- This was a finalist for the 2011 INSPY awards.
I also recommend:
- Tunnel Vision by Gary Braver
Summary from GoodReads:
In the graveyard overlooking the city of Stonetree, a petrified oak broods. It’s a monstrous thing, not just because of its size, but because of who was murdered there. When Ruby Case limped into church that spring morning, she was not thinking about haunted trees. Mother of two young boys and wife to a backslidden believer, she faithfully prays for God’s visitation upon the city. Yet when she inexplicably raises a boy from the dead, Ruby gets more than she bargained for. The resurrection creates uproar in the quiet coastal town, turning Ruby into both a celebrity and a scapegoat. When Reverend Ian Clark joins Ruby in a search for answers it leads to a collision with unspeakable darkness. Together, they quickly realize that Ruby woke more than a dead boy, and the secrets she unleashed now threaten to destroy them all. Can they overcome their own brokenness before they become victims of an insidious evil?
My Review:
Yet another of the books nominated for the 2011 INSPY awards, and one that definitely kept me reading until the end.
When I was in college (the first time around), we lived in a town that experienced quite a bit of spiritual warfare. There were strange things that would happen, quite a few stories drifting around, and even a tragedy which made the national news. It was a place that always had me feeling as if it was dark outside, even when the light was there, and a place that saw some things happen to me which have remained with me (in not a good way) since.
I don’t know how much of that was all spiritual warfare, and how much was just plain bad luck, but this book brought to mind a lot of these events, making it a difficult read for me. The story was a fascinating one – a young woman, upon visiting a funeral, touches the boy who should not have died, and he comes back to life. The way the family has to deal with the aftereffects, the church’s method of handling things, and the town’s history all end up knitting together to create an interesting story – but also a story that needed a bit of polish to make it really good.
For example – if you are going to name your book after an event like a resurrection, I think the story really needs to center more around that specific event, rather than just using it as a catalyst for something else that’s going on. I never quite understood WHY the resurrection happened, even though I understand why everything else was happening. This is a big pet peeve for me – using a name or an event or a disability/illness as a hook into a story about something else. Although it wasn’t quite that bad with The Resurrection, I still was left a bit bewildered.
The Resurrection did not win the INSPY awards this year, but I think Mike Duran has the potential to write something that, in the future, will give that award a run for its figurative money. Overall, The Resurrection made me think, provided me with a good story, and also opened my eyes to this author and the potential he has for future books.
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