The Oath (Paperback) by Frank E. Peretti - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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Jan 23, 2008

Robert Beveridge rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

bookshelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Read in September, 2002

Frank Peretti, The Oath (Word, 1995)

I got this a few years back from my mother as a Christmas present. I pointed out to her that Peretti is widely known as a Christian author (one would think that the book's publisher, who also releases books by folks like Billy Graham, would have been a giveaway there), and her response was "it certainly doesn't sound like Christian fiction. It sounds like Stephen King." And Frank Peretti is, without doubt, the Christian version of Mr. King,...more Frank Peretti, The Oath (Word, 1995)

I got this a few years back from my mother as a Christmas present. I pointed out to her that Peretti is widely known as a Christian author (one would think that the book's publisher, who also releases books by folks like Billy Graham, would have been a giveaway there), and her response was "it certainly doesn't sound like Christian fiction. It sounds like Stephen King." And Frank Peretti is, without doubt, the Christian version of Mr. King, both in subject matter and in sales figures that make the rest of the publishing industry quake in fear. One thinks that when Frank Peretti grows up, he wants to BE Stephen King. And with The Oath, he comes very, very close.

There's something very large, very nasty, and very hungry hanging around near the town of Hyde River. When it kills and half-eats an outsider, nature photographer Cliff Benson, Benson's brother Steve starts poking around. As he gets closer to the identity of the killer, however, he finds out that the town doesn't necessarily want to find out what killed Cliff Benson-and may go to great lengths to stop Steve from doing so, either.

Good, scary, keep-you-up-at-night stuff. And for the first four hundred pages of this five-hundred-odd page book, that's what it remains. The only thing during this portion of the book that keeps Peretti from achieving the standard of writing set by horror authors like Stephen King and Dan Simmons is that Peretti isn't quite as good at writing his minor characters; as with a lot of lesser lights in the horror genre, Peretti sets up some of his minor characters with the "I'm going to die in a few pages" signs on their foreheads and then leads them to their grisly ends. (For the record, at least Peretti's minor characters usually stick around for a while, and do have some other function aside from dying.) There's no real life in them the way there is in Peretti's major characters. And while this makes the book suffer, it's a forgivable thing, especially when the book is as fast-paced and readable as this one is.

Also in those first four hundred pages, before I start firing off criticisms at the end, Peretti does a great job with his symbolism and the obvious points he's trying to get across. Let's face it, you pick up a book by a Christian author published by a well-known Christian imprint, you know you're in for an object lesson. And in the first two-thirds of this book, Frank Peretti shows you what the word "parable" means. Everything is low-key, well-done, visible to those who know what to look for. Peretti even takes the secular convention of the local religious nut and bends it to his own ends in a wonderful way; Levi Cobb wouldn't be out of place in almost ay eighties horror novel I've ever read. Had he stayed right where he was and kept going in this vein till the end, The Oath might have hit my top ten reads of the year list.

Then everything went downhill... and fast.

The book's climax throws everything you just read about above out the window. Symbolism? Subtlety? Well-drawn characters? See you later. Peretti takes the velvet cover off the sledgehammer and starts beating. The message doesn't just become the medium, it overwhelms it. Those of you who have heard me trying to illustrate this particular point and haven't been able to follow what I'm talking about, read this book. You can see both good socially-conscious writing and bad socially-conscious writing in one fell swoop, and because you're still in the same story, it becomes obvious which is which.

Peretti's already got the skills to be a major player in the field, and judging from the first four hundred pages of The Oath, he's already better than most of the competition. Now, if he'd take a few tips in parable writing from authors like Madeleine L'Engle or Francois Mauriac, he could turn sales of two million copies into sales ten times that, and get his message across to secular readers as well-for isn't that the whole point? ** (less)

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Jun 12, 2007

Barbara rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: people from the age of 13 to adult.

This is a fictional story that addresses the very real sin that dwells within each of us.
The first 1/3 of the book is very interesting; then, as I read it, I found myself falling asleep through the next 1/3. But the last 1/3, when all the ends start tying up and the pieces fall into place, I literally could not but the book down.
The author did an excellent job describing the mountainous area in which the story takes place. I felt like I was really there. His style of dialogue was ...more

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Jun 16, 2007

Klasko rated it:

bookshelves: favorites

Read in January, 1996

This book proves that Frank Peretti is the Stephen King of Christian fiction. I think I read this one in about a day and a night. I was worthless for the whole time I was reading it because I couldn't put it down. I read it while my husband was away on a business trip and then I wouldn't put it down until I finished it because my imagination about what might happen next creeped me out more than continuing to read it. So I read it until moving into the larger of the wee hours of the morning. ...more

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Sep 04, 2007

Faith rated it:

(review of isbn 0849911788)

bookshelves: alreadyread

Read in September, 2000

recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys a good Christian fiction

There is a little bit of everything in this book. A bit of romance, action, mystery, thrill, fear, and of course a good moral & lesson in the end. I was able to read this novel for hours and never grow tired. Frank Peretti has never disappointed me yet with his novels and is one of my favorite authors. His stories are comtemporary and extremely addicting. This is the first books I read by him. I was about 13 or 14 when I first read this book. I saw it on my parents bookshelf and wanted to read i...more

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Nov 12, 2009

Savannah rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Read in October, 2009

I really enjoyed this book, it was a pretty great thriller that kept me thinking.

