Cross Roads

Jan 12, 2013 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christian-theology, christian-fiction

This is a great book. I had trouble with his first book The Shack and I have gone back and re-rated it, though I left my original review in place as it might be informative about a lot of my own take. I was raw at the time I read it and may need to read it at a later time.

This book is a fine uplifting read with a great deal of spiritual insight and hope. I suppose there are things that could be criticized about it, but none of much importance.

As a novel I think it succeeds though some may find a...more

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Jun 04, 2013 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

One of my all time favorite books I have read is The Shack, so when I saw that Mr. Young had written another book I, of course, had to read it. A man who, through his personal life experiences, has become a complete and total jerk. He basically has isolated himself from any positive relationship, cutting off all who may have ever loved him. He becomes afflicted with a brain tumor and goes into a coma. In this 'window' between life and death, he meets Jesus, who gives him the gift of choosing one...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Leroy Seat rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very creative and imaginative book, stretching incredulity, and I enjoyed reading it. But I don’t think it was nearly as good as "The Shack." Nevertheless, there is a deep spiritual message in this book, and I ended up liking it a lot.

The Holy Spirit is pictured as an old Lakota grandmother, and on one occasion she says, “Much of what you must forgive others for, and especially yourself, is the ignorance which damages. People don’t hurt willfully. More often because they simply don’t k...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wm. Paul Young wrote this one more carefully than his last book, The Shack, and he employed the help of Theologian: Baxter Kruger and host of others. Therefore it is more Theologically sound, he takes few liberties with scripture and the traditional doctrines of the Church. This time Jesus is Jesus, no confusion there, God the Father is God the Father again no gender bending. The Holy Spirit is a Lakota Indian woman, this might offend some who like to keep the trinity in the male gender, but in...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Joey Bryant is currently reading it

PRIOR TO receiving this book I purchased and read Paul Young's "THE SHACk' and loved it very much!
An amazing sister in Christ and Colleague of mine that I only met less than 1 year ago Purchased and
mailed to me as a gift this new book "CROSS ROADS!" I was super thrilled and grateful that she was
so thoughtful enough to provide this addition to the "SHACK" because she knew how much i had
enjoyed the first book!

