I have found a book that is almost indescribably bad: Misfit, by Jon Skovron. I’ve only revealed the title and the author so that you will know to avoid it.
Had the author’s only crime been to use every known cliche except “My wife doesn’t understand me,” I wouldn’t be writing this. No. By “bad” I mean intolerable; toxic; spiritually polluting; intellectually stultifying; reprehensible; unfit for human consumption. Worst of all, its target audience is teenage girls. Apparently this is what passes for teen literature, these days–which is a sad commentary on our times, as Caligula might say. I suppose Caligula might have written a book like this, had he been a teen lit author instead of a depraved Roman emperor who thought he was a god. But he’d be very hard put to come up with something worse.
If Mr. Skovron were here, I would ask him the following questions:
*Do you truly believe that Jesus Christ is just one of the gang with Zeus, Mohammed, Confucius, Osiris, Sea Biscuit, et al?
*Do you believe you really can take all the religions of the world and lump them all together into a big, fat, feel-good mish-mosh, regardless of their competing claims to truth?
*If the above religious prescription is not what you’re sincerely recommending to teenagers, then what is your purpose in vandalizing orthodox Christian beliefs?
*Do you believe the Bible lies to us about the nature of God and man, good and evil, heaven and hell, the world, truth, and morality?
If you can answer “yes” to any of these, boyo, you’ve got some serious repenting to do. I don’t know whether you have any children of your own, but I’d sure like to be there when your daughter asks you, “Well, then, Daddy–what is true?” I’d just love to hear your answer. Meanwhile, parents can do a good deed by not buying this book for their children.
PS: I have taught in Catholic school, and never met a student as lame, as dull, as stereotypically over-acculturated as the teenage characters in Mr. Skovron’s novel. He probably needs to get out more.
Would you believe it??? I’ve found a book even more awful than this one! More details to come…
Read this Narnia fan fiction; this is most likely even worse than ‘Misfit’, because it is well written, imaginative, and… spiritually dark and depressing: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5615090/1/bChanson_b_bde_b_bGeste_b
That prolog fits your description of it, but that’s all I saw when I clicked on the link. The thing about “Misfit” is that it’s very badly written indeed. Actually, the “Golden Compass” books of atheist Philip Pullman are pretty well written, and they’re pure poison. (I have a review of them archived on this site. You might want to read that.) Art must be put to higher uses than this–much, much higher.
I have read your review of His Dark Materials, as well as reviews by other Christians. It sounds like total trash.
As for that link, at the top right corner of the page there is a drop down box that lets you select chapters.
Thanks for the tip, Laura. I’m a computer lummox and I never would’ve spotted the drop-down box.
Great review….good to know. Will avoid.
I could smell the stench just from your review – pewwww!
I love reading your reviews in the “Faith For All of Life journal.
I’ve got a good one coming up in the next issue–“Alone,” Vol. 2 of Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill.
Looking forward to it. So many of the books CR has you review are because they are unorthodox. Maybe the Winston Churchill bio book will be one you can heartily recommend.
Oh, I will, all right.