdering sinners’ but I didn’t see that at all.
The main issue with the book, in my opinion, is the tone. In the first 3/4 he is very subtle about the Christian worldviews and undercurrents. In the latter portion, he drops all subtlety and changes the tone completely. I think it was an abrupt shift and did not align with the tone promises he made earlier on. I think he could have done more to setup the messaging in the end, which is probably why so many people had issues with it.
Overall, it was a fun experience with some thought provoking symbolism and messaging.