I am only currently on page 5, this book is starting out a bit "WORDY", I'm not the...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Thomas Holbrook rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Mr. Young’s book, The Shack, was a best-seller because it was well written, spoke to a specific audience and explored the theological idea that God, through Christ, continues to be connected to humanity. His second book is just as well written, speaks to the same target audience but addresses the theological idea that, also through the work of Christ, God made community possible by the reconciliation of human beings to each other.
Anthony Spenser has it all – money, property, power, influence...more Mr. Young’s book, The Shack, was a best-seller because it was well written, spoke to a specific audience and explored the theological idea that God, through Christ, continues to be connected to humanity. His second book is just as well written, speaks to the same target audience but addresses the theological idea that, also through the work of Christ, God made community possible by the reconciliation of human beings to each other.
Anthony Spenser has it all – money, property, power, influence – and those things have brought him isolation, loneliness and paranoia. When he has a stroke leading to the discovery of a brain tumor that lands him in the Neuro-ICU of Oregon Science & Health University, all he has ever counted as dependable, true and reliable is challenged. When Tony “wakes up” after passing out due to the stroke, he finds himself in a land that was once beautiful but has fallen into disrepair. He begins to walk, taking different paths by random choice, until he finds a walled area. Although the enclosure is large, it has the feel of being uninhabited. He is greeted by various welcoming individuals who seem to know a lot about him and his life. These individuals reveal themselves to be: Jesus, a Lakota woman (who is the Holy Spirit) and “Jack.” He soon learns that the walled enclosure is actually his soul and the isolation and “shabbiness” it shows is reflective of how he lived a life once so promising. Because he is “in the between time” (he is in a coma, not dead but not living) he has the opportunity to “slide” into the minds of others. Jesus promises him that he (Jesus) will heal one person he (Tony) prays for to be healed. On this quest, he meets Cabby, a 16 y/o young man with Down’s Syndrome; Molly, Cabby’s mother; Lindsey, Cabby’s 14 y/o sister who is battling Leukemia and Maggie, housemate of these three. The interactions with these folk are memorable, and his “introduction” to Maggie is one of the most hilarious moments I have read in a while. Of course, through what he experiences, Tony’s world is changed and the resolution is satisfying while unconventional.
There is no violence, sex or “adult” language in the book although the description of Tony’s injuries is graphic. The book is filled with moments that will be points of contention among various Christian traditions and world views. To name but a few of these possible issues: Tony has not “accepted” Jesus before Jesus meets him and is already considered to be “family.” The place of women in the Church is shown to be a political construct not a theological issue. Humans are instruments of God for things of which they are unaware and accomplish things that will remain unknown until eternity is revealed. God can do what God wants without permission or human understanding. God uses EVERYTHING that happens, even the “bad” stuff. The questions raised by many of the situations in this novel would cause a reading group to become a hot bed of dynamic discussion.
It is nice to read a very good book dealing with a distinctly faithful world view. I did not feel the book was preachy, nor was it heavy handed (even if I was in tears at the end of it). The book was written from a Christian world-view but I felt it was more inclusive than I have come to expect from much of that genre.
I hope Mr. Young continues to write stories that cause his readers to consider where they stand. It makes for an engaged read and keeps the readers attentive. Besides, he makes Oregon even more enticing as a place to visit.
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Jan 30, 2013 Gerard Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Shack when I first read it, but two things changed my opinion, and drew me to the writing of Wm Paul Young. The first was that I saw the evident impact this book was having on its readers: people were discovering, in Young’s writing, a new confidence in the truth that God is love and only love. Especially for those raised in a narrowly-defined faith, the Shack was a breakthrough. 18 million sales later – with perhaps 100 million readers – it continues to be so. Th...more I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Shack when I first read it, but two things changed my opinion, and drew me to the writing of Wm Paul Young. The first was that I saw the evident impact this book was having on its readers: people were discovering, in Young’s writing, a new confidence in the truth that God is love and only love. Especially for those raised in a narrowly-defined faith, the Shack was a breakthrough. 18 million sales later – with perhaps 100 million readers – it continues to be so. The second factor was that I read more of Wm Paul Young’s own background and particularly his experiences, as the child of Christian missionaries, suffering sexual abuse. You can read his own reflections in an article written just this year, The Shattered Soul. Understanding his background made me deeply sympathetic to his writing, and deeply appreciative of his achievement.

So what of Cross Roads, a second novel written this time not by an unknown writer who had to print-off the first few copies at a local Copy Shop, but by a global phenomenon and best-selling author? The novel explores the ‘in-between’ spaces at life’s end, through the experience of a Tony – rich, successful, selfish, arrogant: and in a coma. The narrative moves between an invisible world, in which Tony meets with God in various forms and learns deep truths about himself, and the visible world, in which he is miraculously enabled to interact with others whose tragedies have brought them into the hospital in which he lies. Two aspects of the story are particularly compelling. The first is the portrayal of Tony’s own inner world as a kind of country estate: a run-down Downton Abbey in place of the original Shack. This is the landscape he has evidently failed to care for. In exploring the in-between world, he is exploring himself, and he doesn’t like what he finds. The influence of C S Lewis on these passages is clear, and is acknowledged. The second aspect that really grips is the portrayal of Cabby, a Downs-Syndrome boy whose game of hospital hide-and-seek accidentally launches a miraculous and ultimately redemptive adventure. Young takes us inside this boy’s imaginative world, and challenges us to change our perceptions of his value.

In essence Cross roads is about three sets of questions. It is about the question of values: what matters most and have some of us got it wrong? It is about life and death: if our dying was not a single moment, but a drawn-out process, how might we approach it? What might we try to change, given the chance? And it is about the Christian faith: Young is relentlessly orthodox is his efforts to understand life’s ultimate questions. None of these subjects are easy to handle in literature. It is easier by far to write thrillers about serial murderers and the detectives who hunt them down. Darkness lends itself to stronger colours than light in the writing of the contemporary novel. But it is nonetheless worth trying, and Young is something of a trail-blazer in this field. I applaud his efforts, and dare to hope that others will take to the same trail.
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Jan 11, 2013 Keith rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cross Roads, by Wm. Paul Young, is similar to his first book The Shack in that the Holy Trinity has a starring role in the book. Young uses this device effectively in The Shack, but perhaps it is just a tad tiresome when he uses it again in this book. Admittedly, Cross Roads is definitely intended for the Christian market, but Christians (at least this one) want something fresh, too! My reaction to the book reminds me of when you find a great first album by an up and coming band and you are real...more Cross Roads, by Wm. Paul Young, is similar to his first book The Shack in that the Holy Trinity has a starring role in the book. Young uses this device effectively in The Shack, but perhaps it is just a tad tiresome when he uses it again in this book. Admittedly, Cross Roads is definitely intended for the Christian market, but Christians (at least this one) want something fresh, too! My reaction to the book reminds me of when you find a great first album by an up and coming band and you are really looking forward to their next release. You rush out to get their sophomore effort and it falls short.

