As always, The Rebel Christian constantly hunts down Christian fiction to feature on the blog—this week I got to read a Christian horror which was an interesting experience. How do you create a book violent enough to be classified as horror but wholesome enough to also classify as Christian?

Evil Realms takes readers on a dangerous journey as we face evils which threaten to kill, steal, and destroy all we know and love. There is action, mystery, intrigue, and danger—most of all—there is danger all around our characters and it all comes together to create a thrilling story.

To be honest with you, I enjoyed the plot of this book, but I don’t think it came together very well. I’ve been reviewing books for a long time now and I’ve seen this happen too often with indie/self-published authors. I’ll be the first person to stand up in defense of indie/self-published authors—I like to think I’m a huge fan of such works—but I can’t ignore the stigma that hangs over their heads. Indie authors have a higher standard than traditionally published authors; we can argue over the fairness in that for the next three days but the point I’m making here is that this story has the same issue I’ve seen in many self-published books.

The plot was very strong, but the writing was very weak.

It isn’t enough to simply have a good idea; a great author must be able to support that good idea with equally impressive writing. Unfortunately, this was not the case with this story. Evil Realms had all the makings for a wonderful horror novella, but it lacked the proper authorship to carry it home—for me at least. There were some grammatical errors and few issues with punctuation, as well as misuse of words, but what bothered me most was the total disconnect from the story. I found it very difficult to get attached to any of the characters but I’m not sure if that was solely because of the writing or because some parts of the plot fell a little flat for me.

The beginning of the story was definitely the best part; the high-speed car chase was intense and had me hooked from page one. I was drawn in by the energy and the mystery surrounding all the action but after that I was either distracted by errors or struggling to connect with the plot and characters.

In the end, I did like this book and I would recommend it to Christian readers, especially those who enjoy horror or thrillers. I hope that Law gives this story the time and attention it deserves. You’ve heard the saying; the best writer is also the best reader—I cannot emphasize this enough. The only way to get better at writing is to continue reading, I sincerely hope that Law takes the time to read horror a little more so that the next book can live up to such wonderful creativity. Until then, I will have to pass on this story—it was a thrilling plot but unfortunately suffered from poor writing.

*The Rebel Christian received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*