I’m a Dekker fan; I’d go so far as to say his writing has
influenced my own. So I jumped at the chance to review, Water Walker, the second book in his Outlaw Chronicles series. For
my review of the first book in the series (Eyes
Wide Open), click
here.
Like Ted’s other stories, the story concept is original. Ted
does a good job of writing what I’d refer to as allegorical-type stories. I
think this type of story might appeal to someone who is a seeker or is de-churched
(that is, they’ve attended church before but no longer attend). I wished that
at the end, there was some discussion to guide readers toward Ted’s intended
point (maybe included at the end of the book). I think Christians can see the
themes easily, but I think a guide would be nice for seekers.
The story starts out with a young girl named Alice who does
not remember the past six months of her life and has been placed in a foster
home. A man shows up claiming to be her biological father and wants to kidnap
her; he tells the girl her name is Eve. Alive/Eve must decide who she can
trust. A shadowy figure known as Outlaw appears and shows Alice/Eve she can
become a water walker and that her body is just a costume. Like I mentioned
previously, I think that many Christian readers will easily identify Christian
themes in the story.
What I didn’t like was the way POV was handled. I think Ted
is sort of a maverick when it comes to POV. For Immanuel’s Veins, I noted that he switched back and forth between
chapters using first and third person. Ted also mixes things up a bit in this
story as well. I felt like it worked in the other book, but for this one, I
felt like POV could have been deeper. At least one shift could have been
handled better with a scene break, at least in my opinion. Also, in my opinion,
I felt it was odd that a character had lost their memory, but then a chapter or
two later, recalls something from the past casually, but doesn’t find this odd
that they suddenly remembered something. Maybe it was supposed to be written
that way, but it felt like an “oops.” I’d also like to note
that a curse word was used, and it really didn’t need to be. I understand going
for realism, but realism is different than literalism (see post
by Author Donn Taylor for more discussion on this subject). I get that the
character would swear, but an author can show this without using the literal
term that a character would use.
*Please note that I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my review. However, I was not required to write a positive review. The opinion expressed here is my own.
