So the opening of this alone is extremely confusing and basically a comedy act opening. There's no way to take this opening blurb and turn it into something serious and not satire.

"What do you get when Islamic terrorists and White-Supremacists go up against a small group of Bible believers in the hills of East Tennessee?"

Stupidity that offends everyone, every race, sexuality, religion, age range, sex, and more.

You can have literature with problematic content, you can have literature with bad ideas, you can even have literature that's two stories in one, this is none of that. This is one of those books that says everyone is bad except for the goody goody Christians. But not just any christians, a very specific type of Christian that is very specific and doesn't really exist.

Our main villains are Muslim, who's only crime are being Muslim. And because they're muslim, they're the bad guys not because they're doing anything bad they're just there. And. Muslim.

What?

Our main heroic guys are trying to convert everyone to christianity, and that's the reason why everyone who doesn't is bad. Yes, this book is about convert to Christianity or burn in hell. The entire world must convert.

The Muslims literally want to just do their own thing and be left alone in this book, and the Christians keep invading and attacking them, so they're bad because they don't want to convert to something and be forced into something they don't want to do. How very non-con of you. Obviously people should consent to converting to a religion not be forced in or ostracized otherwise.

There's this one scene where a guy sees a girl on the side of the road and begs God to help her because he's got a wife and child and doesn't want to go back to jail. My brain read it as he was tempted to rape her/a nonce. So I couldn't stop thinking he was the entire time he was there.

Regardless it's written well, it's garbage propaganda and violating people's rights in a fictional world, but this isn't an atrocious writing level. Characters are bare bones and need deeper development, and the plot is terrible. But it's well-written terrible. Not even atrocious writing to make this better.

So the villains are anyone who isn't white or christian and the plot is terrorism bad, and all outside religions are terrorists.

And the Christians are the aggressor. But they're heroes, we swear!

The guy on the cover isn't even there most of the book... Great job.
He's named Asher btw. His best friend was killed by Muslims. And singing killed his grandma. Actually "he was more than a friend". Oh, how I wish he was gay. But nah, the guy was a father-figure-friend. I don't know the age gap but chances are Asher was calling him daddy and that would have been a better book for sure.

I was bored and sort of in and out entertained by how ridiculous and over the top garbage this book was.

0 stars. Jesus Christ won't even touch this. ( )

When I saw The Vision by Debi Pearl (of THE Pearl family) being vigorously promoted in homeschooling circles I was eager to read it. A story that combines looming end-times evangelism, terrorism, romance, and herbalism – how exciting – in theory.

I was looking forward to reading the inspiring story of a group of committed Christians pushing on to share the gospel through dangerous times and apostasy, and while there is certainly some of that, the very strong tones of condemnation really ruined this read for me. It is clear that the Pearls have very strong ideological beliefs and The Vision almost reads like a platform for those strident beliefs.

Do you wear a head covering? Include some Hebraic practices in your spiritual walk? Eat junk food – ever? Weigh a bit too much? Prepare to be bashed within these pages. Unfortunately there is very little grace to be found within the pages of this novel, only those who line up with the Pearls ‘ideal’ (and seem like copies of the Pearls themselves put into the pages of a novel) are put forward as good characters, and then they are idealized presenting a false and unbelievable perfection. Anyone with any flaw or differing belief is castigated. This is wearisome and reflects a poor understanding of the craft of writing fiction, but it doesn’t really reflect love or mercy. The Last Publishers present a very harsh, very unyielding belief system.

Pearl is clear on the gospel, the need to share it with others, the need to persevere through persecution, the dangers of Muslim beliefs etc. but I would have loved to see these tempered with grace – as it was I found myself grinding my teeth and wincing throughout. There are also some issues with back-story and character development. There are a lot of family ties missing or poorly described – Cheyenne, though she apparently has siblings, seems almost like an only child – other family members just don’t show up or make an impact in this story.

As much as I was looking forward to reading The Vision, I’m afraid I can’t recommend it to others, and will not be reading future releases in the series.

Reviewed at quiverfullfamily.com ( )