I didn't hate it, mind you, but I just felt disappointed that the same device (Jesus, God and The Holy Spirit appearing in the flesh to save a soul) was used again in much the same way as his first book. What I did like is how Young explains things that are difficult to understand (e.g., heaven, death, why bad things happen to good people) in a way this is comprehensible, compassionate, and, quite frankly, thought-provoking. However, in my opinion, he got a little carried away in the “God sending a sinner for redemption” department.

The sinner, Tony, first meets Jesus and The Holy Spirit; gets sent back to his comatose self; gets his soul transferred to a boy with Down's Syndrome; then his black, female caretaker; then her boyfriend; then back to the female caretaker, etc. As you can see, this gets a little silly. In my opinion, Young could have thought this through more carefully and not made it so fantastic.

Young tries to interject some humor into the book when Tony enters the head of the black female caretaker (Maggie) and then she needs to go to the bathroom. Since he can see everything through her eyes, and she can hear his thoughts, this leads to some comical interplay. Once again, however, the humor is a tad stereotypical of African-American church-goers. I appreciated the attempt at humor, but I’m thinking it could have been handled better.

All in all, the book wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t as good as The Shack for reasons already mentioned. If you haven’t read The Shack, perhaps you might enjoy Cross Roads better than I did. Still, Cross Roads is worth a read for the theological insights. I would recommend it, especially if you aren’t going to judge it from a critical thinking standpoint. Just accept it for what it is and enjoy!(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Dottie Parish rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-fiction

Cross Roads was written by the author of The Shack. This preposterous story starts slowly but is entertaining – especially about half way through. It is similar to The Shack in its depiction of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as affable, loving beings who take on human-like appearances in order to communicate with the main character. It is also similar in its approach to reconciling or undoing psychological trauma around grief. There is some insightful dialog, such as this about fairness. The main cha...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Only the second book by Wm Paul Young, author of surprise bestseller The Shack, Cross Roads is an incredibly complex and ambitious book which needs to be read slowly, carefully and thoughtfully, and ideally with a notepad to hand.

Tony Spencer is a character I had problems getting to grips with. At the start of the book he's ambitious, sociopathic and paranoid. A brain tumour leaves his body in a coma and his soul, or maybe his spirit (the book did explain the difference but not in a way I could...more Only the second book by Wm Paul Young, author of surprise bestseller The Shack, Cross Roads is an incredibly complex and ambitious book which needs to be read slowly, carefully and thoughtfully, and ideally with a notepad to hand.

Tony Spencer is a character I had problems getting to grips with. At the start of the book he's ambitious, sociopathic and paranoid. A brain tumour leaves his body in a coma and his soul, or maybe his spirit (the book did explain the difference but not in a way I could understand) wandering in a wilderness which represents his mind and interacting with Irish Jack, Jesus, and a Native American Grandmother who turned out to be the Holy Spirit. He responds by breaking down in remorse, and later he shows depths of compassion which seem at odds with the character built up in the first chapter. He also seems to take all the strange things that happen to him entirely in his stride, and knows a vast amount about Christianity for someone whose only religious teaching is from his late mother. In short, I wasn't convinced by Tony. But somehow that's okay, because actually I'm not sure the book was about him.

