Review: The Shack by William P Young

Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment, he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as they did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

This book has been very controversial, so right off I want to say that I LOVED IT! This has been added to my list of all time favorite reads! It is an amazing book. I do want everyone I know to read this book. Since I read the library's copy, I want to go out and purchase my own copy. Then I want to reread it and highlight all the passages that meant so much to me.

For me, as a mom, this book was a tough read because of what happens to the daughter. But, it was about so much more than the child's abduction. The themes that continued to resonate in my head were Faith, Trust, and Forgiveness. Who doesn't struggle with any of these? The storyline may have been unconventional and at times maybe hard to follow, but it definately made me stop and think about my own relationship with God. What kind of a relationship is it? How do I trust in God's plan for me? How and why do I have to forgive? Many of these and more were answered throughout this book and it continues to make me think. I don't want to give any bit of the story away, so I am just going to end by saying, You Must Read This Book and then talk about it with someone who has read it. Be open to new ideas and thoughts as you are reading this book. Find a quiet place to read, especially the first few and last few chapters, as they are very powerful. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars!