Review: The 9/11 series by Karen Kingsbury

Ok I'm lumping these three books together because they all three rotate around the same theme: fear and trusting God.

Now as I said on my good reads account, I did not give these books a 5 star rating. Here's why: while the storyline of each novel was compelling and unique and in my mind believable, the writing was lacking. It discusses the terrorist attacks and how they changed lives in negative ways but also how something positive came forth "from the ashes." Good stories for sure and even better themes such as faith in God at all times especially in times of fear.

The books are done from multiple characters perspectives. This is confusing because there isn't enough distinction between the voices of the different characters. Sometimes i was confused as to whose voice j was actually reading in. Also she does a whole lot of "telling" rather than "showing". Finally some of her dialogue is unbelievable because she appears to have made her language very G-rated which works very good for the characters who would have spoke this way but not so much for the criminals and other characters who didn't have the same convictions as the strongly Christian characters. These things were distracting however the theme was good. Each character had to over come fear and pain, mend personal relationships and their relationship with God. I did become very invested in these characters and did have to finish the books.

So to reflect on the themes I typed in fear into my bible apps search bar. So many hits! There's so much written on fear and rightly so since most of us really do live in fear. Especially in times like this where we've seen tragedies involving people coming in and wounded and killing dozens of people all in one moment. I would be lying if I said I've never felt like "that could have been me or the people I love". Truth is it could have been. It could have been any of us. No one is immune to death. We watched the Documentary on Steve Jobs last night. He was ridiculously wealthy but even all his money couldn't save him when it was simply his time to die.

Many of us still live in fear. I live in fear. We worry about losing our own life or the life of someone close to us to the point to where we hinder our enjoyment of life. It's ironic really. It's hard to stop. But as the characters in this 9/11 book series all learned and relearned, faith and trust in God are the only antidote to fear.

I have to remind myself of this a lot.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15 NIV)