About this book:
“For four modern girls in vastly different settings, the Sermon on the Mount is about to get uncomfortably relevant.
As their stories continue, the lives of Eden, Katya, Mei and Zahra will shift. Circumstances will change. New challenges will arise. One of them will find herself betrayed by someone she thought she could trust. Another will begin to question what she thought she knew. One of them will come face to face with her greatest fear, and one will discover that starting over is harder than she would have imagined.
Their journeys prompt the question: How do we know what we really believe – by the truths we assent to, or by the choices we make?”
Series: Book #2 in the “Follow in the Dark” series. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are read, remembered, thought over, & discussed; Bible reading; Witnessing & Discussing Jesus with others; Many Prayers & Thanking God; Church going, youth group events, Sunday school classes, messages/lessons, & worship/singing; Talks about God, Jesus, those and events in the Bible, following God’s rules, & forgiving others; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Eden is on the worship team at church; Because her crush has a heart for God, Eden wants to show him her heart for God as well by writing a worship song to get his attention, but feels off (bothered) and isn’t sure why (*Spoilers* Later, she realizes that what was wrong was that she hasn’t been thinking about God and hasn’t truly been worshiping; She and her best friend make up and pray about witnessing to two other girls they know that are interested learning about in Jesus *End of Spoilers*); When in a new country, Katya doesn’t go to church the first week because she’s overwhelmed with all the new things in her life (she goes the next week and enjoys it, feeling welcomed and safe); Sermons about God being a father isn’t Katya’s favorite because of her relationship with her father & she leaves during a message about it; *Spoilers* Katya realizes she needs both God and her father, but feels like they both have abandoned her; She tells her mother about this feeling and she tells her that Jesus has not abandoned us; At the end, Katya asks God if it’s okay that it might take her a long time before she feels safe with Him and to teach her how to feel safe *End of Spoilers*; Mei helps with teaching a children’s Sunday school class & does a skit about Daniel and the Lions’ Den; Mei looks into a student leadership position and while she could answer that God is the reason she wakes up every morning, she decides that because it isn’t for church, that might not be the answer the school is looking for and answers about her family instead (a friend answers that Jesus is the most important thing in his life and Mei in uncomfortable and feels a little defensive about not saying it); Mei is asked if she’s religious, but she says that religious isn’t the way she would describe herself and that her relationship with Jesus is a really important part of her life; Zahra has a dream where she is drowning but the Good Shepherd rescues her; *Major Spoilers* At the end, Zahra feels as if she should ask Jesus to save her sister and her baby during a difficult childbirth so she does “with a confidence and peace she has never experienced before in her life” and they experience a miracle; Zahra asks God for life for the baby and her sister and it makes an impact on her sister and family; Her father also shares with them that he has been having the same dream every night of Jesus appearing to him and has decided to follow Jesus *End of Spoilers*; Many mentions of God, Jesus, His grace, loving your enemies, & witnessing to others; Many mentions of churches, church going, student ministry events, church events, Sunday School classes, youth groups, pastors, sermons/lessons, worship, songs, & services; Mentions of Bibles, those and events in the Bible, Bible reading, & Bible studies; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of Christians; Mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of blessings; A mention of church camp;
*Note: Zahra hides her New Testament Bible from her family members (*Spoilers* when her older sister finds it, she calls it “corrupted”, a book for “infidels”, and full of “Christian lies”; Zahra realizes that no matter what, Jesus and her being a Christian cannot be taken away from her; Zahra’s mother and sister want to marry Zahra off and when she’s greatly upset about this, Zahra thinks her life is over because she is following Jesus; At the end, Zahra’s family witnesses a miracle because of her prayer and a family member decides to follow Jesus *End of Spoilers*); Mei meets a young man who is a leader at the retreat and says he is from a “really religious background” but has come to realize that “religious ideas can be divisive and used to hurt people” so now his creed is “just love and inclusivity” (Mei isn’t sure how to respond to that); That leader at a retreat encourages Mei to speak “your truth” which Mei recalls a youth group leader talking about that phrase and how “if something is true, it’s true all the time, for everyone”; The retreat has questions for the students to agree or disagree with, one being about “love is love” (which Mei thinks that God is “the only One with the wisdom to put boundaries around who I can and can’t be in a romantic relationship with”) and another about religion being the “basically the same…no single faith tradition has an exclusive claim on the truth” (*Spoilers* Mei prays to be faithful and steps out to disagree with all the others about this; She gets to talk with two young adults that love Jesus about the retreat and they have a good conversation about pleasing God rather than people, being hated by everyone for Jesus’ sake, and pray for her about the next day’s