Good read, worth the read but nothing revolutionary

5 of 5 Stars (Writing Quality) & 2 of 5 Stars (Personal)

I know I’ve probably confused you right from the start of this review. Why two ratings? After I read the book I actually considered not reviewing it because of some personal conflict with the content. I really couldn’t figure out a way to give a single rating that both incorporated my personal feelings and the actual quality of the book because they are so different. So instead of just one rating – I’m giving two.

Writing Quality

I found this to be incredibly well written. The layout for each chapter is just enough to get you thinking before a summary with extra questions to further discussion. Because of this I think it would be great for a group at church. My absolute favorite part was how stories from the bible were retold with a slight modern twist making them far more understandable and even relatable. The style of writing was amazing and I enjoyed it a lot. It didn’t feel heavy or overly pushy. Even with my personal conflicts you’ll read below I never felt it was shoving anything in my face.

Personal

The biggest reason I almost didn’t review this book had very little to do with the book itself. I consider myself a questioning Christian. It’s hard for me to really believe in these “just trust God” type ideas which a majority of the book was really aiming for. I understood the concept completely and feel for many people this works. I often felt irritated by it though because I have such conflict with my own faith, so many questions that simply don’t have answers. I also hold a few big resentments with ‘organized religion’ and it all tainted my ability to just enjoy the book. There were some things in the book that I found incredibly valuable and others that I disagreed with. Again this really is my own very personal issue and not so much a true representation of the book. I did however feel that I couldn’t truly review the book without sharing this aspect of my experience while reading.

In Summary

I think this book has a very specific target audience that I don’t quite fit into. Christians with stronger faiths or more mainstream beliefs than my own would most likely really love this book. As I said before a bible study surrounding just the topics that are in each chapter would be interesting even for me. I’m glad I read the book as it gave me a lot to think about and I’ll most likely reference it in the future as I explore what my own faith is and isn’t. I highly recommend it for the audience it is intended for because it is a very good book. Because of how well it’s written I do think it’s worth a shot for those questioning their faith.

This was provided free from the publisher through BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review. This in no way effected my opinion and I was compensated in no other manner.

I was keen to read this book because I'd previously read both his blog, and that of other members of his church. There's lots to like about this book - Wilson's style is engaging and his topic relatable for many people. I was slightly disappointed by the lack of 'weight': this isn't a book which will stay with me. It was interesting and thought-provoking in places, but not life-changing.

I received a digital copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.