This book is everything I hate about Christian fiction.

A theme that's meant to scare the reader away from something, shallow characters, a plot that's oh-so-convient so the character never has to work for anything, and a "once you surrender to God everything will get better!" ending.

If you want to read some books in this genre that have wonderful characters and stories, I recommend Winter and Angel Fall.

Note: I don't know very much about Wicca. If I get something wrong in the course of this review I apologize. I have much respect for people of this faith, and mean to offend no one.

The plot:

The main character (Heather) starts out by saying that she's reading a book about Wicca. Her "Christian" friends instantly call her evil and stop talking to her. She explores more about Wicca (buying a Book of Shadows and doing rituals). She meets several people who are into Wicca, who give her advice. She goes to a weekend retreat about Wicca, is freaked out, gets suicidal, and stops from killing herself at the last second. She finds a notebook of her mother's (her mother had died) and tracks down a friend of her mom's. Said friend then leads her to Christ, and everything's okay now!

She ends the book saying that Wicca is nothing but Satan worship and how she's going to pray for her dance instructor who follows the faith--because despite that the Wiccan Rede is "as ye harm none do what ye will" it's nothing but evil.

Now that the plot is out of the way...

*cracks knuckles*

This may take a while, perpare for a rant.

Moon White does not talk about real Wicca.

For the past hour I've been going through this site reading about Wicca, wanting to learn more. What I'm reading on that site is not what is potrayed in Moon White.

What I've been reading about for the past hour is a peaceful faith. The Wiccan Rede is "as ye harm none do what ye will." The Threefold Law ("mind the Threefold Law you should/three times bad and three times good.") seems (to me) to be a practical thing; whatever you do will come back to you times three.

Moon White potrays Wicca as nothing but empty rituals, spells that are meant to manipulate others, and writing in a diary (her Book of Shadows).

In one istance, Heather casts a "love spell" on her crush. Doesn't this go aginst the Wiccan Rede? Wouldn't a love spell cast on another person count as manipulating them, and therefor harming them?

At anothe point, she puts a curse on the girl who stole her boyfriend. We're talking about black magick here.

A person she barely know tells her that it's okay to put a curse on someone before they harm you...and she just goes ahead and does it, throwing the Threefold Law out of her mind for revenge.

At this point I was facepalming and yelling "The Threefold Law you stupid girl!"

Yes, I was very offended by this novel's potray of Wicca.

Gods and Goddesses are never mentioned. She never says if she prays, or who she prays to. She never says why she wanted to be Wiccan. Was it because she was natually drawn to the faith, because she felt like it was right for her? The reader is never told.

The characters:

Heather is...not really a person. I felt like she just existed to get the message across.

Lucy, Heather's best friend...reminded me of some Christians I've delt with. The ones I'd rather not talk to again. The kind of people that caused me to have anxiety attacks in church that lead to full blown depression and very dark thoughts.

She answers every question with something like "surrender to God," "have faith in God," and she implied (the one that gets me the most pissed off) "you're doing XYZ, which isn't Christian, so I'm no longer your friend and you're a filthy rotten sinner that will burn in Hell."

I believe that a person's spiritual journey is their own private business, and that it should be respected as such. Simply because a person is of a different faith does not give you the right to try and convert them. Just because you don't understand their faith does not give you the right to hate them.

This is not the type of book I would give to teenagers. Teens are struggeling with their own spiritual path enough on their own, why give them a book that promotes hate? Why give anyone a book that is supposeed to be "Christian," but does not promote Christ's love, but rather legalism, jundement and fear?

Putting the fear of Hell into someone is not the way to win converts. Telling someon that they cannot do something because "God says so" is not the way to make people happy. Filling someone's mind so full of guilt that they're unable to do anything but shake in fear when they hear anyone talk about God because they're terrified that He'll punish them for nothing but listening to a band who's name is Itallian for "beautiful death?" That is not how Christ meant His teachings to be!

His teaching are about love, not fear.

*closes eyes*

If you can't tell by the above rant, this book hit a very raw nerve for me.

In short: this book was not a story with a message, it was a message with a story.