Saturday, May 19, 2012

Week 20 Review: Small Town Sinners

From Goodreads:
The story of Lacey Anne Byers, a small town girl who is excited to star in Hell House, her church's annual haunted house of sin, until a childhood friend reappears and makes her question her faith.

My Review:
This was a really excellently written book, but I had a bit of a problem with the values and beliefs of the specif church, in that they were leaning more on the literal interpretation (like that the world is only 3 thousand years old instead of millions) then the looser ways to see what the bible says. After all, 1. It was written by real people, who make mistakes, so it can't be all true. And 2. People messed around with what was in it and what wasn't, so it wasn't like it was in the beginning. And 3. It's not the pre-medieval times, people are a lot more civilized, and we know a lot more, so the values that the people had then don't necessarily apply now. So how can we take what it says at face value? It takes some interpretation, and interpretation that is from more then one source with various backgrounds so that it's not biased. Yep.

And on page 164 of the copy I'm reading, it quotes the verse about why being homosexual is wrong, and from the way that it's worded, well, if they don't lay with females, then being together is OK. So thus, God is OK with people liking members of their own sex. So this church in the book, it's really judgmental, and hypocritical, because God made everything, and if he didn't approve of homosexuals, then he wouldn't have created them that way.

So yeah, besides my issues with the religion, and some of which become conflicts for Lacey throughout the book, this was a really great book, actually! The writing just sucked me in, with a story that just make me *facepalm* and just made me want to read more!

The characters were real, they made mistakes, they weren't perfect, they were all going through something, whether they were being bullied, dealing with a teenage pregnancy when they'd pledged to wait for marriage, and abusive and alcoholic parents, this story was relate-able, the issues, that a typical teen might have to deal with. And that was really great to read!

This was an awesome book, and a quick read, so I hope you guys check it out sometime!

Author: Melissa Walker
Read: May 12th-13th, 2012
Source: Library
Reason Why: It sounded really good, and it's a LLFL book!
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: July 19 2011
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

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