A review by mepitts
The Pawn by Steven James

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I was drawn to it because the author identifies as a person of faith but was disappointed to find that not only were the spiritual references subtle to the point of invisibility but conversely there were more detailed descriptions of “emotional and physical torture” than in any purely secular novels I have ever read. Also, as a coffee drinker who spent three years in Kenya, while it’s possible to identify coffees by nations, I find it VERY unlikely that someone could identify it by sub-region—too much variety in roasting, etc for that. It just seemed pretentious. And Spoiler may have been great for the plot in a novel but it would be a STUPID thing for a stepdad to do in real life. I’ll probably try one more novel in the series, but if it’s as gratuitously violent or as void in the spiritual subtext as this one, it will probably be my last. Hoping for the best!
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