Books for Christian Girls: "The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip" by Sara Brunsvold

About this book:

“Aidyn Kelley is talented, ambitious, and ready for a more serious assignment than the fluff pieces she’s been getting as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. In her eagerness, she pushes too hard, earning herself the menial task of writing an obituary for an unremarkable woman who’s just entered hospice care. But there’s more to Clara Kip than meets the eye. The spirited septuagenarian may be dying, but she’s not quite ready to cash it in yet. Never one to shy away from an assignment herself, she can see that God brought the young reporter into her life for a reason. And if it’s a story Aidyn Kelley wants, that’s just what Mrs. Kip will give her—but she’s going to have to work for it.”

Series: As of now, no, a stand-alone novel.

Spiritual Content- 2 Peter 1:15 at the end; Many Scriptures are mentioned, read, quoted, & repeated; Bible reading; Many, many prayers, praising, & thanking God; Church going & helping at a mission; Witnessing to others (including Mrs. Kip witnesses to a man and prayers hard for his salvation, there is a scene of him apparently seeing Someone after their witnessing, before his death); Many, many talks about God, His will, trusting Him, & witnessing; ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God; All about many, many mentions of God, His will, & trusting Him; In a flashback scene, Mrs. Kip is mad at God and doesn’t understand why He allowed something to happen and in another scene, she thinks that God is a bully (in the next flashback scene, she’s a new Christian); Many mentions of God, witnessing, & His will; Many mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, books of the Bible, those in the Bible, & Scriptures; Mentions of Heaven & longing to be there; Mentions of churches, church going, Bible classes, Sunday school classes, pastors, worship, & songs; Mentions of mission trips, missionaries, & martyrs; Mentions of angels & God’s hidden warriors; Mentions of blessings & being blessed; Mentions of a cross necklace (Aidyn wears one, but keeps it under her shirt at work since “newsrooms aren’t exactly harbors of faith”); A few mentions of God’s creation; A few mentions of different Christian denominations; A few mentions of godsends & God speed; A few mentions of Buddhists learning about Christianity because it gives hope; A couple mentions of baptisms; A couple mentions of devotionals; A couple mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of someone being like a saint; A couple mentions of a Chris Tomlin song; A couple mentions of a Faith section of a newspaper being the article is code for being “relatively buried”;

*Note: A couple mentions of Aidyn and her friend (Rahmiya)’s difference in faith and how they rarely talk about it (the end of the book leaves it open ended about Aidyn talking to her about it); A couple mentions of someone believing in Jesus, but struggling to deal with his own demons and “taking their power for granted”; A mention of a group of people having been through hell; A mention of a godforsaken place.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘freaking’, a ‘suck it up’, a form of ‘stupid’, two forms of ‘dumb’; A little bit of (playfully) eye rolling; Mrs. Kips is in hospice care (cancer), has pain, has to take morphine at times, and also needs help going to the bathroom (up to semi-detailed); Seeing signs of death approaching (written mostly in a medical way), seeing someone die, & helping clean them (up to semi-detailed); See an infant that died (up to semi-detailed); In a flashback scene, Mrs. Kips drinks Scotch after her husband’s death (though she doesn’t like it); A nightmare of a child being attacked by a beast (not gruesome, but in a spiritual-way, barely-above-not-detailed); While not technically lying, Aidyn fishes for information by acting like she knows what the other person is talking about; Many mentions of wars, fighting, deaths, families being separated, & Communists (including a new government that wants to murder someone); Many mentions of death, deaths, how they happened, signs of death approaching, & grieving (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a car accident, death, & how it happened (hinted to be drunk-driving, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of pain & injuries; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, someone who “battled the bottle”, & a bar; A few mentions of killers, thieves, and liars; A few mentions of prejudice & trying to help foreigners despite others being small-minded about it; A couple mentions of terrorists & bombs; A couple mentions of the Great Depression; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of smoking & a pipe; A couple mentions of humans being cruel to animals; A mention of the Japanese internment camps in the 1940s; A mention of a possible murder; A mention of illegal dogfights;

*Note: Mentions of social media & technology (FaceTime, YouTube); Mentions of Harley motorcycles; A couple mentions of a store & items (JCPenney, Barbie); A couple mentions of Elvis & a song; A couple mentions of car brands; A mention of Starbucks; A mention of McDonald’s; A mention of a brand name (Vuitton).

Sexual Content- A bit of Mrs. Kip recalling her husband’s embrace, warmth, and scent (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy (a businessman and a “naïve waitress”); A mention of rescuing young girls from the red-light districts;

*Note: A couple mentions of a younger brother’s rancid boxers.

-Clara Kip, age 79

-Aidyn Kelley, age 24

P.O.V. switches between them

Set in 2016 & Flashbacks back to other times (1969, 1971, 1975-1979, & 1983) 368 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{ This book may be a hard read for those who recently lost a loved one due to the many mentions of deaths and death nearing, though, it could also help if the loved one was a Christian.}

To be frankly honest, I had been pushing reading this book off for the last couple of weeks. I was hearing great things about it, but I either wasn’t feeling it or wasn’t sure what to expect. So here I am two weeks later, finally have read this book with dried tears on my cheeks.

What a faith-filled story this was.

This is what Christian Fiction is in the best possible way: a story showing someone’s faith being steadfast during the hard times, not forgetting Him in the easy times, and also witnessing God’s love to others. I adored the message that this book carried.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Aidyn at first (she grew on me about half-way, though), but Mrs. Kips quickly caught my attention. Nearly every word out of her mouth was a prayer or praise to God and it was truly inspiring to read. Part of me wishes that we would have learned a bit more about Aidyn or even more details about Mrs. Kip, but the important details—their faiths—were there. I thought it was interesting to be introduced to a character through one person’s eyes and then when the point of view switches, we learn different things about that same person. I loved the missions aspects of this book and foresee myself going on some research bunny trails soon.

For those looking for a Christian Fiction book that isn’t the normal book in the genre, I highly suggest you check this one out.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!