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Shaken Eric Walters – Book Review
This is a book written by a Canadian author - Eric Walters and in this novel called `Shaken` he
tells us the story of a fifteen year old boy named Josh whose father is a pastor, and mother who
passed away six months ago due to cancer; Josh and his sister Sarah accompany their dad along
with some other ministers and students for a missionary journey to Haiti to build an orphanage.
This novel shows us how different events in the story affect Josh`s faith and religious views. This
is a novel that talks on religious believe. This novel is based on the terrible earthquake that took
place in Haiti in 2010. The author is trying to tell us how ones faith in God can help them
succeed in times of difficulties. Walters does this by putting Josh and his friend Naomi in the
centre of the earthquake when it strikes Haiti. Josh got separated far away from his father
during the earthquake and he works hard to find his father in the bad environment of Haiti.
According to me the theme and setting of the story has a strong chance of standing the test of
time, whereas the characters have a strong impact on the story but would not necessarily
succeed in standing the test of time. The theme of this novel is ‘Faith and hope needed to
sustain during times of difficulties.’ In the novel we see how Josh is troubled by the loss of his
mother and also we see how the massive earthquake troubles him even more; Josh starts
questioning God but his little faith gets restored and he is able to find his father through
perseverance. Some might argue that this is a very common topic but in this case this theme is
supported by an awesome setting which makes the theme successful.
The setting of this story is in Haiti which is a place that was struck by one of the most
devastating earthquakes in the history of this world. 7.0 on the richer scale, thousands of
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people lost their lives and many injured. This is one of the scars of history and cannot be
erased. We see the same thing in this novel, how bad the buildings collapsed and even how
people committed crime in this environment. By putting the characters into this real world
event makes the setting stand out and has got a huge impact on making this novel a success.
The plot of this novel is pretty straight forward; most of Eric Walters works have the same feel
in terms of plot and for a person who have read more works of Walters will be definitely able to
see the similarities. This novel seems to be directly focused on Josh who is the main character in
this novel. All of his feelings and thoughts have been expressed in a convincing manner making
the story seem realistic. The plot might have some short comings nevertheless this is a very nice
story.
The characters have also contributed in trying to make this novel successful. Josh`s sister Sarah
and Naomi have both been used to show Josh`s personalities. