About this book:
“Meet Eden! Her fingers were made for the piano. Her voice was made to sing harmony. But suddenly her heart stops working, and everything changes. As the life she wants to be living passes by outside the walls of her hospital room, Eden realizes that she barely recognizes who she is becoming.
Meet Zahra! Math nerd. Future engineer. She's the baby of the family, but she's got big dreams... or at least, she used to. The war stole her home, halted her education, and imprisoned her in a tent far from home. Now what??
Meet Mei! Good girl. Optimist. Devoted member of her church youth group. Maybe a little bit clumsy. ;) But sometimes things can get really weird, and really confusing, really fast.
Meet Katya! Tennis player. Big sister. Fluffy dog tolerator. Her favorite place to be is with her best friends. Life is pretty good, until the morning when it suddenly isn't. With any sense of stability ripped away from her, is there a safe place for her heart and mind?
Toronto. Syria. Ukraine. Texas. Four girls face the hardships of isolation in remote corners of the planet. Their journeys will be messy, of course. One of them will struggle with growing anger , and another with crippling anxiety . One will drift toward despair . Another will battle surprising temptation . While facing challenges they wouldn’t have chosen, what refuge can they seek? What hope can they cling to? Not always at their best but also never abandoned, read along as Eden, Zahra, Mei and Katya discover that they are pursued and deeply loved by God. Their raw and relatable stories might point your heart to fresh hope, too.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Follow in the Dark” series.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are read, mentioned, quoted, remembered, discussed, & thought over; Prayers & Thanking God (including some of the girls feeling peace and relief when being prayed over by others); ‘Thank God’ is said five times (once by Zahra’s Muslim mother); Youth group, worship, & a sermon/message; Talks about God, Jesus, Jesus’ suffering, His love, death/dying, & hard times; Most 'H's are capital when referring to God and Jesus; Eden tried to keep a good attitude about being in the hospital, but those best intentions slip away and she’s mad at God; A young woman from Eden’s church tells her about when she was angry at God and prayed angry prayers, which helped her (Eden is concerned if that’s even okay, but the young woman tells her that God knows and sees her completely and kindly; Later, Eden asks how Jesus can change how much she hates her situation and the woman encourages her that Jesus suffered and knows what they are going through); Eden tries the angry prayers and screams at God, allowing herself to say things she hadn’t been able to bring herself to admit; Eden prays that she doesn’t feel like God is with her at all and needs Him; *Spoiler* Eden writes a song about how she hates what is happening to her and how she pushes away, but His love finds a way *End of Spoiler*; Eden’s mom comments about it being a long time since she talked to God about anything, but Eden encourages her that God is listening whenever she is ready; Mei goes to youth group online, worships with her group, & stays connected through text messages with her youth group about a project to show God’s love during the pandemic restrictions; Mei prays to glorify God with her body after reading 1 Corinthians 6:20; Katya remembers and sings a song her mother would sing about God being near; Katya reads Psalms 23 and doesn’t feel like God is with her, but wants to believe that He is; Katya prays during a panic attack for God to help her; Another girl says her family is “pretty religious” and while she hasn’t been to mass in a long time, talking about God isn’t going to offend her; Each of the four girls have someone in her life who speaks truth to her and points her to Jesus in the midst of her hard circumstances; Many mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & books of the Bible; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of churches, church going, youth groups, worship, pastors, sermons/lessons, & services; A few mentions of thanking God (including the Muslim god); A couple mentions of Heaven; A mention of a nun;
*Note: Zahra’s family is Muslim and talk about God (the author has a note that: “In Arabic, which is the language that Zahra’s family and their neighbors would speak, Muslims (like Zahra’s family) and Christians use the same word for “God” – Allah. That word refers to the one God, the God who created everything. Beyond that, however, there are a lot of differences in what the Bible and the Qur’an (the Muslim scripture) say about what God is like. The biggest difference has to do with Jesus. The Bible teaches that Jesus is God’s Son and the perfect revelation of who God is.”); Zahra questions how they can say that God is merciful when there is so much pain; *Spoilers* Zahra meets with a female teacher that has an Injeel (part of the Christian Scriptures, in this case and context, the author notes that it is the New Testament) and the teacher tells Zahra that when she was in labor and a midwife prayed for her in Jesus’ name, she felt so much peace and accepted the book; The teacher says she has read it each day and each time, it gives her peace; Her husband says that if she becomes a Christian (an Injeeliyeh woman), he still wants her to wear a veil and that their sons will still go to a Qur’an school (she doesn’t know if she is a Christian or if that is important, but believes that Jesus did was the Christians say He did); Zahra feels awkward and not sure what to say; Later, Zahra has the urge to read the book because she doesn’t know if she’ll have a chance to read one again, but thinks her parents would be devastated if they knew she was interested in another religion; She does read Luke and is moved by it; The teacher gives her the copy and her father sees it, but he doesn’t mind her having it and says that he may even read it after having a dream about being told to learn more about the prophet Jesus; Zahra reads about Jesus predicting His death and how “the firm teaching she had always heard was that God would not allow his prophet to die, and that, in fact, he had not really died. She had been taught that Jesus had been secretly replaced with another man on the cross.” and has questions about it all, but chooses Jesus for herself *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of Zahra’s family praying with their prayer mats, prayer beads, the Qur’an, and her father going to a mosque.