| Title | : | The Revelations |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0571277586 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780571277582 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 326 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
The Revelations Reviews
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If you think that all Christians are hypocrites and the Alpha Course is a cult, then this is the book for you. However, if you are more realistic in your outlook then the shortcomings of this book will probably annoy you as much as they annoyed me.
The book follows the lives of four young (late 20s) Christians who are helping run 'The Course' for the first time. They are all musicians and the band they play in (at The Course) is known as 'The Revelations', hence the title of the book. The Course itself is clearly a fictionalised and exaggerated version of the Alpha Course, a popular introduction to Christianity course run by many churches in the UK and beyond. However, in the book, 'The Course' is clearly much more of a cult-like entity rather than being merely an entry point into mainstream evangelical Christianity. Indeed, one of the characters in the book refers to The Course as being a cult.
The book is clearly written by someone who is not a Christian and has issues with Christianity. I've been through an Alpha Course, and been involved with leadership in other similar courses, and as a consequence, the behind-the-scenes bits in this book simply do not ring true at all. Course leaders do not behave like this, talk like that, pray like that or sing worship songs like that. Basically, the Course in the book is so much of a caricature that it is unreal.
I know that not all Christians are perfect and honourable, but I can't believe in the scenario given here where all four characters leading the Course are hypocrites, liars, sexually promiscuous (with course attendees) and get drunk (again with course attendees) all the time. While you do get people like that in Churches, generally they are not invited to lead worship or evangelism groups.
The book is split into three sections, the first relates to the 'normal' weekly workings of the Course, the second relates to the weekend retreat, which anyone familiar with Alpha will be familiar with, and the third relates to the unraveling of the lives of the characters following the events of the retreat weekend. I'll not give spoilers.
Given what I've said above, I found section 1 to be unrealistic. I didn't like the characters, I didn't believe the scenarios, I didn't care what happened. But I'd paid for the book so I kept reading...
Section 2 was more interesting, and you do start to care a little for some of the characters. Particularly Lee, who is clearly a fragile character with various complicated needs, which obviously is going to start things spiralling out of control in the third section. But the prevalent sexual promiscuity and drunken debauchery through the weekend retreat is so far from believable for anyone who's ever been on one, that the thing is simply unrealistic. Half of it I could relate to, half of it would never happen like that. This is a book written by an external viewer imagining what might happen on such courses, not someone who's actually been there.
But. By the third section I was caring for the characters and genuinely wanted to find out how all this was going to resolve. There are a couple of twists that send the story heading off in directions you don't expect and it is a fun ride. Then the story ends, but there is still 10% of the book left... The final bit drags as a few final 'revelations' come out, some which are expected, some less so, and you realise that all that has gone before is not exactly as you thought. And at the end you realise that none of the characters are honorable, even the ones you thought were basically good people. Its all about money, sex and power. None of the characters has any other driving motivation. Which is a crap way to end the book.
I'm disappointed. The author could have filled his book with a variety of characters with different wants and desires, but actually no. As far as he is concerned, all Christians are drunken, promiscuous, hypocrites.
Given how far from reality that belief is, the ending is a huge let down.
Oh, and by the way, there is quite a lot of unnecessary sex in this book. With quite a few scenes with details which we really didn't need to know, and only serve to underline the hypocrisy of the characters further. We got the message, OK?
Bottom line is that I know a lot of Christians and I don't know any people like these. Sure, I know Christians who have had affairs, sure I know Christians who drink too much occasionally, sure I know Christians who are motivated by greed, sure I know Christians who lie and cheat. But on the whole, the vast majority of Christians I know are not like this all the time. So in the end, I simply don't believe this story. -
Spotting the 2.8ish average rating that this book seemed to have on Goodreads, I didn't have the highest hopes for this novel - however it was actually not all that bad.
There's a good book in here somewhere, I thought the basic idea (following a group of young evangelical Christians as they try and spread the word via a church group 'Course' which seemed to based on the alpha thing I'm aware of) was interesting, and the plot was kept me intrigued until the last thirty or so pages. Some of the exploration of how these movements take advantage of young folk seeking meaning in life, why and how, certainly insight there.
But it, as mentioned, seemed to unravel at the end somewhat, and I also found the writing style to be really quite clunky. There was a smattering of errors throughout, a generally pretty plain use of language, and the level to which how the setting of each scene was described... at times it felt like this was a screenplay as opposed to a book. I won't race to read other books by the same bloke. -
I was hooked into this by the mention of the London based Christian course that is corrupted by sex, drugs, violence and money. I attended the Alpha course which emanated from Holy Trinity Brompton in the 90s and of course, you wonder if this was the model for the book. It's charismatic pastor, even the location and congregation of HTB is echoed. The story itself is the unwinding of friendships but the slight mystery of what happens to Lee wasn't satisfyingly real. This is a literary novel with much introspection and not much action. However, I enjoyed the musings on faith and evangelical belief.
