Christian book review: FirstBorn: A Novel by Lorie Ann Grover
Here we have a potentially very good book which has seemingly been ruined by the editing policies of a large traditional publisher. I have no idea if Zondervan did it, or Lorie, but regardless, it was done. It is very sad.
An excellent book ruined by editing out spiritual reality
It happens over and over again. The cover is compelling—other than the fact that it shows a sexy woman in her twenties and the book is about a young girl (pre-teen) coming of age. It covers very well the indecent things forced upon a young woman to survive in a culture which kills firstborn girls—and forces firstborn boys into harsh military service for the conquering evil at twelve years old or so. Of course, the characters act and react more like older teenagers or even young adults, but that’s the normal confusion of current YA books.
The conquering evil race serves a ridiculous god in typical despicable acts. They are all nasty except for one female. The girl’s race puts up with their servitude by denying their faith. Even her father, who is depicted as one of the last believers, recants his faith. It is a very intriguing premise. My hope is that future books in this series will develop Tiadone’s spiritual knowledge past the current Old Testament level into a faith in a savior and a personal knowledge of the Lord through a Holy spirit. We all know this is unlikely from a large company like Zondervan. The spiritual reality of this book is very similar to Bethany’s Prophet by R J Larson.
Tiadone is a marvelous young woman. Her bonded raptor, Mirko, is a wonderful bird who does seem to have a more direct relationship with the Creator. She comes to faith through direct acts of the Creator, I think. But God is actually very mirky in this book. This could so easily be a powerful spiritual story. Please, Ms. Grover give us some meat! Self-publish it if your contract allows…
