Review: Every Bush is Burning

Review: Every Bush is Burning 

by Brandon Clements

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Summary:

Jack Bennett has a wife, two kids, the perfect job--and the perfect affair. When he is caught and it all comes crashing down, Jack is left with no one to turn to. No friends. No family, except his recovering drug addict of a sister.

On a Sunday morning drive, he sees a homeless man locked out of a church service, banging on the door. He stops and offers the guy a cup of coffee. He asks the man his name, and the guy says Yeshua.  As in, Jesus.

Jack's not stupid. This isn't the real Jesus. But with nowhere else to turn, Jack forms an unlikely friendship--one that will test his idea of truth, faith, love, and forgiveness. And Jack is completely unprepared for the real-life twists his story is going to take.

My thoughts:

From the outset, this book intrigued me because of the writing style; it was different, and the author pulled it off well most of the time. The story is written as if it’s a letter to a fellow patron of the coffee shop where Jack is penning his tale, a method I’ve never read in another novel. Though I’m sure it isn’t a new concept, it certainly isn’t common, which most people in the business will tell you to stay away from at all costs. Clements does a great job, with only a few sections that seem to go off on unrelated tangents. The only other criticism I have of the writing is that there are moments when Yeshua gets on a high horse and starts preaching, and it comes off as the author preaching a message he wants to get across rather than as a character truly interacting with another. Otherwise, the writing is crisp, and moves the plot along nicely.

The idea of Jesus himself appearing to Bennett was fascinating, and I had mixed feelings about it throughout.  But by the end of the novel, my concerns were resolved, and I could look back over the journey of reading this book and honestly say I enjoyed it thoroughly. I also loved that these characters were outside of the traditional characters you typically find in Christian fiction, without being controversial just for the sake of pushing the limits. I found all of these characters to be realistic in nearly all their interactions and dialogue. And I absolutely loved the ending, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Overall, I’d give Every Bush is Burning 4 stars, and I would definitely recommend it to others. I would also recommend it for readers 18 or older (personal taste) for the occasional language and sexual references.

Happy reading!