unlikelyplaces's Reviews (273)

I have to be honest, I didn't get very far into this book but I just found reading about men speaking so disgustingly about women consistently for the 2 or 3 chapters that I managed to read so uncomfortable to read that I decided I couldn't continue. Maybe the point of it is to make you uncomfortable, I don't know as I obviously didn't get any further but even for that purpose it was just way too much for me.

Definitely not for everyone!

This was a challenging read. I found it inspiring and challenging to really think deeply about the church and how I can outwork my faith within it biblically.

However, I am the kind of person who views everything with a critical eye and spend a lot of time thinking, discussing and weighing things up about the church and about the things I read and consume.

If you’re more the type of person who takes things at face value and if you’re easily influenced by what you read I would definitely not recommend this book. It has a danger of encouraging criticism of your churches without many practical solutions and I could see it leading to frustration.

But if you’re in church leadership or want to have your theology and practices challenged in a fairly blunt and refreshing way then I’d definitely have a read of it. Just be prepared to think critically about the way you do things and choose not to take offence!

I think this book is great for readers who are more plot focused. The writing is beautiful and the story is great. However, as a character focused reader I just felt very “meh”.

The story follows multiple different characters in little snapshots of their lives and to me I just felt like by switching between them I didn’t develop enough of an attachment to any of them to really care.

I had heard great things about this book as was so sure I was going to love it and I think it is really well done, just didn’t work for me sadly.