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blah, blah, blah’, a ‘gah’, an ‘omg’, two ‘gosh’s, four ‘shut up’s, seven ‘oh my gosh’s, and eleven ‘stupid’s; Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Being in a collapsed building, hearing others being hurt, injuries, pain, & being knocked unconscious (barely-above-not-detailed); Zahra lives in a refugee camp in Syria during a war with her family & Katya lives in a bomb shelter in Ukraine during a war (with her little brother as they are separated from their mom); Katya has nightmares about her mom and friends in distress and hurt; Many mentions of wars, fighting, gunfire, bombings, bombs/missiles, bomb shelters, places destroyed, refugee camps, & a young man being abducted and his family grieving; Mentions of a baby dying during childbirth & grief (*Spoiler* Zahra’s sister’s baby who came too early *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of dying, Eden not being afraid of dying from of Jesus, & a kid down the hall from her passing; Mentions of girls being harassed and attacked/ambushed in Zahra’s area (so she stays in their tent unless her father is with her; unsaid if it is just physical assault or also sexual assault); Mentions of buildings collapsing on top of people, injuries, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of COVID-19 pandemic, people being sick, & having to stay at home; A few mentions of car accidents, death, & grief (by a sister for her twin brother); A few mentions of the possibility of being killed (Katya’s concern for her mother); A few mentions of drownings & deaths; A few mentions of bullies & peer pressure; A few mentions of rumors; A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of looted stores; A couple mentions of the concern of a puppy dying; A couple mentions of people being rude to signs being hung up about God (including a man being offended and someone else throwing a tomato at a sign); A mention of Eden getting a heart from “some poor dead person”; A mention of snipers in a war;
*Note: Zahra feels like her life is a prison due to being in the refugee camp and that any good opportunity is going to be taken away from her; Mei’s family is living through the pandemic in Canada and having to stay at home, her older sister very withdrawn because of her senior year not being as she hoped/expected; Katya has a few episodes she thinks are heart attacks, but are actually anxiety/panic attacks (described as she can’t breathe, thinking her heart is going to explode, major fear and panicking, and a doctor explains what it is to her, semi-detailed); Eden has some sass and disrespect towards her mom & snaps at her little sister (which makes her mom tell her that her condition is no excuse for acting that way; Later, Eden and her mom talk about how Eden feels pressured by her mom to do more and her mom admits to being too hard on herself and on Eden); Eden feels jealous about others living normal lives and hates being in the hospital; In a moment of anger and hating her circumstances, Eden throws the brand-new phone her parents got her; Mei faces a comment from a classmate about South Koreans being “her people” when she’s actually Chinese-Canadian; Mentions of medical things such as Eden waiting for a heart transplant, needles, IVs, and surgeries and complications; Mentions of panic and anxiety attacks; A mention of a brand-name (Etch-a-Sketch).
Sexual Content- A form of ‘hot’; Mei’s storyline has to do with inappropriate pictures and peer pressure (A guy in her class that she likes asks her to send a “good pic” and when she misunderstands and sends a harmless selfie, he sends her a file of what he means which makes her face turn hot and deep red and slam her laptop shut; She wishes she could un-see what she had just seen and feels sick to her stomach and gross; She has to reopen her laptop for class and tries to close the image without having to look at it again; Mei is told by another girl that the guy likes Asian girls and has a thing for her, but is trying to see if she can lighten up and have some fun (which Mei thinks “not that kind of fun” and is still sicken by the thought of the image he sent); Mei wonders if the picture was some kind of mistake as he seems like a nice guy and plans to have a nice picture of herself (not a gross one) just in case he messages her again; She finds videos online that say “Selfie Angles that will Make Him Go Crazy!” and “Ten Steps to the Hottest Selfie” and her stomach feels funny about them, and tries to figure out a compromise between what she’s seeing in the videos and what she’s comfortable with, but feels weird after trying to imitate what she sees in the videos; Mei clicks on a link in one of the videos and it leads to another picture like what the boy had sent her and she quickly slams her laptop closed and tries to erase it from her mind; She tries to imitate some of what she sees in the “sketchy tutorials” with “just the light from her closet to illuminate her pose” and doesn’t feel right about it, but thinks about her crush on the guy; Mei notices a Scripture about being wonderfully made by God above her mirror and feels turmoil at what she thinks God would feel about her trying to get the guy’s attention; She tries to close the picture without looking at it and wonders “how could a girl post a picture of herself like that?” and shudders before thinking “maybe I’m starting to understand why she would, actually.”; Mei talks with an older girl from church (who she thinks probably doesn’t care about getting a guy’s attention) and the girl mentions to Mei about being careful on her laptop at night because she “ended up on some weird sites one time. We just want to be careful with what goes in our heads, you know?”; *Spoilers* A bit later, the boy messages that she doesn’t need to be embarrassed about sending him a picture because he already thinks she’s beautiful, but she messages that she doesn’t