When I first read the synopsis of the book, I was really intrigued. I liked the idea of God, or a version of God being reborn in our present world and time. Despite the original ideas, I had a really hard time getting through the whole book. For the most part, the story was captivating, and I always wanted to know what happened next. However, despite the fascinating scenes, it was too difficult to overlook certain things.
First off, let me say I'm usually ok with a certain amounts of gore and horror. In this book, however, it was it was too vulgar and gory for my tastes. A character getting stabbed in a testicle? I really don't need to read that. Another character getting emasculated after an accident? I see a pattern forming here. And it's not just the gore. I thought it was tasteless to include a scene where a little girl is almost rapped by a foster parent. I had to skip over most of the scene. I can understand if it needs to happen in order to further the story, but please don't make me read through it like any other regular scene.
Justin is by far the most interesting character that I've read in while, I'll give you that. I like that it's never really clear whether he's simply a supernatural deity or if he's actually God with a capital "G". I also like that he was born from immaculate conception. I'm not a religious person so I really don't care whether it's blasphemous or not. Then again, the joke about getting it in the "wrong hole" was another tasteless matter. It's quite interesting to see Justin go from a very serene and beautiful baby, to a trouble-making pre-adolescent. However, as a god, when Justin throws a tantrum, bad things happen which sometimes extends to the entire world. The repercussions can be minor, such as changing most of the population's eyes to brilliant emerald green, or catastrophic, like the disappearance of all money and currency.
The timeline is a little confusing. One moment Justin is a toddler, the next he's a little bit older. How old isn't very clear so it's hard to judge the passage of time. Cassie's timeline is as confusing. She survives an atrocious upbringing as a toddler and then she's thrown into foster care. Her amount of time in foster care isn't very clear and her age only guessed by another character towards the end of the book. As Justin's journey converges with Theodore and Cassie's storylines, I really thought things were going to escalate and lead to something meaningful. However, when the story ended, I was confused and left searching for the point. It feels like there wasn't really any meaning to the story, except destruction and chaos.
Also, the actual writing felt a little clumsy. Like I mentioned, it was difficult to follow the timelines, and the passage of time. The story could have used a little bit more editing and a little less thesaurus use. If you want to say blood, simply use the world blood. Don't describe it as hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a protein in your red blood cells, which is a composition of blood itself. Another grammar error that I couldn't ignore was "genetically disposed" instead of "genetically predisposed." Whether that error was done purposely or not, I'm not sure, but I just couldn't overlook it. My spelling and grammar is far from perfect but I expect a little better from published books.
Overall, the ideas in the novel were interesting but could have used a little bit more finesse and little bit more editing. If gore isn't for you, I would stay clear of this book. Honestly, I can't think of any books to compare it to. It's definitely original, but in this case, that's not necessarily a good thing.
Hmm, I usually don't mind gore, but it might be too much for me. I don't like the cover either, and if it's need of some more editing...I think I'll stay away for now.
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