Part narrative, part metaphor but primarily sermon (maybe even treatise), as with The Shack the story and the character of Tony are largely the vehicle used to carry the religious message. And it is a book which has a lot to say on the subject of religion. I'm a deeply and devoutly religious person, but it got a bit much even for me at times and I enjoyed the moments of respite when there was actual narrative action. Even so, there was a great deal of profound truth, from "There are many ways to be alone" on page 2, to the poem on page 268 and Tony's ultimate understanding and triumph. It would be a hard-hearted reader indeed who was not, somewhere within the book, enlightened and enriched by new understandings and concepts, whatever their personal religious belief.

That's not the only similarity with The Shack, however. Despite the apparently very different subject matter I felt at times that I was reading a sequel. There were some wry nods to The Shack, but also some similar themes. One of the reasons I didn't like The Shack was because the violent murder of a child was a central theme and I find it difficult to read such things–I don't read misery memoirs, for example. Well, there's a dead child in Cross Roads too, and a shack, and three very familiar spiritual characters interacting with the father of that child, conveying creative concepts by means of very complex and lengthy sermons. (Like Young, I love a drop of alliteration.)

Young has been keen to address some of the criticism levelled at his theology in The Shack, with a lengthy defence of the Trinity doctrine to reassure readers who once again have qualms at his depiction of the Godhead, and several other reassurances which occasionally stood out uncomfortably against the story, especially for a non-Trinitarian such as myself with some views at odds with his. But the upshot is that he is unlikely to get the establishment backlash he suffered following his first book.

A great many people have reported that The Shack changed their lives. They won't be disappointed by the similarly powerful Cross Roads. Even those, like me, who find it rather heavy going will still draw from it profound and poignant ideas which will permeate their lives on every level. (And there I go with that alliteration again.)(less)

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Nov 23, 2012 Geoff Little rated it 3 of 5 stars

It’s an embarrassing, puerile feeling, the curiosity if someone, once so lucky, now might fail. I felt such a thing as I picked up and began William Paul Young’s Cross Roads novel, out this month. Published by FaithWords (Hachette), Cross Roads is the follow-up to Young’s 18 million-copy bestseller, The Shack, that donkey of a religious fiction title. A donkey, I confess, I rather loved.

The Shack was too clumsy to discuss in any literary circle I know, what with its constant breadcrumbing of the...more It’s an embarrassing, puerile feeling, the curiosity if someone, once so lucky, now might fail. I felt such a thing as I picked up and began William Paul Young’s Cross Roads novel, out this month. Published by FaithWords (Hachette), Cross Roads is the follow-up to Young’s 18 million-copy bestseller, The Shack, that donkey of a religious fiction title. A donkey, I confess, I rather loved.

The Shack was too clumsy to discuss in any literary circle I know, what with its constant breadcrumbing of the protagonist’s emotions. It was exhausting to be so distrusted by an author. I assumed this failing was because Young had written so little, that better narrative technique and style were not much available to him. (Supposedly, The Shack was his first book, originally intended for an audience only of his family.) The Shack’s success was its fleshed-out theology – chiefly, Grace – grace not as a pleasant silver lining, gilding reality, making us safe. No, grace was a furious squall, barely contained behind the human space-time continuum. It was a ton of good news, for religious Christians in particular.

The reason I re-hash The Shack is that Cross Roads is more of the same. God and Jesus show up much as before in liminal space, acting as dominant characters throughout. It’s another rebirth plot. Like in The Shack, the deities end up being a lot like us relationally. They appreciate us more than we know, and want the time to talk. Who cares if we are mere mortals? The story we are led through here is a vehicle for God and Jesus’s characters to pontificate to the protagonist (and to us the reader) on the choices the main character has made and could make. I am not super familiar with “religious fiction”; perhaps this is the way the novel has to be.

If so, it is a little much, but such therapeutic work is where Young (again) thrives. I opened this article posing if Young might choke on his sophomore effort. No worry. It’s just more Shack, with a wider panorama of characters and subplots.

