As promised here is my review of The Shack by William P. Young. First of all I should point out that I don’t really write book reviews but I do love to read. I’m one of those people who is happy to re-read favourite books over and over again. This is a book I intend to read again when I’ve lent it to as many people as possible! If you haven’t read it, I’ll try not to spoil the story. It centres around ‘Mack’, Mackenzie Allen Phillips and an incident that affects him following the abduction and murder of his youngest daughter Missy. Some time later a note arrives inviting him back to a shack where critical evidence was found, the note is signed ‘Papa’, his wife’s name for God. Mack doubts the note is really from God, but finds himself drawn to make plans to go. What he finds there changes his life forever.
I’d never heard of this book until I saw a comment about it on a blog. It is a blog written by a fellow Christian who remarked how much it had affected her, so I decided to buy it and see for myself. I laughed and cried much, and prayed more, as I read. After reading it I am filled with a longing to get closer to God through Jesus. The book has an indefinable quality which comes only from personal experience and I wonder if the author has experienced a similar loss and resolution to the one recounted in the book.
One reviewer says the book reads like a prayer and he is right. It left me filled with feelings I can’t describe, full of hope that I too can experience the love and tender mercy of a loving God in a more intimate way than I could ever have imagined.
