Artist: Bruce Main

Album: Why Jesus Crossed the Road:

Learning to Follow the Unconventional Travel Itinerary of a First-century Carpenter
Release Date: March 23rd, 2010
Style: Audiobook
Publisher: christianaudio.com
Language: English

About:

It’s not often that a street-level veteran of nitty-gritty urban ministry is also a gifted writer with an engaging style and real spiritual insight . . . but that’s the rare combination you’ll discover in Bruce Main. This book will do you good, and it will get you doing good. (Brian McLaren, author/speaker/activist, brianmclaren.net )

Bruce Main writes brilliantly, thinks profoundly, and daringly challenges the security that keeps us from grappling with truths about injustice and oppression. (Tony Campolo, professor emeritus, Eastern University )
Product Description

If we are completely honest, all of us have places, situations, and people whom we would rather avoid. Yet in a world that was governed strictly by geographical, religious, and social barriers, Jesus was audacious enough to cross the borders that kept people in safe categories. He demonstrated that the God-following life is one committed to entering the lives and stories of all people—a life committed to the lost spiritual discipline of border-crossing. In Why Jesus Crossed the Road, Bruce Main shows how God can use your own “crossings” to change your life, and the lives of those you meet along the way.

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Laila had it all-before she made the wrong choice. This wrong choice resulted in the life of another man-one she killed with her own hands. Now she is on the run from the sins of her past and has settled anew in Greenville, South Carolina. However, her past does not want to leave her alone. Now several different men are after her for different reasons, and the only person she can trust is Kyle, whom she barely knows. Laila also fears she is going insane because of the frequent and unexplained visions she keeps experiencing. Above all else, she knows she will have to confront her past eventually and take what’s coming to her, but what if there is another answer to her troubles? What if grace is real? What if God is real? She’ll have to find out-otherwise she’ll face death.

On the surface, Broken seems like an interesting book, mostly because it is largely based on the wrong choices of the lead. Travis Thrasher has somewhat abandoned his supernatural\horror kick he has been on for the past few years, but not really. Broken is much more meaningful than Ghostwriter and Isolation, but this does not make it an exemplary book.

Laila is the best character because her imperfect choices created a mess for herself. There seems to be a personality hovering beneath the surface, but it is not fully developed. There are only four other characters the plot focuses on, and none of them are very good either, but at least none of them are perfect. It’s hard to nail down a villain, because any of the characters could be labeled a villain in other circumstances. Basically, this is an average cast of characters because Travis was more interested in supernatural elements than character development.

The biggest factor in this novel’s fall from the Elite List is the vast and varied number of plot holes. There is no explanation for Laila’s strange visions, even though they help her save one character from death. One character appears in the middle of the plot with no past and explanation for where he came from or why he was involved in the situation. There are no plot points that can be nailed down because the plot meanders along in an abstract fashion, sometimes showing the present and sometimes explaining the past. The characters wander around their world but never really get anywhere or accomplish anything. The biggest thing the plot is missing is a purpose. The biggest factor that saves the plot is a key character death at the end caused by Laila’s wrong choices.

Travis seems to be making a roundabout journey back from his self-exile into the genre of horror. Broken is reminiscent of his past works, something he needs to return to in order to salvage his inconsistent career. Travis has much more potential as an author than he realizes, but he needs to tap into it before it’s too late.

Rating: 3/5

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FBI Special Agent Brad Gaines is working with criminal psychologist Nikki Holden on one of the most stunning cases of their careers. A serial killer has murdered four beautiful women by draining all their blood out and leaving them at the scene with a bridal veil. They are calling him the Bride Collector. Since they believe that the killer has psychosis or schizophrenia, they turn to a mental health center to try to find information on the diseases and to see if anyone there knows their killer. While visiting, they cross paths with a group of intelligent schizophrenics who claim they can help them solve the case. One woman in particular, named Paradise, steals Brad’s heart at first sight. Now he’s working side by side with her to try to catch the culprit. But little do they know that the Bride Collector is targeting one of them next. And it could happen any day now…

Ted Dekker has written his fair share of serial killer novels. Adam, Skin, Boneman’s Daughters, Th3e, House, to name a few. The last book he needed to write was another serial killer novel-unless he had an innovative idea to share, like Thr3e. But since he did not do this, there was little reason to write such a book.

The character department was the best and worst thing about this book. The best thing is the mental cases-always an interesting cast of characters to have. Paradise and her companions are certainly entertaining and add a fresh element to the plot. The worst thing is Quinton Gauld, the Bride Collector himself. Ted Dekker has too much fun creating sick minds like Quinton and also spends way too much time focusing in on the sick ways of the Bride Collector. As “there was one thing he hated, nay, two things he loathed” littered the pages of Boneman’s Daughters, Ted invented a new catch phrase for Quinton. Brad and Nikki are interesting enough characters, yet they lack personality.

The worst thing about the book, besides Quinton, is the plot itself. Ted has become too methodical at his serial killer plots, because they are all the same. There are many typical elements, such as a showdown and several convenient connections. There is one unexpected key character death that adds flavor, yet it is a diamond among the rocky crags.

The good thing about Ted Dekker is that unlike other authors of his popularity level, he knows how to be original and adds some original elements to all of his books, they just sometimes get outweighed by unoriginal elements. The release of Immanuel’s Veins this fall will indicate whether he is still on the right track.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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