send pictures like that and says that “I’m beautiful because God made me. My body belongs to Him.”, he pokes fun about her comment and Mei feels a sting of embarrassment; In her final chapter, she notices that the boy and the other classmate aren’t in virtual class and have been expelled for obtaining inappropriate pictures of other students, blackmailing them, and posting the pictures online when her parents tell her about it; Mei’s parents talk with her and ask if anyone tried to get her to send pictures and despite her embarrassment about it, she tells them that a guy did try and didn’t send anything but a normal smiling one (and doesn’t mention the weird tutorials she found online); Mei starts to cry and says the whole thing sounds “weird and gross and scary” and her parents agree and say if anything happens like this in the future, they are always there to help; Mei still struggles with the disturbing images in her mind that display “themselves at the forefront of her thoughts” and seem “plastered with superglue onto her thoughts”, which make her feel discouraged and ashamed; She talks with the older girl from her church and the girl shares that she saw pictures on her phone that she wishes she didn’t see at Mei’s age and actually looked at them several times, adding that “after that, it was really hard to get those images out of my head, so I know what you mean. Even more, they will interrupt my thoughts out of nowhere, when I’, having a bad day or even sometimes when I’m trying to pray or worship. So I get it.” and talks to Mei about temptation and how God still loves her; The older girl also tells Mei that her “way-out” when she’s tempted to look at those kinds of pictures again is to literally change her position and walk away and do sometime “aligned with the mission God has called me to in the world” and has really helped her; Mei tries this with the picture fills her mind and it helps *End of Spoilers*; Eden feels jealous about a girl flirting with her crush on social media and notices on the girl’s social media that she has “Perfect hair. Perfect teeth. Perfect makeup. Perfect body. Perfect outfits.”; Mentions of crushes & cute boys; Mentions of jealousy; A mention of flirting; A mention of a song Eden is writing not being for a boy (like one of the hospital staff members teases her about); A mention of a woman trying to quickly cover her hair in Zahra’s area when suddenly having to be in public;
*Note: Zahra’s mother mentions about a young man that could take good care of her and protect her, but she doesn’t want to get married and her father says she is still young and has dreams (Zahra is concerned that she will be forced to marry, but that does not happen and is not brought up again); Eden sees an influencer on social media talk about “getting your body summer ready” and she notes that she’ll have another ugly scar on her chest after the transplant.
-Eden, age 15
-Zahra, age 15
-Mei, age 15
-Katya, age 14-15
P.O.V. switches between them
265 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{Trigger Warning for wars, bombings, panic attacks, & dealing with inappropriate pictures }
{ Add up to a full star for girls in public school }
At first, I was hesitant about this book partially because of it following four different girls and I was concerned that I would have a hard time keeping track of their lives and telling them apart. That wasn’t the case at all, though, because they are all going through very different events and emotions that it was easy to keep them separated in my mind. None of the girls are connected to each other in any way, which I think might be a first for me as there is usually some connection between characters in the stories I read.
There’s definitely trigger warnings for sensitive topics, but this book could also trigger compassion for readers about those in these situations. I honestly thought the faith content and how these hard topics were handled and discussed were solidly done.
Typically, I wouldn’t care for reading about the pandemic, but Mei’s parts highlighted a different experience than my own along with other things she was experiencing, and it warmed my heart to see her friendship with her youth group.
One of the girls, Mei, faces a classmate asking her for inappropriate pictures and when she sees what he means, she’s embarrassed and can’t stop the image from coming to her mind again and again. This is a topic I’m cautious about in YA books and one that when discussed in Christian Fiction often comes across as the author putting on her a mom-hat or teacher-hat to educate the young readers she’s reaching. When that happens, the fictional story takes a turn that feels like a lesson and can be a negative in how it’s handled for those readers despite the author’s good intentions because it feels like they’re being “preached at”. I’m very impressed to say that I didn’t get that feeling at all with this book and the hard topics like this, war, and panic attacks it features and discusses. This author kept it natural—whether it be the reactions of the girls in their situations or how they handle different things, and it made the book feel very realistic.
With Mei’s challenges, she doesn’t talk to her parents about the images, but wrestles with it and a older girl who is like a “big sister” at youth group talks with her. I wish Mei would have discussed it with her mom, but with her parents being so busy and Mei feeling ashamed by seeing the imagine, it makes sense that Mei didn’t reach out about it. I was glad there was that older friend that shared Godly wisdom to and prayers for Mei.
I honestly wasn’t expecting this book to make me emotional, but it did with the four girls and what they and their families are going through. I had chills at a couple of parts and found myself near tears once or twice. I have to say that I felt like a big sister with these girls and how proud of I was of them all by the end, seeing how they rose above what was going on in their lives. I was a little bummed that the book ended before we saw some events/results for a couple of the girls, so I was glad to see that there is a sequel and will definitely be picking that one up!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Author for this honest review.
