"Meh"... I remember reading it (10 years ago for a college class). I remember I didn't "hate" it... but that's all I remember about it. ( )

Jesus Saves is a beautiful work of drug and sex laced prose written in a way that one can easily imagine.

Ginger is a dutiful ministers daughter and church secretary, madly in love with her boyfriend Ted. Her father is a minster who works for the local Lutheran church in their small, southern town, and is being graded harshly by his parishioners. In between her bouts of lovemaking sessions with Ted and trying to help her father, we get a glimpse into Ginger's life. But that's only part of the story.

Sandy Patrick is a young girl kidnapped from camp and held by a disgusting troll/rapist/godonlyknowswhat. Life in captivity is written about from Sandy's point of view, that, although being scary and limited, is also filled with imagination and beauty as well.

I felt this was a wonderful, creative story. Even though I live in a small Midwestern town, I could identify with the characters and could even see similar events like these taking place in my own area. Darcey Steinke is wonderful at capturing human emotion and her characters are well-developed. ( )

Spoiler, last sentence.
This was twisted and bizarre. Ginger tries to do the minister’s daughter bit but on the rest of the days of the week, she hangs with her weird boyfriend and his sicko roommate. It sounded like they were in a filthy squat but it was hard to tell. Ginger isn’t really obsessed with Sandy, just preoccupied. The vignettes featuring Sandy were frightening though. Her madness protected her from the sadism of the psycho who had her. What he does to her and how he justifies what he does. She has conversations with the woodland animals in her head to block out what he might say to her. To keep herself from him, she drove herself into madness. Eventually she dies. Ginger stays trapped in her bleak life.

Warped, twisted, and absolutely a page-turner. I couldn't sleep properly for a week after reading. From what I've read of the author, this is by far the best. ( )