It didn't read as fast as I would have liked, it did take me a little while to get through it, but it's also a nice chunk of tree to put on ones bookshelf, so I suppose that makes sense.

It certainly does a good job of keeping you on your toes and your heart racing, especially in the beginning and the last half. I mean, the hero is hunting a freaking invisible being that marks people in a way ...more

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Sep 01, 2009

Anne Hawn Smith rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Read in September, 2009

recommends it for: anyone

This was one of Peretti’s best. The plot centers on the effect of evil on the human soul. Professor Steve Benson. comes to the town of Hyde River because his brother, Cliff, has been killed by some enormous animal that seems to defy description. It is assumed that he was mauled by a bear, but Steve, with a Ph.D in Biological Science and a professorship at Colorado State University teaching environmental science and biology, is not satisfied. He and the conservation officer of Fish and Gam...more

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Jun 05, 2008

Craig rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

I found this book at a campsite in the mountains of Wyoming...expecting it to be a horror novel about murder in the mountains.... Turned out to be a horror novel with an evil monster lurking in the mountains. Needless to say, when I got to the end, all of the pages were ripped out. So I had to wait until the next day to go to the library to finish the last fifty pages. Damn that mountain man that used the ending of the book to keep the fire alive...

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May 14, 2009

Rain Ferrul rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Read in January, 2006

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Mar 09, 2009

John added it (review of isbn 0849911788)

bookshelves: q-3-2009

Read in March, 2009

Frank Peretti latest novel could be described as one of his best yet, as the Christian writer has mixed all the elements of a good action thriller novel and doused them in a Christian message. His story follows Steve Benson, a renowned wildlife biologist, and his investigation into his brother’s strange and vaguely detailed death. The story unfolds in a region around a small town in the pacific northwest, adding to the mystery and dark roots of the story. The book though dark, graphic and...more

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Feb 02, 2010

Chris Bloom rated it:

(review of isbn 0849938635)

This is in some ways the standard Peretti work, and has certainly been his most popular. It's an adventure story, a mystery, and a romance, with a healthy dollop of spiritual warfare thrown in. Still, it left me a little cold.

I don't mind a plot-driven book; as a lifelong reader of fantasy and SF, I prefer a strong plot to endless pages of character noodling. Still, character is important to a book, and here it feels that characterization is sacrificed to keep the plot racing along....more

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Jan 08, 2010

Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Don't get me wrong, I really like Frank Peretti. I've had recordings of him speaking, I've read several of his books. I think The Visitation is an incredibly good book.

Unfortunately I can't say the same about this one. I didn't even finish it (I almost put "couldn't finish it", but I suppose I could have forced myself. It just didn't seem worth it.). I found the story itself somewhat at fault. This might have worked better as a youth book. if I go deeper into why, I'll give...more

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Mar 18, 2009

Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

bookshelves: crap

Read in April, 2009

None of the reviews I’ve seen attempt to judge Oath on its merits as a thriller—only as a Christian thriller. I find this insulting and sad. The implication is that it is unfair or irrelevant to weigh Christian cultural/artistic efforts on the same scale as secular culture. This is akin to saying that it is unfair to judge art produced by women by the same standards as art produced by men; it’s patronizing and wrong. Bach wrote sacred music of enduring power and beauty—suck on that, Jars...more None of the reviews I’ve seen attempt to judge Oath on its merits as a thriller—only as a Christian thriller. I find this insulting and sad. The implication is that it is unfair or irrelevant to weigh Christian cultural/artistic efforts on the same scale as secular culture. This is akin to saying that it is unfair to judge art produced by women by the same standards as art produced by men; it’s patronizing and wrong. Bach wrote sacred music of enduring power and beauty—suck on that, Jars of Clay. The devotional poems of John Donne or Saint John of the Cross resonate with visceral passion and energy. Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings radiate the terror and fascination of sin. Their genius isn’t just Christian genius, though; it’s genius, period. Their work stands as tall on its artistic merits as its spiritual ones. In fact, I’d argue that their artistic value increases their spiritual worth, because one doesn’t have to be a believer to appreciate them. The Hallelujah Chorus can fill an inveterate atheist with religious awe. My guess is that Frank Peretti converts about as many non-Christians as Ann Coulter converts Democrats.

