The Shack

by William P. Young

After his daughter's murder, a grieving father confronts God with desperate questions -- and finds unexpected answers -- in this riveting and deeply moving #1 NYT bestseller.

When Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter Missy is abducted during a family vacation, he remains hopeful that she'll return home. But then, he discovers evidence that she may have been brutally murdered in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness.

Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note that's supposedly from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment, he arrives on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.

• ISBN10: 1619698773
• ISBN13: 9781619698772
• Publish Date: 30 July 2013 (first published 1 January 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 7 March 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Hachette Audio
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 8 hours
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

The only reason that I read The Shack was because a random stranger gave it to me. I know that he'll never know if I read it or not, but I would feel bad if I didn't. I was hoping that it would surprise me, since it's not something that I would have picked up on my own. Sadly, I found it completely ridiculous, boring, and at the end, predictable. Four years ago, Mack's youngest daughter was kidnapped. Her body was never recovered, so she was presumed dead. Now a strange note appears in his mail box asking Mack to meet "Papa" at the shack where his daughter was likely killed. Is it a cruel joke, or is God really wanting to meet him?

The Shack started off really boring and I simply could not connect to Mack. Once he's at the shack, I was hoping that things would pick up. Instead, it just gets super weird. The run down shack in the middle of winter is magically transformed into a cozy cottage in the middle of Spring. Then God appears as a big black woman named Elouisa. Jesus looks Arab but is Hebrew and is a big nosed Jewish man (all Mack's observations, not mine). And the holy spirit is a hyper active woman of Asian descent, maybe Chinese. Seriously?! What is even going on right now?!

The majority of The Shack is Mack sitting around with the multi-ethnic holy trinity and talking. There is so much talking. And every conversation is a lesson. I know this book is suppose to be deep and inspirational, but it is so boring and super pretentious. Of course we shouldn't judge others. Of course we should forgive. Of course we should develop positive relationships. None of this is new and Mack acts astonished by all of this wisdom! Also, none of the conversations felt realistic. Like, I couldn't imagine someone like Mack speaking the way he does. It all felt forced for the sake of the lessons.

I just rolled my eyes through all of The Shack. The premise is interesting, but the way it was presented was seriously ridiculous. The ending was also very predictable. There's only one piece of mystery in the story, so obviously that's what's going to be solved.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[readingwithwrin]

“All I want from you is to trust me with what little you can, and grow in loving people around you with the same love I share with you. It's not your job to change them, or to convince them. You are free to love without an agenda.”

This review is one I've debated on even writing or not, but I've decided to do it anyway.
I will be completely honest, throughout most of this story, I felt like I was reading my philosophy textbook. Which is why I switched to audio and it was the only reason I was able to finish the book at all.

Mack is a man who is very easy to relate to. He is human and judges just like the rest of us and struggles with the same things we all do. Growing up his father who was supposed to be a good God Fearing man, instead was an awful human being who did horrible things. Because of that Mack has struggled with his faith and religion in general.
With the help of his wife and now children Mack has some religion back in his life and does believe, but he is also rather skeptical it seems at times.

When Mack loses his youngest child though he becomes very angry with God and wants to find the man who harmed his little girl. This is when the story really picks up and we start to see how Mack was going wrong in his life. Speed up to a few years later and Mack has been invited to The Shack.

This is when things started to get confusing to me personally. And it's one that I don't even think I can explain why exactly I was confused because it's just little things here and there that confused me. I feel like this is a book that I am going to have to revisit in a year or less to understand more of it and to get exactly what the author was wanting us to get from it.

I will say this though about it. I like the idea of this book and how for some people it has really helped them understand God and things are done a certain way. Because of that I am also really looking forward to being able to see the movie and I hope that maybe that will give me better understanding of it as well.

I still encourage everyone to read this if they already wanted to, just know that it is a little confusing.

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[ladygrey]

Though the prose is pretty simple and straight forward this book is fascinating in suggesting paradigms of faith and Christianity that are foreign to our culture and society but are profoundly biblical. The mix of narrative and theological elements blend together well to give the reader a context of these ideas; people and faces and emotions to wrap around the abstract ideas and truths.