Au-Delà de la Vallée des épines

DNF at p.165 of the French translation

Wow was young me not aware of Christian elements and religious agenda in MG books! The first one sent some flags up, but it was subtle, which I appreciated, so the story was still enjoyable and Alexa's adventures were interesting to follow.

But oh dear did this second one take an obvious turn! So we have Elyon as God/Christ. If the name didn't give it away, the character left the Country a long time ago, only to return at precisely the right time to save everyone from the misery he's been happy to ignore for all this time. We have Alexa as the chosen one, who hears the voice of Elyon and has unmovable faith that he has a plan to help them.We have characters such as Mary, Margaret and Balmoral (again with the names) who are portrayed as praying and being happy in their misery, very clearly indicating that this is what we should aspire to be. We have Abaddon and the Seraphs: Abaddon was Elyon's best friend, the most powerful of the Seraphs, but he was jealous and wanted more power. Fallen angels anyone?

The issue I have is with the fact that I wasn't explained any of this growing up. I read this on my own, and didn't see any problems with it. In fact, I was expecting to love this, since this one was my favourite book of the series at the time. I remembered a plot full of action, mysteries and secret reveals. I remembered adventures and a good time. Now I'm having trouble seeing past the obvious religious ideology. I don't mind the book being written this way, but just like Narnia, I would have loved for it to be described as Christian fiction. Then at least young me would have had an idea of what she was in for.

I'm going to finish this one, but I'm not continuing with the series. I'm not the target demographic and that's ok. I just know there's books out there that will be more for me.