Book Rat

Category: Speculative Fiction

  • Call It Consequences

    Call It Consequences

    Violence

    The book contains your stereotypical violence that occurs in action-packed novels–mostly towards the later portion of the story.

    Lorraine’s mom dies in a TIME machine.

    Reviewer’s Note

    Wow! I don’t know what to say. This is a fantastic work of fiction. I’ve only just finished reading it yesterday, yet I find myself questioning whether it’s a good idea to read it again. It’s quick paced and doesn’t waste pages on unnecessary exposition that the reader doesn’t care about.

    As far as content is concerned, the novel is completely clean of foul language. There is kissing on cheeks and foreheads but never lips.

    As a Christian, this is a prime example of what I yearn for from a novel. Prince worded it perfectly, so instead of me rehashing and paraphrasing, I’ll just plug her blog post (What Makes Christian Fiction Stink?). In short, Christian-fiction writers often produce poor-quality stories. They start with generic unoriginal premises and tack the “Christian” label on as marketing ploy.

  • Naphtali

    Spiritual Content

    Naphtali contains overtly Christian content. It’s prevalence revolves primarily around one of the side characters and their Christian background. Although present, it is not paramount to the overarching plot of the story as some Christian fiction tends to be.

  • Beneath False Stars

    Beneath False Stars

    Details

    Language

    The fictional slur, “simul” is used to refer to people with superhuman powers in a derogatory manner.

    Occasional usage of “heck”.

    Violence

    The protagonist’s brother dies in an explosion.

    Contains mild description of eyes and skin being burned by acid and mention of scars from burns and war on characters’ skin.

    A character is shot down while scaling a wall to escape, resulting in their death. This was a somewhat impactful moment for the protagonist, so it was described in a more traumatic way to impact the reader more than just a fleeting mention of such an event.

    Two characters enter a life-like simulation of a war: prevalent gunfire and death throughout the scene.

    A character commits suicide.

    Reviewer’s Note

    This book was an excellent read. Fans of Renegades by Marissa Meyer will find that this has a similar feel throughout.

    To be honest, it was kind of slow read for me in the beginning. But by the end of the book, I read the last twelve chapters in one sitting; needless to say, the third act is outstanding.