Summary from GoodReads:

On a rainy spring day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, twenty-five-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning brand new nine-thousand square foot house. And after meeting Sarah Sabin at a nearby ice cream shop, he has two reasons to visit the beach every weekend.

When bizarre things start happening in the rooms of the home, Micah suspects they have some connection to his enigmatic new friend, Rick, the town mechanic. But Rick will only say the house is spiritual. This unnerves Micah because his faith slipped away like the tide years ago, and he wants to keep it that way. But as he slowly discovers, the home isn’t just spiritual, it’s a physical manifestation of his soul, which God uses to heal Micah’s darkest wounds and lead him into an astonishing new destiny.

My Review:

I took some time off after reading this book before writing a review – partly because I wasn’t going to post reviews of the INSPYs books until the award was given, and partly I needed to do some soul-searching myself.  You see, I have an issue with inspirational “Christian” books.  Most of the time I find them corny, cliche and trite.  So after reading several books nominated for the award I started to wonder if it was just me and maybe I was a bad Christian?

I just don’t understand why Christian literature has to be this way (and I know it doesn’t have to be, I find Ted Dekker to be absolutely fabulous and let’s not get me started on some of the more classic books).

Let’s take Rooms by James Rubart for example.  The premise seemed interesting and I am a lover of speculative fiction – the idea of a house adding rooms one by one was interesting to me.  But what I got was a story about a man who, somehow, found what he was needing through massively supernatural powers and I also got an ending that was so predictable that it had me groaning and praying fervently that the author wouldn’t go there… but he did.

And I’m not even going to take about the romance aspect of this book. (It’s not needed, authors! Do you hear me? Don’t stick romance in to sell your books – it hurts that story you are trying to tell!!)

What I want when I pick up a Christian Speculative novel is a story that challenges me, makes me think and encourages me to study my faith harder.  I don’t want fluff romance and a happy “everything is going to be okay” story.  I don’t want holier-than-thou preaching pushed at me, which, although it wasn’t as bad in Rooms as it was in some other stories I read, still.. there was enough of it here that it made me grit my teeth.

Rooms did not win the INSPYs.  I was not surprised by this.  I think James Rubart can write well and can tell an interesting enough story, but as a story designed to challenge me spiritually, this one was sadly lacking.

Check out these review(s):

The Musings of a Book Addict