Weaver's Needle

This book started off with a bang and drew me in to flipping pages over and over again. At about the 50% mark it started unravelling and I had a hard time making it through to the end.

What bothered me first was the detailed scenes of native religious ceremonies. The early ones were easily skipped, so I just flipped past those parts and kept on with the mystery. After the halfway point, it got creepier and creepier and the native stuff (chants, dances, native worship) just couldn't be avoided–it was all mixed in with the narrative and the clues.

It was weird enough when the hero guy gets a dream of warning and clue from seeing the native religious ceremonies, but there also wasn't any reason from that dream that would have him suddenly start believing in God. It also definitely wasn't a Christian repentance. For all we know of his character in the book, he's simply gone from atheist to deist. Landry is troubled; in chapter 23 she asks her friend Marcie, “Marcie, so you believe God uses anything to do His will? Even things we don't understand or think might be in contrast to religion itself?”

Her friend answers, “God created everything...Why would we think there's a limit on His power in what He chooses to use?”

Ummm....that limit is found in the Bible. God spoke to us through His word and came to us through Jesus. Shamans and demon-dreams and chants are against everything Jesus came to do for us on the cross. This book is not Christian fiction and should not be marketed as such.

And then the ending. What was it? What happened? What was the dream? Why is Gopan attending the wedding? Why? Where is the mine?

Seriously? A book with zero ending? Nah. Spare me. I read thrillers to get answers.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free review copy. A favorable review was not required.