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Disappointingly shallow. Why does every character have to be so flawed? Despite the interesting premise - a thinly veiled description of a group of 20-somethings debuting as leaders on an Alpha course - this plays up to sensationalist expectations. The characters are too flawed to be believable; giving into all sexual temptation, they have no spiritual or moral backbone.
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Characters, dialogue and plot unconvincing. Tedious in the extreme - I only finished it because a friend lent it to me.
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Thrilling Creepiness
I am not at all comfortable in the company of fundamentalist Christians, but I like to feel I’ve built up a degrees of tolerance over my many decades of exposure. Yet Cults and small extreme groups of religious bigots can easily drive me right to the edge of sanity. Small groups of controlling individuals give me the creeps, and the main characters in this book are just that: Smug, self-satisfied, hypocritical jerks who preach the wonderful help they’re giving children in Africa with their front side. Meanwhile their backsides are sucking up to powerful bankers and business city gents who are spreading out into America whilst developing a brand name with which to market themselves. Backing the hypocrites whose monetarist and profit-driven policies generate the poverty they set out to ‘heal’.
Every time I’ve read a novel, up to now, I’ve found a character to identify with, but in this story I found it almost impossible to like any of the characters; and yet right through to the last lap I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
So without further ado, let’s head into the questionnaire:
Before & During
Did it linger or stay in Mind?
— Yes. I woke up at 3.30 a.m. Wondering what was going to happen next.
Dreaming About It?
— Probably, because of my previous answer.
"Got-to-Get-Backness"?
— Yes of course. What a Question.
Did it Tweak Deep Past Memories?
— Yes. Powerful memories surfaced of Billy Graham’s pretty little well-dressed young men threatening me with Hell-Fire. Bible passages underlined in red ink. All at the tender age of 12.
Didn't-want-it-to-End-ability?
— I wanted it to end in the sense I wanted to see this Cult collapse.
Glad you read it?
— Definitely. I had a whale of a time with it.
Did it go "soggy" in the middle?
— Only to the extent of being a French Omelette. The centre didn’t dribble.
Would I want to read another one of his?
— Definitely.
If it was eBook, was it it well formatted? Were there chapter divisions?
— Yes. It was all very good. All in all, I was thoroughly enjoying myself, convinced that we were up for a 5-star job.
After
Oh dear. And now for the Dreaded Ending and for the general after-taste left in my mouth by the story.
Credibility:
Very credible; highly and frighteningly readable at first, and intriguing too. And there were some really nice turns of phrase. I was so impatient to find out how it would end. Yet the ending was terribly, terribly crass. I could hardly believe that after the story and the build-up, such a hum-drum ending would be pulled in. OK, the story itself wasn’t entirely believable. I see that now, but within the parameters of relative belief I’d put up some scaffolding which I was getting used to, and I quite liked clambering around between its poles. It wasn’t tailor-made for my mental architecture, but it wasn’t a bad fit either.
Yet what happened with The Police? They were sniffing along the trail left by mobile phone messages nicely and it was just a matter of time before the thing reached the only conclusion it could logically reach, but that didn’t matter for me, because I was intrigued to see how the author was going to handle it. The story is, as far as I’m aware, set in the United Kingdom, and we know that The Police are having to make cuts. But we don’t expect that the serge of their uniforms is going wear so thin that it’s not just fraying, but you can see strands of wool beginning to untwirl in your hands. Oh dear! I never thought I’d see the day when I could reach out and poke a hole in the fabric of my childhood fantasies.
And the dog? Oh no. The dog called Darwin was dumped and left for the team of characters to manage. It was passed from place to place and hand to hand. The characters remembered to put it out for a poo and wee, but if in a town no mention was made of doggie bags or bins; nobody had any dog food so it was just thrown slices of ham, or whatever it was the characters were eating, apparently quite content with whatever it was given. Incredibly, Darwin never suffered from the runs or constipation. That’s two books I’ve read this week, each with a token dog whose behaviour was in danger of causing the tale completely to unravel.
