Christina Reviews *The Shack* by William P. Young

“As Jesus reached the center he paused to look around. His gaze stopped on Mack standing on the small hill at the outer edge and he heard Jesus whisper in his ear, “Mack, I am especially fond of you (216).”
　
When a man’s young daughter is kidnapped and murdered while on a camping trip, the protagonist begins to question his faith. Four years later, he receives a short note in the mail inviting him to the shack where evidence of his daughter’s death was found. The note is from God. At first he is unsure if he wants to go since he can’t help but wonder if this is some kind of trap or cruel trick, but he finds that he can’t resist the urge to find out if there’s something behind the note. And if God has something to tell him, he wants to know what he is. When he arrives at the shack, he at first finds a place of horror, but not long after, it is transformed into a place of beauty beyond anything he could ever imagine. What he finds at the shack is enough to change his life and his conceptions of God forever.

I liked the way this book dealt with questions like how you can believe in God in a world where horrible things happen. I liked that God, Jesus and the holy spirit defied expectations and didn’t live up to the stereotypes. This was an interesting novel, and I think that it may appeal to a lot of different people.