retreat; The next day, a girl says she feels unsafe around Mei and Mei responds that she follows Jesus and wants to obey Him, adding that “part of that includes loving my neighbor, no matter what you believe”; The leader at the retreat asks her about who she really is “a Christian girl or a representative of the Chinese-Canadian community who’s ready to champion the beauty of ethnic diversity in Canada?” and Mei writes him an email about how important Jesus and His teachings are to her *End of Spoilers*); A friend tells Katya that neither of them need God (which hits Katya hard and she tells her friend to shut up, but quickly feels bad about being mean to her friend); Eden thinks about praying with a girl she knows, but doesn’t because she thinks it will make the girl feel weird; Eden’s mom rarely attends church with their family, but is supportive of Eden and her sister going to church (Eden sometimes feels embarrassed by what she assumes her mom’s assessment of her youth group and thinks that her mom thinks it’s a waste of time, but her mom surprises her with her positive comments); A few mentions of being religious or not religious; A couple mentions of aliens; A mention of Zahra’s father’s prayer beads; A mention of Ramadan.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, a ‘gosh’, an ‘oh my gosh’, a ‘shut up’, and four ‘stupid’s; Some Eye rolling & Sarcasm; A tornado watch & sandstorm (up to semi-detailed); Zahra has a dream where she is drowning (but the Good Shepherd rescues her); Mei’s (Chinese) church is vandalized with sayings like “Go back to where you came from” & the vandals throw the spray cans at them (which hits an old women) and say a racial slur (not written out; all of this great bothers Mei; *Major Spoiler* At the end, one of the guys who vandalized the church comes to a Sunday morning service, apologizes to them, and wants to know why they still treated him kindly *End of Spoiler*); Many mentions of wars, war-torn area, fighting, deaths and assumed deaths, grief (including a mother being a shell of herself after experiencing a war and sitting in the dark crying), violence, explosions, destruction, kidnapped family member (who abducted), & a refugee camp; Mentions of amputations (including a teenage boy losing his leg), injuries, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of vandalism, graffiti, assault, arrests, & jail time; Mentions of bullying & harassment; Mentions of vomit & vomiting; Mentions of hatred & hating a place and the people (the latter is said by a boy, which his mother corrects); Mentions of hateful words & prejudice (towards Mei and her church); Mentions of smoking & a pipe (used by a teenage boy who offers a main character to try, which she doesn’t); A few mentions of a death & the woman grieving her husband; A few mentions of nightmares & nightmare-like experiences; A few mentions of unkind fathers (which can cause some to struggle with believing that God is a loving Father); A couple mentions of sniper fire; A couple mentions of rumors; A mention of a miscarriage & grief; A mention of a church meeting in a restaurant that has a “fully stocked bar”;
*Note: Katya has a moment of PTSD and can’t breathe (she recalls the destroyed area around her home and explosions; She later wonders if she’ll “always be doomed to be a second away from falling apart”; up to semi-detailed); In the beginning, Katya and her family are living in a refugee shelter (they are sharing a room with another family that can be rude; Katya and her brother dislike that family and living in Poland; Katya thinks going to assimilation classes are miserable; Mentions of Katya and other Ukrainian students being mocked and teased by other students); Katya struggles with people continuing on with their lives while her and many other refugees’ lives have fallen apart (she feels weighed down because of their reality); Katya’s father walked out on their family when she was little *Spoilers* but has recently contacted their mother in hopes of talking to Katya and her brother before he is sent to the frontlines; Katya feels grief, fear, and anger about this news & decides on being angry at him and resents him; A friend asks if Katya hates her father, but she says she tries not to think of him; At the end, Katya has a video chat with their father and while it is awkward, they talk for a little bit, but Katya is mad that he didn’t apologize for leaving them and discusses it with her mom and pastor’s wife *End of Spoilers*; Mei’s school is promoting a student leadership retreat about inclusion and unity (which Mei wants to help with and later tells others that she thinks her generation “can become more accepting of people from other backgrounds”); Mei wears masks to church and school; At the leadership retreat, Mei and the other students are asked their opinions on immigration (“if you think people who arrive from other cultures and countries make Canada better, [go this direction, if you disagree go the other direction]”), loving whoever you want (“[if you agree] with the statement, ‘Love is love. You love who you want, I’ll who I want, and I’ll support you no matter what, [go this way]”; Mei realizes she needs to listen to the wording of these statements and wishes to have a discussion because she knows what the Bible says, but goes to the agreeing side because others would think she’s being judgmental if she can’t explain herself even though she thinks that God is “the only One with the wisdom to put boundaries around who I can and can’t be in a romantic relationship with”), and all religions being “basically the same” (“no single faith tradition has an exclusive claim on the truth”; *Spoilers* Mei prays to be faithful and steps out to disagree with all the others; The next day, one if the girls accuses her of not being an ally to people who