If a book’s standing is in the balance, a dog can make or break a story, or rather cause the scales to come down either way, but I don’t think that can be said to have happened here. After a splendid start and page-turning middle the main characters — never stronger than card-board cut-outs in the first place — thinned down from grove- to tissue-paper thin, becoming so transparent it was empty space. -
It's not a bad book, it's just that I had different expectations, I guess. I was prepared to face religious syndicate or at least some secret organization, or better said sect. Get inside of the mysterious story. In this book it's more about people...or? My problem was that in the end I didn't feel sorry for any of them and if they deserve what they got, why to read about their emotional agony? It's not that book is only then good, when characters are good people - of course not. But in my opinion, everything, eventually, suppose to make sense. It suppose to initiate the thinking process in one's head. I felt like some people that I don't feel like talking to, told me some filthy details of their lives... and these details neither attractive, nor interesting.
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I think some the other reviews of this book are a bit unfair. I found the book compelling and well-written. I have to say I prefered This Bleeding City but nonetheless this was another very original book. I thought the characters were fascinating - all badly flawed of course. I was expecting the ending to be more dramatic and disastrous but it was more quietly thought-provoking. I was interested to see that one of the reviewers wondered if the Course was based on the Alpha course. I wondered that too (not that I have any done an Alpha course or anything like it!). Interesting and original work. I will definitely be looking forward to the next book by Alex Preston.
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Four friends - Marcus, Abby, Lee & Mouse (Allister Burrows), inseparable since university, join "the course" in search of a deeper meaning to life , in a dark and disenchanted world.
The Course, a fictional Evangelical movement is branded as a cult by the outsiders and sceptics, while those who believe find revelation and redemption.
Having progressed in their faith & duties, the four friends are appointed as leaders by David (the High priest) to indoctrinate and lead the next batch of newcomers to the faith.
The process of indoctrination culminates in a retreat.
One weekend away form the stereo type city life - when they let their masks of propriety slip. The repressed emotions of self indulgence, greed and lust surmount, testing their love and loyalties to the faith and to each other, resulting in danger to all.
The atmosphere of spiritual yearning defiled by human fallibility conjured by this story is so real, you can relate to it.
A Strikingly well written and novel that is intriguing throughout! -
The story follows four young leaders of a money grabbing, cultish Christian group known as ‘The Course’, clearly based on the Alpha Course. Everyone in this was a self-centred, spineless, drunken, privileged twit and I honestly didn’t care what happened to any of them. I had to keep reminding myself that these people were supposed to be in their late twenties and not their teens; there was way too much unnecessary sex in it (married couple in shagging shocker!), and the whole thing had a weirdly 1980s vibe. Not recommended, at all.
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meh
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Well... Quite a unique book! Christian fiction written by a non-Christian. I almost put it down after a couple of pages, but despite it’s shortcomings I actually enjoyed the book somewhat but can’t give it more than 2 stars. The author seemed a rather amateurish and his descriptions of various scenes seemed to be far too detailed in many cases and did not flow with the story very well, although in a few places where it worked I quite enjoyed the scene setting. The book was quite crass in the various depictions of sex etc so I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for a church reading list or anything.
I found it interesting to see how some non-Christians view those of us in the faith as being in some kind of cult and there were many issues with some very wonky Christian doctrine. It is obvious that the author doesn’t quite get “Christianity” as much as he thinks he does and it seemed that this book was written with an agenda in mind rather that a story to be told.
The main characters were a pretty dismal lot and I had no sympathy nor did I like any of them. Usually in a book there is at least someone you can identify with but in this case they were all people I would try to avoid in real life. The “course” seemed to have more in common with a college fraternity than a church. All in all though, it is one of those books with a considerable aftertaste that leaves you thinking about it long after you have read it (hence the cause of my first real book review). I would class it as cheap screw top wine rather than vintage port and my interest is more based on the subject matter than the story. -
This would have been a 4 star review up until the ending, when the tension and intrigue built up through the book rather fell flat. Vivid characters and a really interesting premise - worth reading.
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This was a very disappointing book - I expected a lot more. I did not think it was that well written, the plot was terrible and the characterisation shallow. It is a thinly veiled attack on the Alpha course and is in effect a Bonkbuster trying to combine sex with yuppie evangelical Christianity. I don't think it gets either particularly well. I wish I had not bought it!
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Pretty good page-turner. Not as good as This Bleeding City, but still a good read.
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The lion, the witch and the wardrobe, where the four children are two grown-up couples and Aslan is a flawed huckster.
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After the first 40 pages or so I was seriously thinking about giving up on this book. It seemed somehow trivial and naive in its portrayal of the "Course", an evangelical group led by a charismatic leader, focused on recruiting new converts. As I went on reading, the writing seemed to have got better, there was more pace to it, the main characters became more interesting and believable in their individual struggles with faith and doubt.
Even though in the end I happened to like the book, mainly for its entertainment value, I can't help thinking that a non-fiction exposé on the Alpha Course, the real life movement that obviously inspired the book, would have been far more intriguing than a piece of fiction that turned it into a caricature.
