Jillian Dangerous and the Peculiar Adventure
As a Christian I’m always hunting for good Christian books; I make it a point to review as many Christian books as I can because it helps support the community and it helps spread the word! So even though I don’t normally read children’s fiction, I was certainly willing to give this series a try when Ruthie Davis approached me for a review.
The first thing I liked about the book was the title; it is very quirky and definitely tells you what you’re about to get yourself into before you begin reading. The story here is honestly a peculiar adventure! I am not a fan of time travel, but I think the topic here was so unique and such a learning experience that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Jillian is a sweet character who is smart enough and likeable enough to carry the story. I thought her point of view fit her age and personality and I found myself cheering for her from chapter one. I think Jillian’s unique background gave the story a special sense of originality and even added to the adventurous side of the book.
While I definitely enjoyed the story, I do have a few complaints that I think are important enough to mention here. Like I said, I really love reviewing books because it helps strengthen the Christian community, but I think it is important to be honest in my reviews to help provide a filter between the good books and the bad. That isn’t to say this book is bad—not at all! But there are things I want to point out.
The first thing I didn’t like about this story was the writing. I think the plot is incredibly unique and pulls you in right away, but the writing is not strong enough to hold up to it. It feels like this is Davis’ first book and while it is entertaining, I think future work will certainly be more enjoyable as authors tend to get better over time. The story did grow as we got into the thick of things but there was a total lack of descriptive writing and world-building, and the beginning felt very rushed. So much time passed in a matter of pages, I was flipping back every now and then, convinced I’d missed something. The writing was very clean and well edited, but it was not very strong or well developed.
Another thing I didn’t like was the antagonist—I guess that means Davis did her job! But what I didn’t like about Maddie, or any of the other girls who bullied Jillian, was that there seemed to be no reason at all for this negative behavior. Women already have so many nasty stereotypes hanging over our heads, pettiness and bickering being a few, it saddens me when I see women authors playing into these negative pigeonholes.
The concept of bullying played a big part in this story, so the interactions between Jillian and the girls who picked on her weren’t necessarily playing into stereotypes as much as they were laying the foundation for the rest of the story, but since the writing wasn’t very strong, there was no development or explanation for the characters behaving the way they did. Jillian walked into a room full of children and everyone immediately disliked her. Maybe children are truly little devils, but I found that part of the story a little unbelievable and difficult to relate to. At the same time, I felt Maddie also represented our enemies as Christians—when you think about it, the devil doesn’t need a reason to dislike you or try to harm/hurt you, does he?
I loved that Jillian was able to set an example to young Believers to trust God in their struggles. Our little hero of the story was quite brave and inspiring and despite the things I disliked about the book, I must admit I absolutely loved the spiritual side of the story. I don’t read children’s fiction very often so I didn’t know what to expect when it came to how Davis would include her faith in her writing. As I read, I thought it was incredible to see a child’s view of God and their walk with Christ. In many ways, Jillian was stronger than some of the adult Christians I know!
I would recommend this book to parents and children who like adventure, friendship, and growth. This story will be appreciated most by Christian readers.
*I received a free copy of this book on behalf of The Rebel Christian in exchange for an honest review*