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emiscurious 's review for:
Black: The Birth of Evil
by Ted Dekker
This review will probably contain spoilers.
I'm writing this right after finishing the entire series in a week, and overall, I liked the trilogy (I really didn't like Green, but that's for a different review...).
I thought that Black was immediately interesting, and I liked the characters for the most part. Thomas Hunter seemed cool, his sister Kara was funny and smart, and they both had detailed backgrounds that helped me understand who they were. The whole beginning where Thomas is traveling in between worlds and doesn't know which one is real kept me hooked, and the part where he escapes the black forest for the first time was exciting. Then we meet the Rousch, which were an appropriate, not-too-cheesy comedy relief. I liked both Michal and Gabil.
And then Rachelle steps onto the scene... And the book started to lose me. Yeah, okay, these "perfect" humans were a little bit annoying to me. And I didn't like that Rachelle automatically fell in love with Thomas just because he was handsome? I guess the book said that she "felt something in her heart," but that doesn't count. All she had to base her love on was looks at that point. EVERYONE kept telling Thomas to "play along" with the romance and FORCED him to woo her. Yikes. I get how it was just the way things worked in this world, because it supposedly reflected the Great Romance and everything, but it had no substance for me. All Elyon really did was give people hugs and say "I love you." The God in the Bible did much more. He actually um *cough* HELPED. I think he would've talked with his little humans way more, and about all things. Like seriously, where's a solid relationship in hugs? But anyway, falling in love was the least important thing to Thomas at the moment. I kept hoping that Thomas would speak up and go, "Hang on everyone, I'm really not comfortable or interested in this right now." That would have been an interesting development in their relationship, and would've been fun to see them recover from (also way more realistic to who Thomas was as a person?). Then Thomas could learn about the Great Romance in a different way.
I thought the whole allegory of "the fall" was a super cool world (though the theology of it bothered me), and the threat of a virus that could kill off the entire population as dictated in the "histories" kept me going. I wanted to know the answers. I was intrigued basically the entire time, but sometimes felt like the pacing, characters, or dialogue were "off."
One of my other problems with the allegory side of it is that I have no question in my mind that Elyon/God would never "start over" with a new Adam, giving humanity a supposed advantage by giving evil and good and all things spiritual physical forms. Later on in the series, it seems like Dekker is trying to hint that God is just "hoping" that humans will reject evil at some point, and that he'll just keep starting over until they do. As if God has no control, as if Jesus' death wasn't enough. The Bible clearly says that God will come back in the end and destroy evil once and for all, gathering his children to him in heaven where there will be no more sin. No do-overs. God doesn't work like that. But putting that aside, I decided to take this series as an alternate universe entirely, so that I wouldn't be distracted by the "bad" theology. It sorta helped.
All in all, I enjoyed Black at the time, and it definitely left me wanting more of the story. So I read the rest of them!
I'm writing this right after finishing the entire series in a week, and overall, I liked the trilogy (I really didn't like Green, but that's for a different review...).
I thought that Black was immediately interesting, and I liked the characters for the most part. Thomas Hunter seemed cool, his sister Kara was funny and smart, and they both had detailed backgrounds that helped me understand who they were. The whole beginning where Thomas is traveling in between worlds and doesn't know which one is real kept me hooked, and the part where he escapes the black forest for the first time was exciting. Then we meet the Rousch, which were an appropriate, not-too-cheesy comedy relief. I liked both Michal and Gabil.
And then Rachelle steps onto the scene... And the book started to lose me. Yeah, okay, these "perfect" humans were a little bit annoying to me. And I didn't like that Rachelle automatically fell in love with Thomas just because he was handsome? I guess the book said that she "felt something in her heart," but that doesn't count. All she had to base her love on was looks at that point. EVERYONE kept telling Thomas to "play along" with the romance and FORCED him to woo her. Yikes. I get how it was just the way things worked in this world, because it supposedly reflected the Great Romance and everything, but it had no substance for me. All Elyon really did was give people hugs and say "I love you." The God in the Bible did much more. He actually um *cough* HELPED. I think he would've talked with his little humans way more, and about all things. Like seriously, where's a solid relationship in hugs? But anyway, falling in love was the least important thing to Thomas at the moment. I kept hoping that Thomas would speak up and go, "Hang on everyone, I'm really not comfortable or interested in this right now." That would have been an interesting development in their relationship, and would've been fun to see them recover from (also way more realistic to who Thomas was as a person?). Then Thomas could learn about the Great Romance in a different way.
I thought the whole allegory of "the fall" was a super cool world (though the theology of it bothered me), and the threat of a virus that could kill off the entire population as dictated in the "histories" kept me going. I wanted to know the answers. I was intrigued basically the entire time, but sometimes felt like the pacing, characters, or dialogue were "off."
One of my other problems with the allegory side of it is that I have no question in my mind that Elyon/God would never "start over" with a new Adam, giving humanity a supposed advantage by giving evil and good and all things spiritual physical forms. Later on in the series, it seems like Dekker is trying to hint that God is just "hoping" that humans will reject evil at some point, and that he'll just keep starting over until they do. As if God has no control, as if Jesus' death wasn't enough. The Bible clearly says that God will come back in the end and destroy evil once and for all, gathering his children to him in heaven where there will be no more sin. No do-overs. God doesn't work like that. But putting that aside, I decided to take this series as an alternate universe entirely, so that I wouldn't be distracted by the "bad" theology. It sorta helped.
All in all, I enjoyed Black at the time, and it definitely left me wanting more of the story. So I read the rest of them!