Awake Sleeper! by Mark Alan Leslie

About the Book:

Discovered floating down a river, renowned singer Christiana is as comatose as much of the church is today.
What was once reprobate becomes accepted, what is accepted becomes celebrated, what is celebrated becomes normalized. Anyone opposed is ostracized.
Join detectives Seth and Sophia MacGregor and Police Chief Ian McElroy as they investigate whether Christiana’s fall into the river was accidental, suicide, or attempted murder. They discover a disturbing plunge from faith in this dramatizing of today’s Christianity, which in large part has succumbed to the dogma of compromise.
Eighteen-year-old Christiana was riding atop the world of Christian music when her parents were murdered by a man who meant to kill her because of her lyrics declaring, “Jesus is the only way.” Blaming herself, she left her career, lost her faith, and spiraled into other religions and a world of sins.
Rescued but lying unconscious in a hospital, her condition frames the question: Is the church savable?
Read to the end … and you decide ...

My Review:

This is an entertaining allegory of the American church, nearly dead, in a coma, on life support. There is a contributing story line of two people, Seth and Sophia, investigating, trying to find out what happened to leave Christiana in this dire situation. In the course of their investigation, they find many clues as to what led to her current condition.

Mostly, this book is a critique of the contemporary modern, liberal church. Messages other than the gospel being preached from pulpits, for example. The author has a narrow view of what it means to be a Christian. You cannot be a Christian and be a Democrat, for example. (41) If you criticize Israel or are pro-Palestinian, you are anti-Semitic. (91) (Regardless of war crimes.)

Seth is a hard line Christian, with a condemning and judgmental attitude without any compassion or mercy. He seems to embody what I would call the extreme right. I liked Sophia much better. She evidenced mercy and compassion, praying for those being led astray, for example.

This is a thought provoking novel exploring how the church has strayed from the pure gospel. It is by no means politically correct. It may be considered shocking, the idea being to wake Christians up from the slumber they are in. I just wish there had been more love and mercy shown for the deceived and lost.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author:

The winner of seven national journalism awards and described as a "master wordsmith," Mark Alan Leslie has authored 15 books, including a dozen historical and contemporary novels from the Christian worldview. American Family Association’s AFA Journal called Leslie’s A Cause Most Splendid: The Battle for the Bible the best novel of the year in 2022. His True North: Tice’s Story about a young slave’s escape from Kentucky to Canada was a Publisher’s Weekly Featured Book and set the stage for his speaking to numerous schools, historical societies and elsewhere across New England. He and his wife live in Maine.

Elk Lake Publishers, 182 pages.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-An exceptional book, 4-Better than average, relevant and liked by me, 3-It is average, 2-It is below average and not liked by me, 1-It is practically unreadable.)