Skip to main content

"Left Behind" (1995) by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim Lahaye REVIEW


With the movie coming up on October 3rd starring Nicolas Cage, there was no better time to read this book!

At a precise moment, all over the world, millions of people vanish. Cars and planes are left un-manned, causing chaos in the streets as everyone tries to figure out what had happened. Airline captain Rayford Steele also seeks for the truth, and when he comes home to find his wife and son to be one of the many who vanished, he knows what happened: an event in the Bible called The Rapture. The more he learns about the rapture, the more he feels the need to spread the word to others, because if what the Bible prophesied is true, the Antichrist would soon come to power and begin a seven-year reign of tribulation. This is the story of those left behind.

I have seen the first two movies from years ago that starred Kirk Cameron and remember enjoying them. I attempted to read the children's series before, but it had gotten slow and boring not even halfway through the series. I had hopes for this version, and they were close to being met.

The story and concept itself is very intriguing, but its execution for the first half of the book is rather dull and, honestly, quite boring. When everyone vanishes, little detail is given of the destruction, making it seem almost as if nothing really happened at all except that our two heroes, Rayford Steele and Cameron "Buck" Williams, have lost people. However, the second half of the book makes up for the slow ride from the beginning, pulling you in as the stakes raise higher to a conclusion that leaves you wanting more.

It is unfortunate that Left Behind is far from a masterpiece, but it is still a great and powerful read if you bear with it. I have seen books with poor writing become amazing movies (The Prestige, How to Train Your Dragon, Flashforward (alright, that's a TV show, but you get my point)), and I hope this is the case with the upcoming cinematic reboot!

3.5/5 Stars

You can order your copy from Amazon right here!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Need for Speed" (2014) REVIEW

I know I'm not the only one who thought this movie was going to be a flop. I mean, not only is it a high-speed street racing movie, but it's also a videogame movie. Still, I gave it a shot, but mostly for the D-Box experience. Even with the earnings from winning illegal street races, Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is still unable to keep his auto repair shop from his father open. For a chance to get $500,000, Tobey takes an offer from his street racing rival and successful car dealer Dino Brewster (Domonic Cooper) to finish building the Ford Mustang that Caroll Shelby was working on when he died. After building the car and selling it without Dino's consent, Dino challenges Tobey and Tobey's friend, Pete, to a street race for the money. Nearing the end of the race, desperate for revenge, Dino pushes Pete over a bridge and drives away, leaving Tobey to be blamed for vehicular manslaughter. Two years later, fresh out of prison, Tobey seeks out to knock Dino off his p...
2 comments
Read more

Books on Film by Black Authors

There's no real order to this list, nor can I guarantee which ones are worth reading or not. However, the quality of the books are not the point, but rather we should lend these voices our eyes, ears, and time, giving them a stronger voice than they would have had without at least mentioning them. Titles link to the Goodreads page for the specific book and additional links will be listed to buy the book from Barnes & Noble and/or Thriftbooks (non-affiliated). Don't forget to see if your local bookstore might have these in stock! Missing your favorite? Tweet me @AuthorKLau and I'll update the article! Independent Visions: A Critical Introduction to Recent Independent American Film by Donald Lyon Far from the big money movie machine of Hollywood lies the cutting-edge, artistically fresh world of American independent film. These independent filmmakers, working outside the formulas and constraints of the big studios, produce today’s most exciting and innovative movies. In ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blue Beetle Rebirth Vol. 1: The More Things Change (Rebirth #1, #1-#6)

2/5 Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle has interested me and been on my reading list for a while. When I first discovered the character watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold , seeing Jaime as a relatable teen arguing with the sentient suit that gives him his powers, his New 52 line had already been cancelled. Then Geoff Johns wrote Rebirth and added a little scene with Jaime Reyes that I thought was both very interesting and promising. In short, Keith Giffen doesn't deliver in this volume until issue #6, where he kind of gives a small splice of what the series could be. Getting the obvious out of the way, the dialogue here is absolutely horrible. I tell myself it feels like a first draft, but then there are moments of repetition and sentences upon sentences of nothing going on. By then, it feels more like a very bloated outline with the characters speaking mostly hot air. The dialogue here isn't flat, it's completely empty. This, in turn, makes all the charac...
Post a Comment
Read more