"The Canary List" by Sigmund Brouwer

Wowza. Brouwer has done it again. This guy is such a good author that I've gone out of my way to request his books on my own. I love his style of very short chapters that change perspective. The genre he shines in is called speculative fiction. You never know what is coming next. I'll dive into the gist of what the book is about and conclude with some criticisms.

First of all, I'll try my best to give you an idea of the plot without revealing too much. There are some major plot twists that got even me by surprise. So, there is a troubled girl who is tossed around the foster system. She is plagued by a terribly scary darkness. Thru a truly strange chain of events, her schoolteacher gets involved in a huge conspiracy that involves the Vatican. Older Vatican conspiracies are touched upon, as well as some futuristic yet believable science and hacking. Some parts of the book are slower than others, but, in general, it is a very fast-paced story. The question of the demonic comes up quite a bit. At the end of the book, the reader is left to themself to question whether or not the demonic is real. Is there really evil in the Church, or is the demonic just a cover-up to blame something on a third party and manipulate people thru fear? I personally believe in the Biblical existence of the demonic, but readers can think what they may. What is great is the reading list at the end of the book. It includes memoirs from Vatican exorcists for those that want to dig deeper.

As for criticisms, this is hard. For the spiritual sense, the Vatican and demons were discussed, so the spiritual world was encountered. However, the schoolteacher is not a believer. He says by the end of the book that he believes he may one day see his little daughter in heaven. (By the end, he believes in demons and by some logic, he thinks God must exist, too.) However, there is no notion of him beginning a personal relationship with Yeshua Messiah. Perhaps, this is left up to the reader's imagination. What is good about this book is that it goes to remind people that--regardless of whether or not one believes in the existence of demons--there are very real evil people that infiltrate the Church.