Sunday, April 24, 2016

Book Review: King's Folly


Review by Marianne
Title: King's Folly
Author: Jill Williamson
Rating: 1/5

Note: I did not complete this book so I can only give my opinion on the part that I read.



    Plot: The gods are angry. Volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, ground shakers - everything points to their unhappiness. At least that is what the king of Armania believes. His son Prince Wilek thinks his father's superstitions are nonsense, though he remains the ever dutiful First Arm of Armania. When a messenger arrives and claims the town of Farway has been swallowed by the earth, the king send Wilek to investigate. But what Wilek discovers is more catalysmic than one lost city. Even as the ground shifts beneath his feet, Wilek sets out on a desperate journey to save his people and his world. But can he do it before the entire land crumbles?
(Copied from the cover of King's Folly)

    Unfortunately, this book is the second in a row that I have reviewed without finishing. I originally chose this book to review because based on the description, I thought that the main focus would be Fantasy/Adventure and that that would mean I would not have to deal with some of the inappropriate content that often comes with reading romantic novels. Although the plot of this book seemed very interesting at first, it didn't take very long for me to realize that it was not at all what I had in mind.

Characters: This book had lots of characters and it got to the point where I felt like the author was introducing way to many of them all at once. Even with the character list in the beginning I was still unable to keep them all straight in my head, and ended up getting confused way too easily.

Emotions: Sadly, I was unable to connect to this book or the characters emotionally. I was shocked over and over with some of the content in this book, and I didn't even make it 100 pages in. I kept trying to give it more chances, but eventually had to stop reading altogether.

My Thoughts: As I said before, I originally decided to review this book because it was not labeled as a "romantic" book so I was hoping to avoid any inappropriate content that I have come to expect in pretty much all "Christian Romance" novels. I was utterly disappointed however, as I began to read this and realized that I was not going to be able to read a fantasy novel, published by a Christian company, marketed to Christian readers, without having to also deal with the inappropriate physical relationships occurring between many of the characters. Although (as far as I read), there was only one scene in which these relationships were described in detail (which was more than enough), the characters were constantly talking/gossiping about the king's and prince's many wives, concubines, and prostitutes and eventually I was becoming almost calloused to that sort of talk/behavior because it was such a frequent occurrence. This really upset me because it is not the first book I have read that was labeled "Christian" that I've had to stop reading for the same reasons. It saddens me that so many Christian teens are choosing to fill their brains with these kinds of thoughts and excusing them because the book/movie/music etc. had the word Christian on it somewhere. Our American Christian culture spends so much time chiding teens for lust, immodesty, and sexual impurity (which, by the way, I'm not saying these things are ok), but then we turn around and dig into our Christian Romance novels and dwell on those things, when we could be digging into our Bibles and dwelling on God's Word. I'm not by any means saying I've got it all figured out, that I'm perfect, or that I spend all day everyday dwelling only on holy and righteous things. I struggle with this type of thing very much as well, but I really don't think that filling my brain with books like this, are going to help that or draw me closer to my Savior in any way.

Here is a video that I watched recently that addresses this issue and I was able to relate to very much:





Disclaimer: I received a copy of  King's Folly for the purpose of this review. All views and opinions expressed above are my own.






2 comments:

  1. Hello :) I want to join a blogger-book review site, and saw that you are joined with Bethany House. Do you like it? Do you find it annoying that you must review the book within a month of receiving it?
    Thanks :D
    -Mic

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Michaila! Thanks for your comment! King's Folly was actually the last book I will be reviewing from Bethany House, as I have unsubscribed from the company. I unsubscribed because I did not appreciate the inappropriate content that was included in some of their novels. As far as the company itself goes, I never had any issues with contacting them if I had questions, or receiving the books on time, or anything like that. There were times that the one month time frame was a little stressful, but I understood why they needed to include that in their requirements, and just had to intentionally set aside time for reading. Whether or not you choose to subscribe is entirely up to you. I did read some good books from them that were completely harmless, but unfortunately, I also read some that crossed several lines. So if you end up joining any blogger-review program, I would say just be cautious. Just because something has the word Christian on it does not mean it's "safe." I hope this helps you! Once again, thanks for your questions, and have a great day!

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