are different than her and feeling unsafe around Mei; Mei responds that she didn’t mean to make any feel unsafe and that she doesn’t believe that all faith traditions are the same because she follows Jesus, but also thinks that everyone should “have the freedom to believe what they want and make their own choices…like, I don’t want you to be mistreated for anything you believe or choose” adding that “because I love Jesus, I want to obey Him. But part of that includes loving my neighbor no matter what you believe”; The leader at the retreat asks her about who she really is “a Christian girl or a representative of the Chinese-Canadian community who’s ready to champion the beauty of ethnic diversity in Canada?” and Mei writes him an email about how important Jesus and His teachings are to her *End of Spoilers*); Zahra’s older sister yells at her children (which makes one cry) & is harsh because of stress and what she has experienced through the war; A friend of Katya shaves her head and talks about “reinventing” herself and “figure out the real [her]” (her mother is in too much grief to notice the change); Mentions of heart transplants, hospital stays, pain, & scars (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of Eden’s recent heart transplant & her family’s concern over her; Mentions of the pandemic, restrictions, wearing masks, & attacks on Asian families; Mentions of brand names (Sour Patch Kids, Oreos, Reese’s, & Play-Doh); A few mentions of some of those in “marginalized or minority” groups being lonely or depressed; A few mentions of Chick-fil-A; A couple mentions of video games where you “shoot some bad guys”.
Sexual Content- Flutters over a crush; Zahra is harassed (by a guy asking if she’s lost and calling her “beautiful”; Implied with ill intent), but rescued by someone before anything else happens (her mother and sister are angry that Zahra has ruined their family because of this); Zahra walks passed a girl her age that is already a mother; *Spoilers* Zahra’s older sister talks about Zahra getting married, saying that Zahra is in the way, and many other girls have gotten married who are younger than her; Zahra is very upset about this and her sister pressuring their mother to agree with her; Zahra’s mother agrees that Zahra should get married and Zahra sobs and thinks about running away, but realizes she can’t and is trapped *End of Spoilers*; Zahra knows not to start a conversation with a boy or appear too friendly because it would damage her and her family’s reputation; Eden has a crush on a boy her friend also likes which causes a problem for their friendship; Eden imagines impressing her crush with a worship song she wrote (which would “finally see in her what he had overlooked all this time”) to get his attention; Eden feels betrayed by her best friend & is jealous of the guy’s attention (her dad says that boys are stupid and is there for her by buying her chocolate and flowers, but she doesn’t want to talk about it); *Spoilers* Towards the end, Eden and her best friend make up and forgive each other *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of Zahra and other girls and women being harassed if not with a male family member; Mentions of boys, crushes, couples, dating, & breakups; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of blushes;
*Note: A family member’s early childbirth & mentions of it being too early, the possibility of losing the mother or baby, cries, and screams (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); A few mentions of Eden’s post-transplant medications giving her acne; A few mentions of makeup & a girl refreshing her makeup before hanging out with a boy.
-Eden, age 15
-Katya, age 15
-Mei, age 15
-Zahra, age 15
P.O.V. switches between them
276 pages
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-Zahra, age 15
P.O.V. switches between them
276 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{ Add up to a full star for girls in public school }
Set six weeks after the first book in the series, I’ve really been looking forward to seeing what would happen next for these four girls in this sequel. It was so good to see all of them again and not only learn what is going on in their lives now, but continue to see them all grow in their faiths. Like my time with the prior book, I felt like such a big sister towards these girls and felt so proud of them and how they handled the challenges they are facing. I was honestly ready to bring out my pom-poms at certain scenes and wish I could hug all of them. These four main characters never meet, and their stories do not connect, but it works well for this book and the lessons learned.
It is very easy at the beginning to compare the girls’ lives and problems they are facing to each other (like, Eden, dearie, your crush being with another girl is not the end of the world, please talk to Katya or Zahra and learn about their lives, please), but at the same time: that’s life. We get focused on our own problems that we lose sight of others living through more difficult and serious problems. Problems and troubles are worldwide and these stories show Jesus throughout them. This book and the first one handled this element so well and I love it. It doesn’t feel “preachy” or like a mom wrote this book to be full of lessons and advice to teen girls, but from a heart who truly cares for these characters and the readers, to show Jesus’ love for them.
Bottom line? I have to say that I’m truly impressed—a word I don’t use often in my reviews—with this duology because of the grace shown, hard topics discussed, lessons naturally learned, and the Christian outlook and conversations about all of it. I even got goosebumps multiple times throughout the final chapters. Well done, I must say, very well done!
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.
