A Vision Into The Spirit World...
Written: Mar 28 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: This is an excellent, Christian-themed book.
Cons: Not suitable for children
The Bottom Line: This is an entertaining Christian read for teens and above. Might change the way you look at the world.
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| brookelorren's Full Review: T. R. Allen - Walking With Angels: Aural |
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could see angels and demons? Would it be great, or would it be scary, to see the battles being waged for people's souls? In Walking With Angels, T.R. Allen's debut performance in the paperback world, the heroine of the book has that exact talent.
The book begins with Aural Phoenix, the book's main character, in a mental institution, talking to a shrink. Is it really surprising that she'd get put into a mental hospital? She tells the doctor her life's story, from the time she first saw an angel to the event that actually led to her parents bringing her in for evaluation in the first place.
Aural started seeing these spiritual entities at an early age, before she obtained the sense that adults would have in keeping quiet about such gifts. Of course she tells her friends and family about this, which leads to some teasing and leaves her as a semi-outcast for the remainder of her school years.
The teasing isn't the only thing that affects her popularity. I don't know about you, but if I could see angels and demons, it might affect the way that I behave. There is one chapter where Aural goes to a birthday party and the kids are playing spin the bottle... she sees a demon getting excited about the prospect of her kissing a boy, while the angel is looking all worried. Actually seeing a messenger from God looking over her shoulder all the time causes Aural to behave a little more than those who could not see them.
Being able to see angels and demons allows Aural to see into the spiritual health of an individual. Just by looking at someone she is able to tell whether someone is currently bound for hell or is headed for heaven. The heaven-bound people have angels following them, while those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior, except children, are led by demons. Children are followed by angels until they obtain the mental capability to understand the message of Christ and are presented with the choice of whether to accept Jesus or reject him. If they reject him the first time, they lose their angel and obtain a demon, unless they later become a Christian, when they lose the demon and gain a permanent guardian angel.
Aural, of course, is able to tell that her psychiatrist is on his way to hell. The most annoying part to a non-Christian reading this book is that she tries to convert him. Since this is a Christian novel, there is more than one of these attempted conversions that occur throughout the book. Shortly after this attempted conversion, a demon decides to actually intervene in the physical world (there are only actually a couple times in this book where they actually interact with the physical world) and changes the course of this book. The demon's meddling puts Aural into a situation where people think that she went nutso and committed murder. That leads to the second half of the book.
The second half of this book takes place in a women's correctional facility. Although I have never been in a prison, T.R. Allen's depictions seem to be right on the money, at least from what I've read goes on in there. She makes a few friends and a few enemies, influences more than a few people to change from hell-bound to heaven-bound, and she struggles with her lot in life and what the purpose is for her being in prison (with the death penalty).
The main reason why I do not recommend this book for children is the rape scene in this book. T.R. Allen does a very good job at leaving out any graphic details, but the very idea might be disturbing (or confusing) to younger readers. It is slightly predictable, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, because the author does such an outstanding job at portraying such a sensitive subject.
The prison has its own good guys and bad guys, and there's a couple of times in this book that you are cheering on the plot because there is such sweet justice at times. I really grew attached to the character in this book and developed strong emotions about what happened to her.
I was disappointed in the ending to the book, not because it wasn't well done (in fact, there was a twist at the end that I wasn't really expecting), but because I'm a sucker for a certain type of ending (I won't say what kind in this review ;) ) and towards the end of the book the story could have gone one of two ways... it goes the opposite way that I would have hoped. It was a well written ending though and the last couple sentences of the book are really beautiful.
After reading this book, I couldn't help but walking around wondering if they had an angel following them around... or a devil leading them. I know that there's no place in the Bible that talks about something like this happening, but I found the concept to be quite interesting and it seemed so realistic that it has affected how I view the world at times.
Would I recommend this book? Heck, yeah! I'm fortunate in that I know the author of this book, otherwise I probably never would have seen this gem among the millions of books sold at Amazon.com. I'm a really big fan of this book and the author's writing (although I know a couple of other people that probably would fight me for #1 fan status, I don't know which of us would win), and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, if it ever comes out. Don't worry, it doesn't end in a cliffhanger like Lord of the Rings, this is a complete book in itself.
I am such a fan of this book that I convinced my financial manager and several of my internet friends to buy a copy. They also enjoyed the book, BTW.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
brookelorren
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Location: Phoenix, AZ
Reviews written: 213
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About Me:
Homeschooling mom of two cute kids.
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