My thoughts on the book entitled: The Shack If you haven’t read this book yet, and would like to. Please don’t continue reading what I’m about to say. This book was written by: William P. Young. Here’s a bit of his bio, from his blog: "the eldest of four, born May 11th, 1955, in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, but the majority of my first decade was lived with my missionary parents in the highlands of Netherlands New Guinea (West Papua), among the Dani, a technologically stone age tribal people. These became my family and as the first white child and outsider who ever spoke their language, I was granted unusual access into their culture and community. Although at times a fierce warring people, steeped in the worship of spirits and even occasionally practicing ritualistic cannibalism, they also provided a deep sense of identity that remains an indelible element of my character and person…" So back to my thoughts on this book. I enjoyed reading it until I got to about the middle of the book. (Keep in mind, this is MY interpretation/opinion on this "inspirational novel". I’m not in anyway meaning this interpretation to be a stab at the author whatsoever. This is just what I thought of it.) I’m a very "realistic liking" person. I LOVE "Based on True Story" movies and HATE animation! So when I got to the bit in the book about this ‘other’ world I lost interest and stopped reading it for a couple weeks or longer. When I picked it up again to read, my only intentions were to get the book finished so my husband could read it. I thought the part where the environment changes from reality to something of a dream was very choppy. The transition from the main character’s, Mackenzie, reality to the "dreamland" was very abrupt to me. One minute he’s walking up the snowy hill looking back at the dark old shack and the next minute he’s seeing and meeting these people at a bright summery looking shack. The SAME shack changed it’s appearance in a matter of seconds! I didn’t like that too much and then what happened next was a drawn out segment where Mack is visiting with Papa, AKA God, Jesus, and Sarayu AKA the Holy Spirit. I thought it went on and on and on, almost like I was reading two different books. I didn’t think the two ideas flowed together very smoothly at all. However, the transition from the dreamland/Heaven back to reality flowed MUCH better I thought, so over all I’d give this book a rating of 5 out of 10. 10 being the best. Now if you want a really good read, I recommend "Bruchko". I rate that one 10 out of 10!!! I couldn’t stop flipping the pages with THAT one. (You know I honestly think William Young’s bio is more entertaining than "the Shack".)