Review/Giveaway: The Judas Ride

A WINNING READINGS GIVEAWAY!

Title: The Judas Ride
Author: Peggy Sue Yarber
Genre: Christian fiction
How to enter: Leave a comment on THIS post right here! If you're a subscriber or a follower, leave a second comment for a second entry.
Entry deadline: February 10, 2010
Restrictions: Open internationally!

That's right, enter right here for this giveaway. This is my review copy, so it has been gently read.

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UPDATE: We found the book! So this is NOW A GIVEAWAY post - please leave a comment to enter...

This is not the post I planned to be writing. I was planning to give this book away after reading. But I had barely gotten into this book when I set it down and somehow it got misplaced! So not only do I not have a comprehensive review, I don't have the book to give away, either. But I've got to post today for this tour...

I will comment on the little I've read at the end, and if the book pops up (as I suspect it might) I'll put up another post referring back to this one.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Judas Ride

Tate Publishing (December 8, 2009)

by

Peggy Sue Yarber

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peggy Sue Yarber, PhD in psychology, lives in central California with her husband, two daughters, six turtles and two dogs. She works in the field of education.

The Judas Ride was inspired by her current and previous students. She has seen and experienced and seen similarities between the students and Jesus’ traitor, Judas Iscariot. She has always been fascinated with Judas. Yarber went to a catholic school when she was young and Judas was always portrayed like a mysterious rebel.

She ventures to say, “I guess he was my James Dean of the Bible. But in a good way! In the way that…he did something so wrong so that the entire world could be saved. He had to betray Jesus in order for the rest of the story. I have always wondered what it would be like to not do that one bad thing that would lead to that one great thing. So I had the Vader character sort of run through the paces of Judas.”

Redemption and reality are the two distinguishing features about Yarber’s writing. Not all teens find redemption in The Judas Ride. Yarber considered trying to show the negative outcomes as much as the positive. She wasn’t thinking in terms of positive and negative but she did try to balance the two sides. Yarber says she often sees people daily that , “…have even more screwed up lives than these characters.” Yarber admits sometimes there is not an ending to the madness unless someone dies and then even after the death the ripples still linger. She has written another novel TARE and a children’s book Rocketships to Heaven and the SOS Fuel Station. She loves to run, read, shoot guns and watch her daughters play soccer.

ABOUT THE BOOK

An unwed (and unwanted) teen pregnancy with two possible fathers. Abusive relationships. Drug and alcohol addiction. Rape and molestation. The struggle to understand grace, forgiveness, and free will versus predestination. The Judas Ride hits the road running in the opening pages, where Sonia and Xavier argue explosively about whether Sonia should have their unborn child and about who the father is: Xavier, a struggling Christian, or Vader, an abusive and abused drug dealer. As the pages turn, readers continue to meet a hodgepodge of troubled teens and eclectic characters, including Pastor Manny, a quirky immigrant pastor infatuated with John Wayne. Pastor Manny desires to help the tortured souls in his community but finds that it takes more than unconditional love to reach them. Secrets literally kill in The Judas Ride, an edgy, in-your-your face Christian novel that boldly explores the struggles of modern-day young people.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Judas Ride, go HERE

My Review

As I mentioned, I'm writing this on the basis of reading the first chapter and skimming through a bit of the book. The overview of the book had my attention when I requested it for review, and I REALLY did want to keep reading - the first chapter caught my attention and had me curious as to the father of the child.

Now my concerns... The first part of the book had a very graphic makeout scene that I probably wouldn't want my teenage daughter to read (if I had a teenage daughter). This book is targeted towards young people, but it vividly describes a lifestyle that I hope the young people in my life never know - drugs, gangs, rape, abuse, and all that. Perhaps it would reach people who are in or have experience with that lifestyle, but I'm not sure we need to drag all young people into it. On the other hand, it takes a brave author to take on such issues...

And in the skimming of the book, I noticed some references to after-death experiences that really came across as bizarre to me. Way outside the beliefs I have. I was giving it the benefit of the doubt since I hadn't checked the context, but reading out a few other reviews today makes me think that it is a real concern to other readers, as well.

Here's hoping I find that book - I'll alert you all if I do!