Book Review: Faith Awakened

I wish Faith Awakened was a song. At least that way I could bare getting through it. Bad songs only take up 2-3 minutes of your time. But bad novels, they're not as kind.

I've tried reading this novel more than once but it's always the same thing: it's bland. I've lost count of how many times I've stopped and started, hoping that somehow the next time I opened the book that the story would captivate me. I even skipped around to different sections, reasoning that maybe the first few chapters started off slow. But by the time I got to chapter 21 and there was still no flare, I knew this book wasn't going to light my fire.

And I really wanted to like this book. When I first heard about the concept I was intrigued. But all that excitement faded when I got the business of actually reading it.

Faith Awakened by Grace Bridges tells the story of two young women in a futuristic dystopian Ireland trying to find true meaning and purpose amidst a highly-restrictive government (think China and Afghanistan under Taliban reign times 100). Doesn't that sound interesting??? If only the delivery of the story lived up to its premise.

The story starts with a prologue but I advise skipping over that and chapter 1 and jumping straight into "chapter 2: Introducing Mariah" which is where the story should have began. It's the first time the words on the page have a real pulse and engage you. You get a sense of Mariah's spunky personality through her diary-like rundown of what went wrong in the world. This book could have been stellar if it was as vibrant as this chapter and if we could have seen the events that took place instead of being described what happened. I want that novel!!! I wanted more of Mariah's "toughness" to shine through, to lead us through this futuristic world in disarray.

Even though Faith Awakened didn't put the steam in my cappuccino, some die-hard fans of Christian Sci-Fi might find it appealing. Like LeVar Burton said on Reading Rainbow: "But...you don't have to take my word for it".

I give it 2 unawakened stars out of 5.