Anthony Spencer, our business executive hero, is introduced in the first chapter with great skill. (I was impressed with the early drawing of him; it’s great writing, and I wondered if this caliber would be maintained. Not so much.) “Tony,” at first, is not a happy guy. Like Mack in the Shack, Tony has a slow, plotted conversion in Cross Roads. The pull: given his change, how will he make things right? There’s plenty of Christmas Carol here, and Tony never moves off script. This said, Cross Roads is a highly original book. Set in Portland, Oregon’s downtown, never would you imagine soon alternating chapters of astral projection mixed with a Pilgrim’s Progress re-telling. Young is alive and risky in Cross Roads. He will continue to enlighten and uplift through his unique brand of inspiration. A man with a vast imagination and heart to match, I look forward to William Paul Young’s next book, and the hope of his further evolution as a storyteller.(less)

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Nov 19, 2012 Lisa Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Title: Cross Roads
Author: Wm. Paul Young
Pages: 304
Year: 2012
Publisher: Faith Words
What happens to those who are in a comatose state? Tony Spencer, a man full of anger and paranoia, discovers that life is more than the world as he once saw it when he succumbs to a brain tumor-induced coma.
Tony finds himself in a strange place where he meets an interesting array of people, including C.S. Lewis, Jesus, and a mysterious Lakota woman, who lead him through the netherworld between earth and heaven in...more Title: Cross Roads
Author: Wm. Paul Young
Pages: 304
Year: 2012
Publisher: Faith Words
What happens to those who are in a comatose state? Tony Spencer, a man full of anger and paranoia, discovers that life is more than the world as he once saw it when he succumbs to a brain tumor-induced coma.
Tony finds himself in a strange place where he meets an interesting array of people, including C.S. Lewis, Jesus, and a mysterious Lakota woman, who lead him through the netherworld between earth and heaven in order to help him understand and overcome his pain and anger.
Wm. Paul Young weaves a tale full of metaphors and allegory to show that a man, bitter because his son died at a young age, can still have a chance to encounter inner healing and demolish the walls of an inner prison that he had created out of his pain and suffering. The protagonist, Tony, is shown several important lessons about his own life as Jesus, C.S. (Jack) Lewis, and the grandmotherly Lakota woman, who is a personification of the Holy Spirit, walk and talk with him as well as allow him to see the world through the eyes of other people, including a teen boy with Down’s Syndrome, the boy’s nurse, and a few others that he encounters. Tony not only sees through the eyes of others, but he feels their emotions and interprets experiences through their perspectives. In the midst of Young’s narrative, Tony discovers that he has allowed his ego to take control of his soul and build walls inside his heart to block out the love of his ex-wife and daughter. When he realizes what he has done, he begins to make peace with himself, which causes the walls to crumble in order to open the door to a new life.
Although the concept of one God manifested in three separate and distinct persons is a mystery too complex for finite minds to grasp, Young’s explanation by the character of Grandmother (the Lakota woman) is one that seems to make sense for people to understand it in human terms. I like how Grandmother explains to Tony that a person is “a spirit interpenetrating a soul interpenetrating a body. But it is not simply interpenetration. It is dance and participation.” Furthermore, she tells Tony, “…you ‘are’ your body, and you ‘are’ your soul, and you ‘are’ your spirit. You are an interpenetrated and interpenetrating whole, a unity of diversity but essentially a oneness.”
Initially, I had difficulty reading Cross Roads. It seemed to start slow, but I may have been projecting a false lack of interest due to the nature of the protagonist being in a coma and in the process of dying, which is a reminder of the recent loss of a loved one. However, by the time I read about a third of the way through the book, I found myself not wanting to put it down. I recommend Wm. Paul Young’s Cross Roads for those who have doubted past decisions or who have dealt with bitterness and pain, loss and misery. Not only does Young have a good story but also a strong message involving love’s restoration and forgiveness.
My rating of Cross Roads is 5 stars.
Note: I received a complimentary copy for an honest review of this book. The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility. Other reviews can be read at http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspo... . Also follow me on Twitter @lcjohnson1988, FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/lisa.johnson...

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Nov 19, 2012 Ronald Goetz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I confess I had misgivings about reading Wm. Paul Young’s Cross Roads this week. I avoided his best-seller, The Shack, when everyone in my congregation was reading it and my wife was telling me how good it was. But she’s used to my capricious, intellectual aversion to popular books, so she didn’t press it. I’m happy to say that Cross Roads is definitely a good read, both intellectually and emotionally.

Cross Roads is a redemption novel, the surreal spiritual pilgrimage of protagonist Anthony Spen...more I confess I had misgivings about reading Wm. Paul Young’s Cross Roads this week. I avoided his best-seller, The Shack, when everyone in my congregation was reading it and my wife was telling me how good it was. But she’s used to my capricious, intellectual aversion to popular books, so she didn’t press it. I’m happy to say that Cross Roads is definitely a good read, both intellectually and emotionally.

