Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #844004 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Customer Reviews

Powerful and exciting
Don't let the length of this novel put you off -- it is fairly long, but really exciting and addictive. (I could hardly put it down for days!)

Jenkin's writing is superb for the modern audience. The characters are very real and the plot is engaging. Admittedly, the story does jump between two different plot lines most of the time, which can be confusing at first. It is fairly easy to get used to that though.

If you liked his work on the "Left Behind" series, then you will love this, as the narrative style is quite similar. It is very powerful and intense (possibly too intense for sensitive readers), and touches on some important issues in society and in the church.

I would definitely recommend this book primarily for Christians. One of the reasons is that it can be hard to engage with the Christian characters and their mentality unless you understand a bit of what it is like to be in their situation. Some non-Christians might also feel a little put-off by the overt Christian message throughout it.

Conclusion: it is an awesome novel, and well-worth reading.

Slow paced novel for Christian readers
"Riven" is aimed at the Christian maket, so I may not be the best person to review it, but since I've read it, I will give my opinion.

The novel opens as a Death Row inmate is taken to his execution. Rewind 17 years, the story alternates between high school kid Brady Wayne Darby as he struggles, growing up in a trailer park with a bad mother, and Reverend Thomas Carey, who seems to fail at every new job.

I liked reading about Brady Darby (anagram, see?) and I wished there was less focus on Carey. His story is less interesting and I found it difficult to like him and his wife Grace. They're very judgmental against their daughter and son-in-law. They don't seem to care much about them, except that they want them to become Christians. The parallel storylines make the novel a bit too slow. Less focus on the Careys would have distracted less from the more interesting story about Brady and made the novel less slow paced.

"Riven" is a Christian novel, and needless to say, much of it, especially in the second half, is about religion. Since I'm not a Christian, I didn't find this as inspirational as most Christian readers no doubt will. Recommended for Christian readers who don't mind slow paced books. Christian readers may want to add one star to my rating. Not recommended to non-Christian readers.

Passionate
The first three quarters of this book tells the story of both Brady Wayne Derby, a young man with problems and an attitude, and Pastor Thomas Carey. It tells of their lives and sets the scene for the final quarter of the book. I found the first part of the book to be a bit slow, but this was more than compensated for in the final quarter, which was passionate and emotional. I found myself wanting to read without stopping with tears running down my face. It is a long time since a book has had this impact on me. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to all Christians