So, judged on its merits as a thriller, Oath is dreck. The prose is abysmal—plodding, repetitive amateur hour, drained of suspense. Oath is full of clunky passages like “Tracy Ellis didn’t want to answer that question. ‘I’m not going to answer that,’ she said.” As the spooky story it attempts to be, this book is a cheap house of horrors with the lights on. You see all the mechanical devices that are supposed to pop out and startle you from a mile away. Peretti’s description of the protagonist falling for his lady-friend is particularly excruciating. Peretti seems incapable of displaying attraction as anything but sleazy. No wonder so many of his Christian readers are disturbed by his descriptions of sin! His supposedly decent character’s “impure thoughts” are creepy and gross.

For those that still cry foul, who argue that Oath is still somehow worth my while despite being objectively awful, I must add that theologically, Oath is also, sadly, dreck. One doesn’t have to read past the introduction to find this out. In that introduction, the author reveals his inspiration and purpose for writing this book. He was judging some friends of his for their sinfulness, but alas, he did not judge them loudly enough, and they sinned even more. Peretti wrote Oath so neither he nor his readers would ever again tragically miss an opportunity to judge their friends and neighbors. It’s just like Christ said: “Judge not, lest ye become a New York Times bestselling author.”

Of course, the insular, self-righteous un-charitablity extends beyond the introduction. I could write a thesis on the many ways in which this book gives Christianity a bad name. Stereotype one: religion reinforces misogyny: check. In this book, women separated from their husbands lose sanity and personhood. They are frantic, irrational agents of unfocused destruction who must be controlled through marriage to a strong-willed man. I wonder how single gals Mary and Martha or their best pal (Jesus) would feel about that. Stereotype two: religion cannot co-exist with rational thought: check. Are we not all sick of this yet? The titular oath is a pact to make Reason a small town’s only God. Cue the hysterical fears about godless scientists and public schoolteachers now, folks. Fortunately, Peretti had the spiritual integrity not expose himself to any of that dangerous Reason in his research for this novel. He mentions it, but he and his characters seem blissfully innocent of what it actually is. Stereotype three: Christians are judgmental hypocrites: check. For a man that professes to worship a loving God, Peretti evinces great relish as he dooms sinner after sinner to a horrific terrestrial death followed, one assumes, by eternal suffering in hell. Is a lake of fire that burns but never consumes not enough for this guy? Why must his sinners also be punished, horribly, all out of proportion to their actions, here on Earth? That doesn’t sound like Christianity to me—it sounds like fascism. Peretti is genuinely unwilling to engage with ideas that oppose his own. He can’t conceive of a charitable humanist, even though charity is the cornerstone of humanism. He doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously because he doesn’t take non-Christians seriously. How can he persuasive if he doesn’t understand that against which he argues? Like his own protagonists, he can’t really see the monster he’s trying to fight.

In Romans, the apostle Paul writes that God gives each of his children different gifts. It is not my job to judge the state of Peretti’s soul. In judging the state of his art, however, I have to hope that his spiritual gifts lie elsewhere. And to any Christians out there whose consciences don’t allow them to consume secular art, and whose tastes don’t run to seventeenth century devotional poetry, may I recommend Steven King’s The Stand? It’s a Christian thriller, I swear—about the end of times, no less. And it’s, you know…good.
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Oct 31, 2008

Andrew rated it:

(review of isbn 0849911788)

Read in January, 1997

recommended to Andrew by: The jacket design caught my eye.
recommends it for: Any reader with the imagination to cope.