Cross Roads is a redemption novel, the surreal spiritual pilgrimage of protagonist Anthony Spencer. If you’ve read The Shack, then the fact that Tony meets both Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the flesh won’t surprise you, and neither will the Zen Master tone of certain portions of the book. If you are able to suspend disbelief and accept the fictional universe Young has created, then there’s a lot here for you.

I was very interested in the number of literary models Young used in Cross Roads. Hopefully I’m not spoiling anything to say that chapters move from Socratic dialogue to Pilgrim’s Progress, from episodes of Mission Impossible, Sliders, and House to movies like Ghost, Always, and Dogma. Some of this bothered me until I realized that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been rendered scores of times in different mediums. In the cases of Ghost and Mission Impossible Young gives an explicit nod to the sources.

Aside from these comments about style and models, there is that redemption story I mentioned. Tony Spencer begins the story as a financially successful, distilled monster suffering some serious psychiatric issues, and is redeemed.

I’m a reasonably sentimental guy, and I drew a little tear drop in the margin of Cross Roads every time I teared up, or had to stop reading because the page was too blurry to continue reading. There are fifteen tear drops in the margins. Understandably, they were in sections of the story that intersected with my personal life, namely with my mentally handicapped sister and with my brother. If I had an ex-wife whom I treated worse than crap and was alienated from my children as only a 24-karat jerk can alienate, I would have drawn tear drops elsewhere in the book.

Young’s first book, The Shack, was denounced by many fundamentalists as heretical. Ravi Zacharias, from the same denomination as author Wm. Paul Young and myself (the C&MA), said it was “soft heresy,” while radio minister Michael Youssef counted no less than thirteen heresies in the best-seller. I’m certain these good people will find similar heresies in Cross Roads. If only these educated men understood how historically determined their theology is, and how important it is to touch people’s hearts with the message of love, healing, and hope.

My one disappointment with Cross Roads is not so much with the book as with a pervasive blind spot of the evangelical culture that gave it birth. The word “justice” appears only once in the book (p. 115), is described as a concept that can only fail, and is dismissed along with “rights,” a selfish negative thing. This was the only point where Young’s deliberate use of evangelical clichés, which I usually found acceptable, was unacceptable. As a straight white male, insisting on my “rights” is inappropriate and unnecessary, but insisting on justice for others is to me non-negotiable. When we talk of justice, we do not insist on justice for ourselves, but for others.

With Cross Roads, I think Wm. Paul Young could one day be signing a film contract. If I had the money, I’d be locking in rights to the screenplay. The message is significant and contemporary; the material is varied and dramatic; the characters are ethnically diverse and in vogue; and the settings are realistic and surreal. There is more than enough to give directors all the creative jumping-off points they could ever want.

In the old days the trailer would have read, “It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. But most of all–it will make you think.”

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.(less)

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Nov 18, 2012 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, trinity

William Paul Young’s first novel, The Shack, was a publishing phenomenon. Young wrote the novel for his children to explain his thoughts on God and his theological convictions. More than 18 million copies later, Young had an international bestseller which touched the lives of people all over the globe. Itt has got people thinking about what kind of God, God is,what the Trinity really is and how the persons of God relate to one another.

Cross Roads is Young’s second novel and while sophomore effo...more William Paul Young’s first novel, The Shack, was a publishing phenomenon. Young wrote the novel for his children to explain his thoughts on God and his theological convictions. More than 18 million copies later, Young had an international bestseller which touched the lives of people all over the globe. Itt has got people thinking about what kind of God, God is,what the Trinity really is and how the persons of God relate to one another.

Cross Roads is Young’s second novel and while sophomore efforts seldom live up to the hype generated by a best selling debut, for my money this is the better novel. While there is a certain similarity between the two novels (i.e. both are about profoundly broken men who are bitter at God after experiencing the loss of a loved one, both books bring the protagonist into a transforming and healing encounter with the triune God) the Shack was less crafted and preachier. Cross Roads is as interesting (and as varied) as it is profound.

