Monster

Frank Peretti is one of my favourite Christian fiction authors and I had no idea it s been so long since his last book. When I spied Monster on the shelf of one of our local bookstores, I dropped the two other books I was planning to buy and snatched this up immediately. This book marks Peretti s return after a 6 year hiatus and it s good to see that he did something with his time away from us. [return][return]Reed Shelton, together with his timid and reluctant wife Beck embarks on a survival weekend trekking in the forest. They plan was to meet their friends the following day so they could hike together. On the first night, they are startled by unearthly wails before something emerges from the forest and starts pursuing them. Reed believes they were bears, but after the creature carries his wife off, he doesn t know what to believe.[return][return]With the help of his friends Cap and Sing, and a much divided team from the small town, Reed returns to the forest to find Beck, or what s left of her. It became clear that this was no bear. Half of the rescuers believe she s been snatched by a Sasquatch, but when Cap goes back to his former place of employment to get some samples analysed, he discovers it may be something worse - something man-made.[return][return]Peretti touches on the issue of evolution and creationism here, but not to a degree where it ll answer any questions or satisfy anyone with a serious interest in the subject. It s also light on the religious overtones compared to his past work, but it s still very much a novel that fans will enjoy.[return]return