This Side of Salvation by Jeri Smith-Ready

This Side of Salvation

by Jeri Smith-Ready

After his older brother is killed, David turns to anger and his parents to religion, but just as David's life is beginning to make sense again his parents press him and his sister to join them in cutting worldly ties to prepare for the Rush, when the faithful will be whisked off to heaven.

Reviewed by Joséphine on

3 of 5 stars

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Quick thoughts: For some reason I took a little over a week to read this book. That's not very long but definitely longer than normal when I've a whole pile of books to get to from the library. I think what slowed me down was the alternating settings between "now" and the past, i.e. the lead-up to the Rush. I prefer linear time frames to alternating once, so I wasn't a fan of that.

Nonetheless, I thought the premise was intriguing, so I stuck it out. Then I got to the end. The end made me a tinge agitated. In proportion to the rest of the story, the resolution was so abrupt, I didn't even know what hit me. For such a long-drawn lead-up to the core event of This Side of Salvation, I didn't expect everything to become so disjointed.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 23 September, 2014: Finished reading
  • 23 September, 2014: Reviewed