Book Review of The Shack

Synopsis in a Sentence: A man tries to solve the mystery and find forgiveness and healing after the murder of his little girl.

My Thoughts:

This book was given to me as a Christmas present a few years ago and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not. I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat and I knew it was kind of a murder mystery story. But it ended up being so much more than that! It is an amazing story of faith, forgiveness and healing after a horrible event.

The story begins when a father takes his kids on a camping trip and the unthinkable happens: a serial killer stalks and then kidnaps his little girl. An image that is haunting me from this book is that the little girl was wearing a red sundress when she was taken and the killer left his calling card: a ladybug! How creepy is that?! The writer, Young, evokes such a vivid image with the color red here, though. In fact, this book was so well written and realistic seeming, that I thought for the first half of this book that this was based on a true story!

Several years after the abduction of his daughter, Missy, Mack receives an invitation from GOD (of all people haha) to return to the place where his daughter may have been murdered to spend a weekend in healing.

God turns out to be a warm and loveable black woman who is an amazing cook. This may seem an unexpected medium for God to appear as, but it really works in the book. I kind of feel that one of the themes of the book is that God is in everyone and God can manifest Himself to us in many ways and through all kinds of people.

Read this book to see if God helps Mack to heal from his devastating loss! This book is touching and will help you to heal and understand the reasons behind the tragedies of your own life.

What I liked least: The first part of the book is a murder mystery and is very fast paced...it is a little hard to transition between this and the second, slower and more philosophical half.

What I liked most: At the very end of the book, Mack gets to see his daughter one last time as the way she used to be...isn't that what we all wish for when we lose a loved one? To see them full of life one last time and to tell them we love them?