This is among my most favorite novels ever. A young woman runs for help from something terrifying, something that has enraged as well as frightened her. Her brother in law, Steve Benson, is called to her aid and learns that his brother has been killed - and Evelyn, his sister in law, cannot describe the thing that killed him. Neither can the police. So Steve undertakes to find out for himself, partly because he is sure something is being hidden. That beginning is common to a lot of novels, and ...more This is among my most favorite novels ever. A young woman runs for help from something terrifying, something that has enraged as well as frightened her. Her brother in law, Steve Benson, is called to her aid and learns that his brother has been killed - and Evelyn, his sister in law, cannot describe the thing that killed him. Neither can the police. So Steve undertakes to find out for himself, partly because he is sure something is being hidden. That beginning is common to a lot of novels, and yet it works well in "The Oath". Even though the story's opening is not original, the author's narration of it is compelling and I felt more and more drawn in. Even after reading hundreds of books, I found this one gripped me so that I had to read on and see what happened.
The action takes place in a small town called Hyde River. After the opening the narrative shifts, describing events among the local people. A young woman thrown out by her husband is terrified of something that will come for her; and so great is the fear that no-one else will give her any help. It is the same unnamed, horrifying thing that killed Steve Benson's brother.
Parallel with this narrative are excerpts of flashback, going back several generations and concerned with the Hyde family, after whom Hyde River is named; and the Bly family, their descendants. These excerpts add to the mystery, the sense of something unexplained and terrifying.
Frank Peretti's plots have been called far-fetched, but I don't find them to be by the standards of paranormal or urban fantasy, or Christian allegory. If the reader can accept a spiritual dimension to life which does not confirm to pedestrian daily reality, then they can accept what this book gradually reveals. Human emotion and ambition, greed, deceit and fear have built up to a pitch over several generations. They have become a monster which exists externally of people, and can turn on them when it grows beyond their control. That is the allegory. Human actions can come to control them and push them to their own destruction. The way this author uses dragons works as an excellent symbol of that. What struck me too was how something is rejected by sceptics, and can never be proven; yet it is horrifyingly real. The fact that it can't be neatly documented is part of it's deadliness. Human beings can be shown how to avoid certain physical dangers in clear uncontroversial ways. Nice photographic examples can be used to do so. But spiritual dangers are harder to show by example and the consequences of them much harder to signpost as deadly.
As the novel rises to its climax, the reader learns more and more about the past in Hyde River and how events have led to the present. By the time we learn what Steve Benson is facing, it is not at all certain that he has learned in time.
It is not Steve alone who finally overcomes the enemy. Levi Cobb has lived in Hyde River for most of his life. Much of what the reader learns about the past is Levi's research, studying the enemy.
The way the novel finishes is in keeping with all that has passed before. There is not some happy, tidy resolution. This particular enemy has been destroyed but the same danger remains. In concluding it, the author points that out. That is part of his purpose in writing the novel.
I would recommend this novel to anyone. It does not require too much suspension of disbelief because we live in an age when certain mysteries endure, without neat and exact explanations. Elements of the plot could be called either paranormal or fantastic; but the human characters are entirely believable to me, and the fantastic elements of the story work perfectly in an allegorical way. I think it's brilliant.(less)

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Mar 22, 2008

Werner rated it:

bookshelves: supernatural-fiction

Read in January, 1998

recommends it for: Fans of supernatural fiction, esp. with a Christian orientation

Peretti is generally viewed as the dean of supernatural fiction writers in the commercial "Christian fiction" market (which he was largely single-handedly responsible for opening up to this genre). Although I haven't read any of his other work, I'd be inclined to say that he deserves his stature in the field. His characters (at least, in this novel) are utterly believable, fallible people; his plot is gripping, and perfectly paced; the Oregon mountain setting is well-drawn (the autho...more

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Dec 09, 2008

Maria Jonas rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Read in September, 2008

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Sep 05, 2009

Lauren rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

Read in September, 2009

I absolutely loved this book. I usually do not like reading a whole lot, especially long "boring" books. I have tried to read SO many books and ended up putting them down within the first 5 chapters because I just couldn't get into it! This book, however, had me gripped in the very first chapter! I could not put it down and loved the thrill and how fast-paced it was. Although I would not recommend reading it at night =)because it was creepy at times lol.

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Sep 10, 2008

Dakota.robertson rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

bookshelves: q1-2008

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Dakota.robertson by: no one. I found on a shelf looking for a good read
recommends it for: people who like mystery, suspense, a little bit of horror, and a deep message

The Oath is a christian fictional novel written by Frank E. Peretti. The Oath centers around a wild life bioligist who searches for the cause of his brother's death, whom was found in the forest with half his body missing, In and around a town called Hyde River. The main character at first believes that a grizzly is responsible for his brother's grizzzly death, but soon he comes to find the likely hood of a Grizzly being the killer less and less likely. He try's to find the answers in a town unw...more

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Sep 26, 2009

Phage rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

I love Fran Peretti's books! They are Christian fiction alligories. The Oath was about how sin can take control of your life, and start to run it. Then ultimatly destroy you. In this book sin is in the form of a black liquid over your heart that cannot be removed. At first the mark disturbs you, but eventually you don't care anymore. This is when It destroys you. I will not tell you exactly how it destroys you for that would only ruin the book.

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Jan 13, 2010

S.n. Blackmon rated it:

(review of isbn 1595541896)

bookshelves: my-top-shelf---the-best-ever

I would nominate it for the best piece of Christian fiction ever written. It is exactly what Christian fiction should be. It's extremely well written. It is appealing to both believers and non believers. It is a phenomenal witness tool. You can't put it down. And it's won souls to Christ, and shown people the true nature and consequences of their decisions. The best.

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Jul 28, 2009

Candice Jaehn rated it:

(review of isbn 0849938635)

bookshelves: christian-fiction, suspense-mystery

Read in July, 2009

The "Oath" is an awesome book showing what sin can do to our hearts/lives! As humans we "love" our sin and through God we can be forgiven and realesed from the clutches of that sin! Frank Peretti has written an awesome story depicting sin as something tangible and frightening(which it should be)! This would be a good book for any person, loved it!

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