Black Book Review.

Title: Black.

Author: Ted Dekker.

Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, Fantasy, Christian, action/Adventure.

Plot: Thomas Hunter, a twenty-five-year-old military brat and failed novelist, lives with his older sister in Denver, Colorado. One day on his way home from work Thomas is shot at by dangerous men sent to find him from New York. It’s been six years since the last time Thomas was in a fight for his life and he panics; dashing up to a roof in the darkness, he waits and tries to catch his breath when a silent bullet speeds through the night air and clips him on the head. He drops unconscious and immediately wakes up in a black forest filled with malevolent talking black bats that nearly kill him before he escapes. A white bat with green eyes swoops in and helps lead him out of the forest to a bridge linking it with a colored, healthy forest. Thomas falls unconscious on the green grass and wakes back up in Denver, extremely confused.

At first Thomas thinks he’s just been having a very real dream but when he learns of the existence of the Raison Strain, a deadly virus set to wipe out the world’s population in a few short weeks, in the colored forest half of his dreams, everything shifts. With his sister Kara’s help, Thomas embarks on an epic journey in two worlds that will leave him exhausted and will forever change his life and the course of history. But how is he to stop something so unreal when he has been killed – twice?

Likes/Dislikes: This is the first book in a trilogy which is the first part of a very long series by Dekker. Black packs quite the adrenaline-rush. Thomas Hunter is a very simple yet very complex character and it was grand to watch his gradual change as the story progressed. Kara was a grand character as well and the descriptions of the dream world, while a little confusing if read too fast, were very imaginative. I picked this book up worried that Dekker would be like Frank Peretti but I was pleasantly surprised to find that he isn’t. Dekker isn’t a star author like some of the classics but he’s better than the average and he can spin a very colorful adrenaline-laced story with all the pieces falling into place only at the end. I must note, however, that he really is terrible at writing romance. Full of humor and nonstop action, I highly recommend Black.

Rating: PG-15 and up for reading level and content {mostly violence}.

Date Report Written: September 8, 2011.