Customer Reviews
Blow your mind - By: Les, 31 Aug 2010 
Ask anyone why they don't believein God, the chances are it's because they cannot reconcile a world of unspeakable pain & suffering with a God who, according to the Bible, is supposed to 'love' them. We've ALL asked those questions - why couldn't an 'all powerful' God not protect an innocent child from harm? How could he allow an evil child molester to live?
'The Shack' may not provide an absolute answer to these questions, but it confronts them & deals with them head on, instead of ignoring them, like many who profess a faithin Jesus Christ (myself included).
If you ever thought that being a Christian was merely a crutch for the weak & feeble minded, 'The Shack' should make you think again. It may be a work of fiction, but it brings timeless Scriptural truths to life.
A different paradigm - By: PoppySam, 31 Aug 2010 
It is difficult to review this bookin detail because that would give away the plot.
It certainly challenges many traditional views of religion but provides the reader with some very interesting insights.
I can see why it is a best seller & would recommend it to potential readers.
I Feel duped... - By: Marine boy, 27 Aug 2010 
Bought this after seeing such a high feedback figure without reading between the lines.
This book is a thinly disguised gospel. It seeks to draw out deep emotionsin the readerin the first part of the book followed by the feel good factor which is heavily attributed to God.
I think the positive reviews are from 'believers' & the negative ones by people like me who were hoping for something other than the nonsense we were fed as children - shame!
A good read - By: Rach, 23 Aug 2010 VERY GOOD BOOK! Definitely worth reading, its very different to anything I've ever read; well written & inspirational. I couldnt put it down. It will touch your heart & leave you wanting MORE!
First class tosh - By: Illustrated Man, 23 Aug 2010 I was the unwilling recipient of this book from a friend who also happens to be a Christian. The two of us do not always see eye to eye on theological issues & he made it clear when he leant me this book that it meant a lot to him.
I did a bit of digging regarding the background of this book, although it is a self published work of fiction many people seem to consider it some kind of theological or religious authority (indeed, the author has been described as a 'theologian') almost a new way of looking at things. Personally I do not share this view. The truth is the author is one messed up bunny. Abused as a child, not accepted by mainstream religious establishments & guilty of being unfaithful to his wife with her best friend. Forgive me if I don't treat this man as some kind of 21st century saint or any kind of authority on God.
The basic plot is straightforward enough; Mack goes on a trip with his children & some friends, during the trip one of his children has a canoe accident & nearly drowns. As Mack is playing the hero another of his children, named Missy, goes missing. It quickly becomes apparent that Missy has been kidnapped by a child-murdering serial killer called 'The Little Ladykiller' (possibly the stupidest name for a serial killer I have ever come across) Of course Mack falls into a deep depression which he imaginatively (but pointlessly) names 'The Great Sadness" He then receives a note, which he decides is from God, asking him to return to the site of where his daughter was kidnapped & presumably murdered. He returns & meets Godin the three forms of the trinity. God then lectures him about life the universe & everything then shows him where Missy's body has been hidden.
The entire plot of the story is ridiculously implausiblein almost every sense. A poorly constructed excuse for the author to bombard the reader with a torrent of his own beliefs. The book reads like a sermon which, after hardly any time at all, I found intensely annoying. The author does not explain himself clearly & most of what he was trying to say can be easily confused.
The author's depiction of the Holy Trinity is cheesy at best, offensive at worst. The Father is depicted as an overweight African-American woman with a poor grasp of the English language who asks to be called 'Papa' (stay with me here) Jesus is a middle eastern looking carpenter who grins a lot & speaks like an American & the Holy Spirit is a small Asian woman who collects tears. Of course these are somewhat controversial depictions of God although they didn't offend me, just added further weight to my opinion that this book is inherently silly.
The book is full of hopelessly sentimental slush, vomit worthy dialogue, plenty of hugs & tears & lots & lots of lecturing. The behaviour of the characters is unreasonable & not at all plausible. The non-stop lectures are not only irritating but patronising & (like everything elsein the book) heavily Americanised which, as an Englishman, I did not appreciate.
Fans are called upon by the publishing team behind the book to take partin something they have labelled 'The Missy Project' which basically involves shamelessly promoting this book whenever the opportunity presents itself. Fans are urged to give the book to friends, work colleagues & even strangersin an effort to make the author money, sorry, I mean spread the good word! The publishers even try to emotionally blackmail people by essentially saying 'they want to make this book into a movie but can only do so if we sell a certain amount of books' reading between the lines this means 'if this book doesn't make it into a movie, you've failed this wonderful, life changing book' this is the kind of insidious nonsense which is wrong with the world today. If people truly valued this book then requests like this would not be necessary.
