This book by Ted Dekker is a little unusual primarily in how it is written. The chapters in Black alternate between two worlds. At first it was a little difficult to get used to since it was more difficult to really feel invested in either world or the characters. After a while the flipping back and forth wasn’t too bad, but even at the end of the book I still don’t feel as though I truly care about one character more than any other. I think with how Dekker chose to write this you can’t connect with them. Even the main character, Thomas, I never felt I knew the character other than during certain scenes.

I will grant that the book is well written and may well have been more difficult to write in this way. Over the past year I have read other books by Dekker and enjoyed them far more than Black. When I finished first book in The Books of Mortals, Forbidden, I had high hopes for this one. I liked Black, but not so sure it is enough for me to want to continue this series.

With Black I get the felling that it’s a book that either you will like it or feel it wasn’t quite what you are looking for. For me it’s the latter. This year I’m making an effort to read and listen to books I wouldn’t have in the past. Black is one of those I suppose. The truth is I have read better tech thrillers with bio terrorism in them that felt far more realistic than this. Sadly, some of those were actually Zombie books. The point is that rather than continuing The Circle Series I’m going to read the next book, Protecting Our Own, in the Mutation Z series by Marilyn Peake.