Tom Davis (4)Critiques

This novel is a prime example of agenda fiction. The point of view alternates between two first-person accounts: photojournalist Stuart Daniels, who has come to Swaziland hoping to take a career-resurrecting photo, and twelve-year-old Adanna, a Swazi girl barely surviving in a land of starvation and abuse. The plot isn't so much a linear arc as a series of events demonstrating the plight of Africa. Stuart arrives skeptical and jaded and leaves transformed by all that he's witnessed.

The author succeeds in transporting his readers to a bleak landscape unfamiliar to most. American readers "know" that daily life in Africa is a struggle, but the events depicted here give stark detail to abstract knowledge. As agenda fiction goes, the purpose here is one that can't be argued with or, hopefully, shrugged away.

As a novel, though, the book's craft didn't satisfy me. For the first 80-something pages, the reader is forced to swim through a soup of similes. Every single description is a comparison. This improves later in the book, but similes are still overused, often two or more in a paragraph. The characters are not individuals with quirks but rather mouthpieces for the author's message. The majority of the dialogue reads like a nonfiction essay on the horrors of African village life. Character conversations usually consist of sharing information or planning what to do next.

The themes/content and potential of the book rate four stars, but the prose, dialogue, and characterization earn two. I'm glad I read it, though. I learned a lot, especially from the afterword interview with the author. This book provides American readers with a needed education.

A beautiful and haunting novel that will remain with you after you've finished.

Tom Davis writes his fiction in a way that takes you there. With Scared, I arrived in Africa to the smells, With Priceless I can see the sites and almost hear the music. Priceless is the second book in the Edge of the World series. In this novel, Tom introduces us to Marina, a young orphan, rescued out of child slavery/prostitution and her story. Her story is told alongside Stuarts. Stuart a father, husband and international photojournalist, has landed himself right in the midst of a battle between right and wrong, a battle of trying to rescue young orphan girls out of the child prostitution ring in Russia. A ring which the local law enforcement and governing authorities have accepted large amounts of money to ignore. Like his first book, this is a must read that will leave you thinking differently but more importantly, cause you to want to make a difference. Fortunately, there is a website you can visit at the end of the book where you can help bring about that change. Read it, but only if you dare.

This book is fantastic and very edgy. It really opened my eyes regarding the sex slave trade in Russia. This author really knows how to illuminate problems in this world in such as way as to produce compassion for oppressed people groups, especially orphans.

Scared is a novel that absolutely captured my heart and focused my mind. It is a novel that captures a dozen emotions and makes you feel them all at once. It is a novel that tells a story that needs to be told and does it in a way that dares you to forget it.

Swaziland. Do you know where that country is? Africa. It is a small country. Completely surrounded by the country of South Africa. And completely overwhelmed by poverty and by an AIDS crisis.

Adanna is a young girl, an orphan who is fighting for survival of herself and her younger siblings in a community facing devastating odds. It is a heartbreaking scene of hunger, disease, death, and injustice. The sweet, innocent Adanna is the kind of person who I would want to know- brave, generous, thoughtful, determined. Can she beat the odds that are stacked against her?

Stuart Daniels is an award-winning photojournalist who has hit rock bottom. His last hope for redemption rests in Swaziland where he hopes to capture the story of the AIDS crisis in a fresh and revealing way. What he finds there is more than a renewal of his career. He finds a spiritual renewal. He can't find God in all of the death and tragedy- until he meets Adanna. Adanna, whose very nature is the very one that all Christians strive towards in life.

I had not read Christian fiction in a very long time. Probably ten years. That is why I chose CF for the Take Another Chance Challenge for the Genre Switch-Up category. The CF I had been exposed to was that of Beverly Lewis and Janette Oke and I didn't like it at all. It was too "in my face." But Davis' novel is about the understated tones and he gets the point across without shoving it down the reader's throat (not that this is the intention of any author, but just my reaction to the books I had previously read). I liked the way the message was conveyed and I personally thought it was much more effective.

Here are some of the passages from the book that stood out to me. Special thanks to Kristi of Books and Needlepoint and to Audra Jennings of B&B Media Group for this review copy.

"I want the world to know I'm a human being," Samson says, "Although I have a terrible disease, I still have feelings, I still have fears, and I'm still a child of God. It's a very strange thing when you're sick and you're entire community, people who have known you for years, treat you like a leper."

There is no justice here. Only fear. I am convinced this is the very root of wickedness. Precious leans into me, quiet as a mouse. Birds chirp in the distance. The baby sighs. And I am suffocated with my inability to help these children.

"The land of AIDS, huh? You say it like it's a medal of honor or something."
"No sense in hiding the truth, Stuart. The worst enemy is the one that's unexposed."

Before I can calculate how many children I could feed simply by cutting back to one Starbucks a week, a loud honk startles me and a brand-new Mercedes van speeds by on the rocky dirt road. "Food Vison" is written on the side.
"Food Vision. So where's the food?"
"That's what I want to know."½

Scared is the story of Adanna, a young girl living in Swaziland, just northeast of South Africa. It tells of her and her young siblings life growing up in an AIDS infected and poverty stricken land. A land where men aren't around to support their families because they have died or are working in the mines. A place where the men that are left think it is ok to use little girls to satisfy their urges. A place where death and sickness are so prevalent there is no family unaffected.

It also tells the story of a young international photographer, Stuart. A man on a mission, to get the right picture and save his career. A man who arrives in Swaziland to do one thing but leaves a changed man after living the life with the people.

The book, written by Thomas Davis, a man who has obviously spent much time in Africa due to his incredibly detailed depictions of Africa, is an incredibly difficult read. Although the book is fiction, it accurately depicts the plight of the widows and orphans of many parts of Africa. I dare you to read it. You will not be unchanged.

What an incredible story! You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be emotionally moved. It was disheartening and yet uplifting, evocative and intense, and yet love and healing filled the pages. This book should be an award winner. Seriously. I've rarely experienced this level of realism in a novel, especially in the CBA. One caution, though. Don't read this novel if you have a weak stomach or if atrocities will give you flashbacks. It's harsh in some places, but sooo worth reading.

NCLA Review -If you need motivation to act on your Christian faith, then this is the book for you. Tom Davis lays out a very convincing case for responding with action to the words of Jesus, which are printed in red. Written in a conversational style with stories of children in Africa and India who are suffering incredible lives due to HIV/AIDS and poverty, Davis challenges the reader to get out of his or her comfort zone and take action. We are reminded that Jesus took care of the poor, the outcasts, the sick and calls on us to do the same. The reader is given five steps that can be taken to help the fifty million AIDS victims. This is a compelling, challenging book. Rating: 4—JD