52 Book Challenge - Book Eight: Jewel

This was one of those "slice of life" books. The writing was absolutely beautiful but the story wasn't the exciting page-turning pop-fiction most readers are used to. Luckily, I am not most readers and I am used to symbolism and messages in literature (thanks to being a devoted English major).

The story was really about family and the trials and tribulations you go through in different stages of life. It also focused on the main character (Jewel) and her relationship with God. Much of the message in the book was based on the age-old question of whether or not to maintain faith in God during the toughest times. Additionally it was a message about how you react to chllenges with your life and how all of the peices fit together.

To be honest, I enjoyed it for the fact alone that Jewel was faced with quite a few challenges (the primary being a mentally handicapped child) and she powered through them. Now many books obviously have characters that do this but in THIS book, the challenges were REAL. You could actually imagine yourself having the feelings and anxiety and questioning of faith that Jewel goes through. It definitely created well-rounded characters and easily imaged scense and feelings.