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A review by april_does_feral_sometimes
Sacred and Profane by Faye Kellerman
3.0
Good beach read. Better than the first in the series. In any case, for most genre novels my ratings have more to do with entertainment value first, plot consistency second, literary value third.
For religious people, the drama around sex and conversion and evil is probably resonating, even if completely mental (I find the religious arguments on why child abuse and torture is common and snuff films are permitted by any gods particularly compelling and ridiculous, especially the Rabbi's answers,; 1. we don't know, 2. we probably aren't smart enough to understand, 3. if we learned the reason why god allows evil to exist we would be driven insane. WHAT the fuck!?!?!?!?! Seriously? And finding the body of a baby covered with old and new cigarette burns, broken arms and ribs, and knifed to death by the mother is better for us and less crazy than learning why god let it happen? HA HA HA HA!
For me, while I enjoyed the police drama, and it strongly reminded me of a Sylvester Stallone action movie, which means to me a overheated concoction of soap opera, realism and manipulated emotion, the religious soap opera subplot makes me either open-mouthed in disbelief (Come on! Either leave the relationship or lie to the stupid woman and fake it) or tired. With all of the real problems in the world, it is mystifying why the author is planning to spend time writing a multi-volume series around all of the hot air on such a circular, endless subject as religious disagreements. I AM curious how the author plans to drag this out and keep it amusing for ten years. Of course, I'm only on book two. I imagine the dubious duo of Rina and Peter must find some way to dumb down and bury the intellectual questions around religion and concentrate on pacifying rituals and faith in order to get on with it, probably, for 30 books of babies being tortured to death, fathers raping and pimping out their own daughters, boys being raped by Scout leaders and coaches, innocents getting ripped off and murdered while the two get on their knees and recite memorized ritual prayers for a chapter or two in each book and have righteous sanctioned sex making themselves feel better, even if the following pages reveal more police cases which make clear that yet another tortured victim is discovered in the following chapters despite all of the religious hope.
Ya gotta admire the persistence of 10,000 years of continuing and varied religious fervor without a single second of actual conversation or conflict resolution with any god.
However, I'm definitely drawn in by the realistic detective cases, and amused by the over-the-top soap opera elements. I always loved Dark Shadows, the paranormal soap opera that was on TV in the late 1960's, which I watched everyday as a young teen. Even though the only paranormal elements are the religious rituals performed by people and the religious arguments between Rina and Peter ( the author doesn't go so far as to have God rap on tables or invisibly float secret journals with cryptic solutions to Decker's cases next to his breakfast oatmeal), I guess the hysterical tone is what I find resonating, reminding me oddly of Dark Shadows, which I've always found extremely entertaining.
This really isn't a satirical series. I'm taking it that way, for some reason I can't explain, and that is why I'm going to keep reading it, for now.
Inadvertent silly has often charmed me. This series seems to teeter on that edge.
For religious people, the drama around sex and conversion and evil is probably resonating, even if completely mental (I find the religious arguments on why child abuse and torture is common and snuff films are permitted by any gods particularly compelling and ridiculous, especially the Rabbi's answers,; 1. we don't know, 2. we probably aren't smart enough to understand, 3. if we learned the reason why god allows evil to exist we would be driven insane. WHAT the fuck!?!?!?!?! Seriously? And finding the body of a baby covered with old and new cigarette burns, broken arms and ribs, and knifed to death by the mother is better for us and less crazy than learning why god let it happen? HA HA HA HA!
For me, while I enjoyed the police drama, and it strongly reminded me of a Sylvester Stallone action movie, which means to me a overheated concoction of soap opera, realism and manipulated emotion, the religious soap opera subplot makes me either open-mouthed in disbelief (Come on! Either leave the relationship or lie to the stupid woman and fake it) or tired. With all of the real problems in the world, it is mystifying why the author is planning to spend time writing a multi-volume series around all of the hot air on such a circular, endless subject as religious disagreements. I AM curious how the author plans to drag this out and keep it amusing for ten years. Of course, I'm only on book two. I imagine the dubious duo of Rina and Peter must find some way to dumb down and bury the intellectual questions around religion and concentrate on pacifying rituals and faith in order to get on with it, probably, for 30 books of babies being tortured to death, fathers raping and pimping out their own daughters, boys being raped by Scout leaders and coaches, innocents getting ripped off and murdered while the two get on their knees and recite memorized ritual prayers for a chapter or two in each book and have righteous sanctioned sex making themselves feel better, even if the following pages reveal more police cases which make clear that yet another tortured victim is discovered in the following chapters despite all of the religious hope.
Ya gotta admire the persistence of 10,000 years of continuing and varied religious fervor without a single second of actual conversation or conflict resolution with any god.
However, I'm definitely drawn in by the realistic detective cases, and amused by the over-the-top soap opera elements. I always loved Dark Shadows, the paranormal soap opera that was on TV in the late 1960's, which I watched everyday as a young teen. Even though the only paranormal elements are the religious rituals performed by people and the religious arguments between Rina and Peter ( the author doesn't go so far as to have God rap on tables or invisibly float secret journals with cryptic solutions to Decker's cases next to his breakfast oatmeal), I guess the hysterical tone is what I find resonating, reminding me oddly of Dark Shadows, which I've always found extremely entertaining.
This really isn't a satirical series. I'm taking it that way, for some reason I can't explain, and that is why I'm going to keep reading it, for now.
Inadvertent silly has often charmed me. This series seems to teeter on that edge.