If I were to describe the experience of reading this novel, it is a bit like if you cross The Shack with A Christmas Carol, The Great Divorce and Being John Malcovich. The Story begins when Anothony Spencer, a businessman who is highly successful but who has alienated everyone in his life, has a cerebral hemorrhage and slips into a coma. He awakens to find himself in a deserted wasteland where he follows tangled paths up a hillside. There he meets a mysterious stranger named Jack who tells him the place where he is, is not exactly hell but it is not exactly home. Jack gets Tony to think hard about the nature of truth and reality. Soon Jack leaves and Jesus and a mysterious Lakota woman show up (the Holy Spirit in disguise and instructs Tony to call her Grandmother). After that things get really interesting and they send Tony on a journey which will result in his ultimate healing, though not in the way he initially envisions.

The twists and turns in this book make it a fun read (I have tried not to give too much away). This is great storytelling and well worth it. In The Shack Young gave us a picture of his theology by encapsulating it in story. This book is no less theological but it doesn’t try to say everything about God. The theology that is explored here is integral to the plot.

What I really appreciated about this book (and The Shack) is that Young is great at imagining a pursuing God who does not give up on those who, because of the damage and hurt they have suffered, have become embittered souls. The God in these novels is actively seeking, pursuing, calling, but never forcing. The triune God doesn’t demand, but invites. Anytime someone ‘images’ God they get something wrong, but I think these aspects of the book are profoundly right. So go on, read it!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.(less)

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Nov 16, 2012 Paul Wilkinson rated it 5 of 5 stars

The original distribution target for The Shack was about 15 copies. So it’s not surprising that million-copy-selling author Paul Young refers to Cross Roads as the first novel he intentionally wrote.

I’m drawn to Young’s picture of a loving God — regardless of the size, shape, age or gender in which he prefers to clothe any member of The Trinity — and would have no problem approving him to teach Sunday School at my church, a proposition that no doubt causes his detractors to shudder.

The lead cha...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Gail Welborn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

***From the author of The Shack with an initial print run of one million copie***

WM. Paul Young, bestselling author of the The Shack that sold eighteen million copies in 2008, now returns with Crossroads. In another provocative tale of healing and hope wrapped in an account of relationships, selfishness, trust and choices. FaithWords releases one million copies Tuesday, November 13th which suggests they believe Crossroad sales could be similar to that of The Shack.

The poignant story begins with...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Recommended to Bill by: Requested from Author

NOBODY…NOBODY can write about pain and the space between the unimaginable and unconscionable wounds inflicted during life on earth – and the reality of an ever-present loving, grace-filled, redemptive, triune God like Wm. (Paul ) Young. NOBODY…PERIOD!!!

My review and the cover image are here: http://www.billdahl.net/articles/cros...

On September 7, 2007 I wrote a review on Amazon – for a book entitled “The Shack – Where Tragedy Meets Eternity” — “an odd title,” I thought to myself – before I began...more

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May 09, 2013 Johan Haneveld rated it 4 of 5 stars

A worthy follow-up to The Shack. I still wouldn't call Wm. Paul Young a great novelist, but he does have a knack for writing meaningful imagery and a passion for the transforming love of God, expressed in the trinity and never giving up on any of us. Those strengths are clear in this book too. The first chapters are a bit too reminiscent of The Shack and similar works for my taste, and meeting a particular British author (though one of my favourites) in the afterlife has become a cliche, but as...more

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Jan 25, 2013 David Marshall rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

I don't even know where to begin, apart from not being able to put this down. As someone who loves reading, I've been doing a lot of theological/scholarly reading lately, so it's been easy to focus on the details and take my time. With "Cross Roads", I couldn't convince myself to only read a chapter at a time. I honestly read a good 75% of the book today. I never did read "the Shack", but this book was well-written enough to convince me to do so. Young's ability to paint the heart of God in such...more

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May 26, 2013 Jeanne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Jeanne by: Robyn Bray

This is a great book! I love this kind of book because it speaks in allegory, much like the parables of the Bible. Spiritual concepts are often too deep to understand, especially at first. Once an understanding begins, the ideas are difficult to explain in words. There are many concepts that we have some understanding of, such as love that we feel toward someone, but we are unable to convey the depth of this experience through our limited, human language. The author, Wm. Paul Young, is a gifted...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Tiffany Simar rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

When I first started reading this book, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. I had read The Shack and enjoyed it and was thrilled when I discovered that WM. Paul Young had put out another book. Reading a little about this book while standing in Walmart, I loved what was mentioned on the back "I can heal someone? Are you tell me that I am able to heal anybody?" This drew me in and I passed up on the last Fifty Shades book for this intriguing read.

