B.R. of Left Behind

Wow. So this book.

I know I normally do these reviews on books I like, but this one. Wow.

I’m going to try my hardest not to just be all negative on this book, but I really did not enjoy this one.

So, this is a religious fiction novel, which I feel kind of offensive saying, about the end of days. All the true followers of Christ are lifted off the Earth and disappear into heaven, leaving the non-believers and sinners behind as the Earth is ravaged by trials, as well as a reincarnated Satan. I’m not very religious myself, but I do find the plot of this book really interesting actually. Although I don’t like this authors writing, I think this idea could spawn some really amazing stories, and I’m sure there are some out there I don’t know of.

But anyway the plot follows an airline pilot who has been having faith issues, not only in God, but in his marriage, as he has been having lustful thoughts about one of his coworkers. From there he discovers the absence of his wife and quickly recommits himself to the Church, leading on down his path of redemption.

Again, the plot is interesting and has some good emotional and spiritual variables, but none of this is approached very well. The events are quite predictable, a true stereotype, in my opinion. Man loses faith, man is punished, man regains faith, and man goes for redemption. Little to no varying, all unsurprising as can be. The characters are flat with little variation or conflict. Even the main character is surprisingly stale with almost no redeeming qualities.

And lastly, and oh man is this the killer, the dialogue is seriously terrible. Have you ever been playing a video game and maybe ran into some other characters who talked but in a terrible, off putting, computer-like fashion? Cause that is this book’s dialogue. Have you ever left a piece of bread in a tub of cookies, just to take it out two weeks later and be like, ‘man, this is super stale,’? Because that is this book’s dialogue. Have you ever watched a terrible documentary and constantly wondered if this person is trying to sound boring or if it’s just natural? That is this book. I’ve talked about dialogue and how important it is, it’s often ultimately what makes or breaks a book, and does it break this book. I really don’t know how I got through it to be honest, considering I was face palming at just about every serious dialogue scene.

Overall, all though it does have a few good qualities about it, there are just too many thing in my opinion that ruin this book. For that, I give it a four out of ten. Sorry Left Behind fans. Until next time guys, peace.

-Ink