The Shack by William P. Young

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.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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“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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  • Started reading
  • 22 February, 2017: Finished reading
  • 22 February, 2017: Reviewed