The Blessed Man and the Witch
By David Dubrow
As a Christian author myself, I get a lot of complaints from readers about Christian Fiction. It’s too preachy, the characters are too perfect, it forces religion on the reader—not to mention that you don’t HAVE to read so there is no ‘forcing’ really but whatever.
The complaints are almost always the same, to those who feel that way, I have found your answer. The Blessed Man and the Witch is a really solid read. It defies the Christian genre by mixing faith with fiction in a very ‘real-world’ kind of way. The characters are very realistic and gritty, I should say. They have real emotions, real questions, and face real life difficulties that aren’t always resolved through innocent prayer. Not to doubt the power of prayer but it tends to be very easily overplayed in Christian Fiction, its often presented as a quick-fix rather than a legitimate communication and time spent with Christ. But I digress.
To me, this book speaks volumes because it goes there. It is something that can definitely be enjoyed by any reader, Christian or not. That’s not to say that the faith aspect is nonexistent. It is there and in fact qualifies this book as a Christian book. But it blurs the lines as to what Christian Fiction is and what it could become. I think Dubrow has given us a great example of what happens when Believers think outside the box, hopefully more Christian authors will learn from him.
So basically we have four main characters who are all attempting to find this ‘blessed man’ as the world races toward an inevitable Armageddon. Biblical theme number one, plus the fact that each chapter begins with a Biblical verse. This book is mostly Christian ‘themed’ rather than Christian ‘based’. But anyway…each character has their own personality, their own background story, and their own reason for seeking out this blessed man. Their tales will surprise you, upset you, intrigue you, and get you hooked into the story. You can pretty much guess what will happen in each chapter from the snippets of info included in the beginning. I really liked this because it was like having insight before knowing the full story. It left me wondering what would happen next even though I already had a small idea.
There is a basic sense of good versus evil in this story and I think Dubrow played it up well. I enjoyed the roller coaster ride from the characters and the setup of the overall story. All in all, this was a great book written spectacularly well. I would recommend it to readers of all ages and belief systems—or none at all.
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*