When I started the first chapter, I struggle...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Donna Hultman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Thought provoking. A great "listen "

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Jan 12, 2013 Chanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I saw that the author of The Shack had produced another book I stopped what I was doing and downloaded it immediately. William Paul Young doesn't create characters with a level of humanness that makes them completely relatable. For the most part, his characters are pretty two-dimensional. He doesn't string together story lines and weave plots that have you gripping the edge of your seat and ringing up the book club girls to send them running to the internet to buy their own copy. What he do...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Michelle Feist rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you have read and enjoyed The Shack, then you will probably enjoy this book, too. Powerful spiritual truths are woven into the experience of Tony, a self-absorbed, wealthy and powerful businessman, who suffers brain trauma and finds himself in a coma, barely clinging to life. It is while in this "in between place" that Tony takes a journey to an unfamiliar place - a vast, wild countryside where he meets some strange, yet interesting characters who begin to reveal to Tony the "truth" of his li...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Some years in Portland, Oregon, winter is a bully, spitting sleet and spewing snow in fits and starts as it violently wrestles days from spring, claiming some archaic right to remain king of the seasons -- ultimately the vain attempt of another pretender."

So begins "Cross Roads". The first half of the book is filled with stilted prose like this. Young is best when he writes more about emotion, which is part of why "The Shack" was such a success, but this story takes much longer to move into an...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Keith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the second book by Wm Paul Young, author of "The Shack."

Like "The Shack", "Cross Roads" could best be described as an allegory, or extended parable, about the grace of God.

The protagonist, Anthony Spencer, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, using and abusing people for his own ends. He finds himself undergoing a journey which transforms his thinking and attitudes, bringing redemption to him and to his former family.

"Cross Roads" raises questions about the problems of evil in the world....more

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Dec 29, 2012 Pat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anthony Spencer is egotistical, proud of being a self-made business success at the peak of his game, even though the cost of winning was painfully high. A cerebral hemorrhage leaves Tony comatose in a hospital ICU. He 'awakens' to find himself in a surreal world, a 'living' landscape that mirrors dimensions of his earthly life, from the beautiful to the corrupt. It is here that he has vivid interactions with others he assumes are projections of his own subconscious, but whose directions he follo...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Becky Burford rated it 4 of 5 stars

Purchased this book at Wal-Mart as I headed out of town for work and wanted to get a novel or two for my trip and I had not read a novel in some time. I realize that this book was same author as "The Shack" which I have not read. At time of purchase, I did not know anything about this book and it was just released on the market the day before.

I enjoyed the book. But maybe it could been my distraction in the airport, plane, etc but I did not have the deep feelings that should come with this topic...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Angela Oliver rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, religion

I fully expected to dislike this novel, which I mainly read because I am up to "Y" in the alphabet. I had read "The Shack" and found it a little saccarine and preachy, and in the start, this book struck me the same way. When Tony went into his "internal world" and started meeting up with various entities, it did feel very familiar and a little bit too preachy for my tastes. However, the moment Tony found himself seeing the world through Caddy's eyes and then jumping from host to host - that was...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Jennifer Vowles rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: gift-received

As a woman who had a hemorrhagic stroke two years ago at the age of 36 and whose life has changed in ways I can't even verbalize, this book spoke to me in ways maybe the 2* people can't understand.

I'm okay with that. We're all on our own journey.

For those who read just for an entertaining experience, don't bother.

If you're willing to read this and acknowledge your own shortcomings it might be some help. I truly hope not everyone needs to have a brain hemorrhage to be grateful for every moment an...more

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SPSV Mrs. Rodgers...: Colton Souza	1	6	Apr 27, 2013 11:20am
Live Web Event with Author Wm. Paul Young	3	23	Jan 18, 2013 12:19am
My Pre-Release Review is here:	1	10	Aug 08, 2012 06:51pm

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