BOOK REVIEW | Unpretty
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Unpretty
by Sharon Carter Rogers
The novel opens with an art gallery bombing, where eight people associated with a Michelangelo exhibit are killed. A cult is responsible for the bombing and their mission is to rid the world of all “unpretty” people. The cult’s leader and the bomber made one tiny mistake though. He talked to Hummingbird Collins right before setting the bomb off.
An artist, Hummingbird is pretty sure the strange man that entered her shop has something to do with the tragic events that follow. When she begins to receive crazy cassette recordings, she realizes the madman knows his mistake and wants to keep her quiet.
Detective Buck Barre is concerned about a missing colleague and stumbles upon a connection to the bombing. This connection leads to Hummingbird, who has gone into hiding inside her own home. Detective Barnes and Hummingbird’s brother clash, one wanting to get information and the other wanting to protecting her. To strengthen the protection, urban Monk and former football player Ready Robinson is added to the mix. But it seems none of three men can stop a madman when Hummingbird is abducted from under their noses. The cult leader is determined to add Hummingbird to his greatest creation, a replica of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement.
Unpretty was a very different Christian Fiction novel. It’s published under Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster so certain graphical elements were allowed in comparison to other CBA publishers. While some violence made me cringe, I couldn’t put the novel down. This was one of those books, once you start reading, you might as well plan to stay up until the early morning hours. The tightly woven tale introduces readers to the rantings of a madmen and an extremely weird organization obsessed with Michelangelo.
The faith factor in this story is not obvious in any of the characters except Ready Robinson. I’ve never heard of an urban monk, but he’s definitely the voice of faith. I like how the author weaved in the principle of God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27b). One character who is probably the most "unpretty" in the entire novel struck me as having the depth (character development) despite his disabilities.
There is a bit of mystery surrounding the author Sharon Carter Rogers. Some say she is a former English teacher, now a homemaker. Others think she is a group of Christian romance writers who got together to experiment with a more gritty style of novel. The craziest one is she is actually Dean Koontz, or some other well-known author, who wanted to write something with a spiritual emphasis but did not want to confuse the market about their "author brand."
I’m definitely not sure about that one because faith factor isn’t that strong. I could see a secular author getting away with writing this novel and still selling it to his/her fan base.
Whoever she is, Sharon is a phenomenal writer. I’m looking foward to reading more suspense thrillers from this author.
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