“I loved Dekker's early works, but his latest books haven't appealed to me...until now.
The world is populated by the living dead; they just don't know that they have died.
Stripped by a virus of all emotion except fear, humanity as we know it has ceased to exist. War and the pain of loss are unheard of on the earth. But so are love, hope and joy. But not all have forgotten what it means to be alive. A secret society of keepers guard a vial of blood that has the ability to temporarily re-awaken emotion, while they wait for the prophesied one whose blood has the power to return life to the world.
Dekker and Lee write powerfully moving and fast paced fantasy narrative. The telling is filled with raw emotion and it does contain violence, but the contents are well in keeping with the story and the reality of a war against evil. As in Christianity itself, there is a centrality to the theme of blood within the narrative. (Parents might consider pre-reading to prepare to discuss these elements of the book with your teens or pre-teens).
Yes, as some reviewers have mentioned, there are details that don't exactly click together all neat and tidy, but I believe that the idea of the book is not to get you to analyze the storyline, but to stretch your imagination and provoke questions. The character's do take awhile to develop (or come to life - literally), but I'm OK with that. How impossible is it to try to make a character "dead," bereft of all emotion except fear, and at the same time get the reader to connect with them?
If you have read Dekker's non-fiction work, The Slumber of Christianity, you will see some parallels to his exposition on imagination, emotion, faith and the power of hope. I found the themes of Forbidden richer for having explored these concepts in his non-fiction work.
I think Lee and Dekker have given us an excellent story in Forbidden and I look forward to reading more in this series.
(I recommend you read the free teaser e-book, The Keeper, before you read Forbidden. It sets the stage for the series, opening the story in the days when world first died.) ”
