Review: The Shack

I was at a friend’s house a while back and I mentioned how reading has become a new hobby of mine, surpassing gaming on my list of hobbies. We tossed around a few books that I read, but then my friend mentioned The Shack by William P. Young and how it was one of the best books he had ever read. Little did I know that reading this book would rock my Christian foundation and call to question many truths I long held.

The main plot of the book is about a man, Mackenzie, who has faith in God, but after losing his youngest daughter to a child serial killer while out on a camping trip, begins distancing himself from God as he goes through his Great Sadness. On an ice rain morning, he receives a note in the mail to visit the shack, the one his daughter’s bloody clothes were found in, and was signed Papa, something he wife and children called God. While grappling with the absurdity of having received this note and wondering what cruel person would possibly send it, he finally embarked on his trip to eventually visit God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What happened over the next few days would forever change this man’s life, and for me, force me to reconsider what I once knew and believed.

Life, forgiveness, grace and wisdom flow through the pages as Mack interacts with each characteristic of God. The Shack both engages and challenges in its best possible interpretation of how God views the most wretched sinner and the seemingly most holy saint. Some take serious issue with God appearing to Mack in the form of an overweight black woman or that Jesus was clumsy and was called butter fingers by God. I do not have this issue; this is a work of fiction and not to be taken as literal gospel. Rather than creating a book that systematically attempts to breaks down the love and grace of God, which has been done and is not a problem, William P. Young wrote an emotional and believable story that greatly illustrates a struggle that many could very well find ourselves in: the loss of a loved one and in the midst of this devastation, being consumed with faithlessness.

I started reading this book after having finished The Circle Series and the desire to read more books by Ted Dekker, so my mind was not set on whatever the book had to offer. Initially I found myself wondering where this book was going, but then I reached where Mack met God in the shack and things improved drastically. I am going to read it again so that I can mull over the parts that challenged me personally. I give The Shack a 9 out of 10.