The Shack

Recently I read a book titled The Shack by William Young. My grandmother’s best friend, Barbara, had read it because her pastor recommended it. After this she sent it from California to my grandmother in Idaho with a letter of praise for the work. My grandmother, in turn, read it straight away sent it to my father here in Arizona, to read along with Barbara’s letter. My father let it sit on his book shelf for a few weeks. Meanwhile, I eyed it curiously until finally I grabbed it and declared, “I’m just going to read it, you’re taking too long.”

I was a bit hesitant at first, worried it would be too preachy, but if my grandmother said it was good, it must be.

It is a story about a father of three who has one of his daughters kidnapped and murdered during a family camping trip and how he copes, or prevents himself from coping with the severe emotional impacts of such an ordeal until he has a miraculous experience with God. It is almost like a modern day Pilgrim’s Progress (as other people who have read it would say as well).

Around the middle of the book it does seem to become a bit monotonously cheerful and preachy, and I ALMOST stopped reading but good thing I didn’t because shortly after I made myself pull through it got ten times better. This book, if you have Christian beliefs, makes you see some of the things you might have or might be questioning such as judgment and death, for example, in a whole new yet completely logical perspective. This book is so moving. It made me feel a vast array of emotions. I cried from anger, sadness and happiness during this book. And the ending is just AWESOME! It is heart warming and, a great strategy by Young, unexpected.

One of the biggest reasons this book had such an impact on me personally, not only because I struggle in my faith but was also due to the fact that I have lost a little brother. It gave me a whole new way of looking at his death and what he might be doing right now in the after life.

After finished the book I shoved it in my fathers face and said, “Read it. Now. I mean it.” He did. He then, in turn, brought it to my aunt in Idaho during his vacation and I am sure she has passed it on to somebody else since then, or at least I hope.

Since I read this book I have heard it mentioned all over, had several people ask if i have read it and seen it in dozens and dozens of book displays. Read it. We can’t all be wrong.