Friday, December 30, 2011

The Canary List [Review]

Title: The Canary List
Author: Sigmund Brouwer
Labels: Fiction | Suspense
Publisher: Waterbrook Multnomah
Publication Date: June 21, 2011
Contains: Touchy subjects
Buy It: Amazon | Book Depository | The Publisher

My Rating: (Didn't like it)
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Blurb: Protected by the dark of night, Jaimie Piper runs. But is anywhere safe when Evil is hunting you? She’s just a twelve year-old girl, bumped around between foster homes and relegated to school classes for challenged kids, those lagging in their test scores or with behavioral issues. But her real problem is that she can sense something the other kids can’t—something dark. Something compelling her to run for her life.
          All Crockett Grey wants is to mark the anniversary of his daughter’s death alone. But when his student Jaimie comes to him, terrified, her need for protection collides with his grief, and a tangled web of bizarre events sends them both spiraling toward destruction. Crockett’s one hope of getting his life back is to uncover the mysterious secrets of Jaimie’s past and her strange gift. It isn’t long before his discoveries lead him to a darker conspiracy, secrets guarded by the highest seat of power in the world—the Vatican.
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          This is going to be a relatively short review in comparison to my past ones, because in my opinion, The Canary List had little going for it. I really hate giving bad reviews, but this was one book where the cons outweighed the pros.

          The one thing I can say in the positive is the natural, believable voice of Jaimie Piper. I did like that in any chapters from her point of view, everything was portrayed just as a twelve-year-old girl would see it. The way she thought accurately showed the understanding she had as a twelve-year-old, while still giving way to things she couldn't understand due to her age. It was a good balance.

          As for the cons, well, I don't particularly approve subjects such as child abuse, or abuse of any sort for that matter. Anything pertaining to inappropriate sexual actions is a black letter in my book. Hence, I'm afraid I could not enjoy this book as the topic repeatedly came up as a prominent part of the plot.

          The other major element to this book that I didn't like was the involvement of demons and perversion in the Catholic church. I myself am not Catholic, but even so it turned me off to have to read of such things. True, there are such people today in any denomination of religion, but the book, to me, seemed to make it a ridiculously big conspiracy. And the apparent involvement of demons did nothing to help my opinion of this book. I'm afraid I cannot and will not recommend this book to anyone.

          I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for this review. These opinions are my own; I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated for this review. 

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the honest review. Hugs and have a great weekend!!! :O)

    ReplyDelete