First, the 'Christian' aspect. Just because Jesus's name is in a book does not make it Christian lit.
The premise of the book: the world has again become wicked, and since God promised not to destroy the world by flood again, He finds Himself a loophole and starts destroying the world with hot lava instead. Jesus steps in and begs for one more chance for humankind. A deal is struck, with Satan included, that the fate of the world will rest on one chosen girl. She must choose good or evil, and both forces are allowed to persuade her once she comes of age. A prophecy about her is decreed, and given to man.
The problem with the premise: first and foremost, this book disregards the entire prophecy of Revelation. So God changed His mind about the second coming? He decided just to destroy the world instead and ignore His promises? Also, the chosen girl from this new prophecy had a couple of pretty detailed intimate scenes with different guys. Then, when the bad guy stabbed his father through the throat with great joy, and reveled in cutting the tounge of another man before slowly killing him, I finally put the book down and quit expecting any form of Christianity showing up.
Second problem with the premise: if you could care less whether the Christian aspect is right or wrong, but are looking for a good dystopian fantasy, I'm afraid you will be disappointed here as well. Before God started destroying the world, there was a reference to people in their tall buildings, i.e., modern day. Enter the leftover, surviving people. No explanation is given of where they are from, how they survived, how they rebuilt, etc. That's all fine, but now the world is decidedly medieval. Somehow, all knowledge of technology, from cars to telegraphs, has been forgotten. People are wearing swords, driving horse-drawn carts, wearing corsets, and living in castles. Yet the main girls use such phrases as 'the makeup really made her eyes pop', 'just roll with it', and my favorite, 'let's go, bitches'. No explanation, up to the point I read, was given for the state of the world. The lack of setting the scene was extremely distracting and detracted from the story.
Beyond this, I couldn't emotionally connect with any character. The sheltered 'chosen' girl confesses she is not at all worried about all that 'religious' stuff, and proceeds to get drunk and make out with her best friend's husband, all while running for her life. All in all, this book was not for me. The best I can say is I didn't finish the book, so it might get better.
The author has potential, and I won't completely write her off. But at this point, I would not spend money on her work. She did hold my attention at some points, so it's not all bad. But the bad DEFINITELY outweighs the good. Hope this helps other parents looking for clean Christian fantasy for their teenagers
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