Kirk

I'm only through the first book so far but even knowing the ending (there are two more books after all...) it was a gripping read.

This is the Bible as if it read as a novel. We read through it as a Church. The entire Bible is broken down into 31 chapters that follow a narrative with highlights of the material left out intersped between the stories. It is good for getting a high level view of the Bible but shouldn't be confused for reading the entire thing.

This is a great YA novel if you are willing to overlook a few things.

First, the author made up several slang terms so that the characters could curse without actually cursing. It's pretty obvious what the substitutions are and can get annoying as it happens extremely frequently.

Second, there are more than a couple of times that a deus ex machina device is used to get out of a tight corner. I don't really want to spoiler more than that but if you consider that to be lazy writing this isn't the book for you.

Outside of those two items, I really enjoyed the book. It's fast paced and a relatively quick read.

I didn't like this book as much as Hosseini's other books and actually struggled to get through it in places. I nearly gave up about 40 pages to the end but I knew that the main story would eventually resolve itself (and I was satisfied in how it did).

I guess my only complaint is the sidestory of the doctor (this isn't really a spoiler). I understand that the character is important and that the story is important to why he's important but it seemed like a diversion and was the hardest part for me to get through.

An interesting look at the charity industrial complex and how we might be able to do things differently to help more people.