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Book Review

Publisher's Note:

Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right? The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn't appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage. Dubbed 'The Three' by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children's behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival...…

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The Three: A Novel

by Sarah Lotz

Reviewer: Lydia
Genre: Christian Fiction
Recommended Age: 21+

Overall Book Review:

When one plane crashes, we call it an accident. When two crash within a few days, we would probably suspect terrorism. Three planes would be inconceivable. What about if four planes crash, all at once? Wouldn’t it seem as if the world was coming to an end? Panic would ensue. Media would make the news travel like wildfire. Chaos, brimstone and hellfire!

I’m not sure what drew me to this book initially. The cover is intriguing, and  when I read the synopsis it appeared to be a story that would interest me.  However, the first part of the book didn’t grab me; I was hoping for a book that would pull me in and not let me go until the very end. Perhaps it is just the author’s writing style, or perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood, but I wasn’t totally engaged for the majority of this book. Although the synopsis showed potential, the book just didn’t live up to my expectations.

When I was younger, I used to read and re-read the Left Behind series. I was obsessed. The Three is along the same lines and thought process as Left Behind, except with a little bit more fantasy mixed in. Of course, with all the advances in technology lately, maybe what was suggested within the pages of The Three is not a fantastical idea that the author had, and closer to reality than we think.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  12 religious exclamations; 10 mild obscenities; 4 derogatory names; 7 scatological words; 3 anatomical terms; 33 F-Word derivatives.

Violence/Gore:  An airplane crashes, casualties mentioned; property is mentioned to be damaged; a forest where people go to commit suicide is mentioned; dead bodies are mentioend and briefly described; injured and bloody bodies are briefly described; a man is suspected to be abusive to his wife; terrorism is mentioned and briefly described; sexual assault is mentioned to occur; a character kills self with a shotgun in one very brief scene; a car accident occurs, dead and bloody bodies are described; a character is mentioned to have been stabbed to death, lots of blood is mentioned.

Sex/Nudity:  A man is mentioned to be in an adulterous relationship; a man is mentioned to pay for sexual services; a lap dance is mentioned with no description; sexual assault is mentioned to occur.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death, terrorism, personal crises, suicide.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink; smoking pot is mentioned; drug use is mentioned; sniffing glue to get high is mentioned.

Overall Book Rating
Profanity/Language
Rating:
10
10
Violence/Gore
Rating:
7
10
Sex/Nudity
Rating:
3
10

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About the Reviewer

Lydia
Books and reading have always been an important part of my life. When I was very young, my grandma was the library director at our local public library. Years later, after she had retired, I became a librarian at the same library and worked there for several years before taking a part-time job at a local coffee shop, which gives me more time to do what I love, to read and to review books! A few of my favorite authors are Aimee Bender, Diane Chamberlain, and Curtis Sittenfeld however, I will read almost any book I come across! In my spare time you can find me reading (of course), volunteering at a wildlife animal rehab, or hanging out with my three house rabbits.

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