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Book Review of Left Behind (Left Behind, Bk 1)

Left Behind (Left Behind, Bk 1)
reviewed on + 63 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8


I am new to the genre of Christian Fiction, and found this book at a used bookstore, not knowing anything about it at all. The only idea I had from skimming the description on the back cover and opening to the artwork in the front cover was that I had a vague idea it was about a pilot searching for his family who disappeared while he was on a trans-Atlantic flight. I picked it up after a long day at work, expecting to read for about 30 minutes then fall asleep. I was hooked from the start and read at least 10 chapters on the first night, long after I should have been asleep. For about four days afterwards, thoughts of the book invaded my day, every moment that I was not concentrating on something else I kept thinking about it. I couldn't pick it back up to read it for about four days because I was absolutely shaken by it. The extreme emotions and the utter violence of some of the descriptions, as well as the exploration of faith in a time of desperation and horror, frightened and intrigued me. After I calmed down enough to let the story back into my head, I devoured the book in days (at the pace I read, it usually takes me weeks to finish even a 350-page book). Then I started ordering and reading each of the other books in the series in sequence, not even allowing myself to read a description or summary of any book before reading it in hopes I would not have the story spoiled by reading any giveaways to the plot. It was as consuming as I have heard people describe the TV series "Lost" ... who lives, who dies, whose allegience is tested, who is subjected to violence, who falls in love, who is still standing at the end of the book for the next one. I am about a third of the way through book 6 now, and still just as enthralled. To be honest, I don't know how to disect elements such as probability of the plot, development of the characters, believability, holes in the story, blah blah blah. Who cares? Go along for the ride. It's like an action movie in print.