Carole's Sunday Review: The Shack - William Paul Young

Author: William Paul Young

Title: The Shack

Genre: Christian Fiction

Pages: 248

First Published: May 2007

Where I Got It: My Shelf (Xmas gift a while back)

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his "Great Sadness," Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

This has been collecting dust on my shelf for a bit. My aunt got this for me. I've avoided it because I knew this was going to be a crier and this did not disappoint. Also, this is technically a "Christian Fiction", so not normally something I grab, but sometimes I'll stumble upon one that looks good. 

Let's go back to the crying-ness. There some sad tears and some happy tears. Mostly sad tears. Ugh....I can't imagine having to deal with this...not at all. I do not have children of my own yet, but I have children in my life I care about. Just...horrible. 

Now, this book is about Mack (the father of the child) and his journey to self-forgiveness and coming to peace with what tore his world apart. It is also a book about Mack finding his way back to God and self-love. 

I didn't expect what the author did when Mack got to shack. Crazy and different. This was the part that got very heavy handed with the religious talk. It was interesting to read the author's view on Christianity. Now, I must applaud the author for not shoving Christianity down the throats of reader. This can be read by those who are not Christians. 

The ending was good. It made me cry. But it was happy tears. 

There is more I would like to say, but there are a lot of spoilers. I will say that I loved Mack's (and even his family's) road to recovery and being able to move forward. I loved the message that was given about forgiveness. Forgiving is important, but one won't ever forget what happened. Forgiving someone who did you ill is not necessarily for the person who did the bad thing...it is a way for the wronged to be able to move forward and not be stuck in the past and wrongs. 

In  the end, this was certainly worth the read even though it was a Christian Fiction and made me cry. I liked the characters. The religion was poured on a little thick, but that is my bias. I shall stamp this with 4 stars.