Dark Powers Collection by Bill Myers
In Bill Myers' Dark Power Collection, Rebecca and Scott Williams have recently moved with their mother to a new neighborhood, attending high school after spending years in the heart of the Brazilian wilderness. As a result, they are the outsiders at first: unwelcome and unwanted in a cliquish and petty clan of teenagers who dabble in witchcraft and shamanism. But Rebecca and Scott have something no one else in the entire school has, something that scares the living daylights, so to speak, out of the demons encircling the area: good, old Christian faith. And no evil demon can top that. When the spirits begin to get out of hand, Rebecca and Scott must use that trump card to fight the demonic invaders that have pervaded their town and school.While the lessons Myers attempts to underscore for impressionable young Christian minds in an increasingly faithless world is admirable, they were too mired in a host of shortcomings. It was laughably prejudiced against all faiths and people not Protestant Christian. Everyone, it seems, is either evil or jumping to convert. Further, Myers' portrayal of women could spur a feminist uprising. Although at first Rebecca's fallible nature makes her seem more human, her damsel-in-distress syndrome grows tiresome after the umpteenth time she fails to adequately defend herself from outside forces. In fact, every female character is grossly flawed in some way, being either treacherous or too easily corrupted; none can compare to the valiant Scott Williams or the heroic and sturdy Ryan Riordan who lacks any sense of depth of character and whose sole purpose in the novel appears to be shepherding around Rebecca in her wheel chair or saving her from what are literally the school children from Hell.
Although the novel may appeal to those more partial to the Christian genre, I felt the entire novel read like something from a fire and brimstone sermon. It appears as if the author is only concerned with getting his message across; maintaining some semblance of believability and political correctness simply did not cross his mind. The message, by the way, is as subtle as someone hitting you over the head with a Bible, and frankly, I would have preferred a literal Bible thumping to Myers' figurative one.
Reviewer Age:17
Reviewer City, State and Country: Bellevue, Washington, USA
posted by Flamingnet Book Blog @ 4:20 PM
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