Book Review: "The Society" ("Forbidden Doors," No. 1) by Bill Myers

Author: Bill Myers Publisher: Zondervan Year Published: 1994

Synopsis: Rebecca and Scott Williams are two Christian teenage siblings who lived in the jungles of Brazil with their mother and missionary pilot father. However, their dad's death--the cause of which still isn't certain--forced them to relocate to California and enroll in a public school, where they are largely treated as outcasts...until Scott meets a group of kids who hang out at a place known as the Bookshop, and happen to be into the Occult and use Ouija boards to communicate with dead people. Scott knows this is wrong...until he tests it out, and ends up "talking" with his father. Will Scott give up his long-held faith, or realize the error of his ways before it's too late?

Story: 4/5
Though I'm not 100% sure spiritual warfare is quite like this book describes it, Bill Myers has crafted a great yarn that reads like the series premiere of a well-made television show.  It wouldn't work as a standalone novel, but, as the first "episode" in a twelve-part series, this is great stuff indeed.

Writing: 5/5
This is where the book really shines.  Sure, the novel is short--only around a hundred pages--but it is very involving; so much so, it kept me on the edge of my seat.  Of course, that's to be expected from Bill Myers, who is one of my favorite writers because of both his command of the art of storytelling and his way with words.

Moral Content: 4/5
Spiritual warfare is a concept that young kids would likely have trouble understanding, which is why the Forbidden Doors series is written for teens.  There are some scary sequences involving demons, which is to be expected, but things never get horribly violent.  Still, über-sensitive teens and adults, or ones who are regularly prone to nightmares, might want to skip this one.

Conclusion: I've read a lot of Bill Myers' works before, from his Fire of Heaven trilogy to Eli to even a few Wally McDoogle books, so you could say that I'm a fan of his.  It's hard to say which one is his best, but The Society is really great.  I'm definitely going to keep reading the series.

Score: 4.5/5