Crazy Dangerous Review

Book Description:
Sam Hopkins is a good kid who has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Hanging around with car thieves and thugs, Sam knows it's only a matter of time before he makes one bad decision too many and gets into real trouble.

But one day, Sam sees these thugs harassing an eccentric schoolmate named Jennifer. Finding the courage to face the bullies down, Sam loses a bad set of friends and acquires a very strange new one.

Because Jennifer is not just eccentric. To Sam, she seems downright crazy. She has terrifying hallucinations involving demons, the devil, and death. And here's the really crazy part: Sam is beginning to suspect that these visions may actually be prophecies-prophecies of something terrible that's going to happen very soon. Unless he can stop it.

With no one to believe him, with no one to help him, Sam is now all alone in a race against time. Finding the truth before disaster strikes is going to be both crazy and very, very dangerous.

My Review:
I jumped at the chance to review this book for one reason only, I really thought my son would enjoy it. He isn't a big Christian reader, not fiction or nonfiction, but I thought that this would pique his interest. Then I began reading it, and couldn't put it down.

Our hero in the story is young Sam Hopkins, a preacher's kid who feels isolated from his peers because of who his father is. As a result he ends up joining up with the "wrong" crowd. Now before you write Sam off, let me tell you that this kid has a strong sense of right and wrong. Do right, fear nothing becomes his mantra after his first introduction to Jennifer. And boy are we in for a wild ride after that!

Now, I am not going to give the story away but I will tell you that by the end of the book Sam becomes (at least in my eyes) an even better example of trusting God than his father! I found the father in the story to be a bit disconcerting. As a pastor/preacher I didn't understand his responses to Sam's queries concerning the possibility of Jennifer seeing demons. His response as to whether it was possible that Jennifer was having visions was, "I've devoted my life to my faith, so you know what I believe, I believe there are powers beyond the ones we see, but...Well, the world is not a magical place, that's all. The things that happen are pretty predictable, and they can usually be explained in ordinary terms...I can't explain (Jennifer's hallucinations) it. Maybe it was just some kind of coincidence or....something." To me this felt like he didn't believe in the possibility of demons or prophetic visions which is contradictory to the Bible. Sam however, displays childlike faith and follows his beliefs all the way through the story. Which is a good thing, otherwise it would have had a really bad outcome!

There are a lot of subtle Bible references throughout the book, like at the end when a strange man comes upon Sam while he is running and tells him(after all that he has been through doing right and fearing nothing) "...keep on training. You're gonna run a good race when the time comes. I'm sure of it." Reminds me of 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. Still, this isn't a "shove religion down your throat" type of book, the message is there, but it is more subtle than Spirit Fighter.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author! Another 2 thumbs up book!

I just passed the book on to my son, and he has promised to write his own review once he completes it.

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