Book Reviews

Fearless by Mike Dellosso
4 stars

           Mike Dellosso’s novel, Fearless, involves a miracle child named Louisa who shares one similarity with a serial killer: a memory of fire. After she appears in the middle of a house fire to save a respected member of the small town community of Virginia Mills, Jim Spencer is asked to take Louisa in until the police can find out who she is. He decides to do the right thing, taking the girl in, despite the potential consequence of plunging his wife deeper into her depression over the recent loss of their own unborn daughter. His decision eventually places him and his wife, Amy, in the sites of the serial killer who has been plaguing the small town.

          

          Dellosso’s writing style is very smooth. Yet he maintains the suspense necessary for his genre. He does this by creating a connection between his characters and his readers. I worried for Jim Spencer throughout the entire book; this basis for suspense is very powerful. Initially, I felt that he revealed the villain’s identity too early, but then the suspense heightened and the plot flew to an excellent crescendo. Overall, Dellosso has endowed Fearless with a good plot, smooth writing, and fantastic character development.

JAS

                                                                                                                                                                   

Static Jedi by Eric Samuel Timm
4 stars

            Static Jedi is as interesting a book as its title would imply. Its author, Eric Samuel Timm, is an interesting, unique fellow himself. The book is written to encourage Christians to master the static of this world, particularly our American society. Throughout it, Timm covers four essential habits a Christian must develop in order to become like the “Static Master”, as he calls Jesus, and thus master the static. Timm summarizes these four habits in a few lines to lead toward his book’s close; “The Static Master rose early, withdrew for prayer, knew the Word, and chose and nurtured disciples. Go and do the same.” (p.135)

           The real uniqueness of this book is not its subject matter, but how the subject is approached and the very style of the writing in both phrase and form.

The subject is approached by Timm in a casual yet serious way. The casual nature is that the entire approach, like the title shows, is based off of the Jedi found in Star Wars. Timm portrays the static as the Force and walks the Christian through several phases of training (one could say) until they become as close as humanly possible to the Static Master Himself. The serious nature is portrayed through his passion which is very evident in his writing and how he urges his readers toward the final goal of the book—mastering the static.

The style’s uniqueness comes out in the way he phrases things. He is not afraid to make some bold statements like when he claims that one of the criteria on which we measure church success is “sexy lights” (p.96) or funny-but-true statements like when he mentions how he wants his readers to rise above “fast and easy microwave Christianity.” (p.144) The format is quite unique as well and this reflects his passion for his writing. There are many one-sentence paragraphs and all his paragraphs are rather short. This form is opposite anything I have  read regarding the subject of focusing on God through the noise of the world and society. In its opposite nature, its uniqueness creates a good feel and helps get his points across in both a memorable and relaxed way.

Timm is qualified to write this book because he is knee-deep in fighting against the static of this society. He is an author, artist, and communicator. He has also founded the ministry No One Underground and the nonprofit Painting Hope. He is known for being a unique speaker and Static Jedi shows him to be a unique writer as well.

I would rate this book four out of five stars because I did find it very helpful personally, but I also found that Timm drew some of his points out a little too long. I would recommend this book for people from high school to those in their early-twenties to their mid-thirties; or basically anyone who wishes to improve their walk with God and will understand the Star Wars reference.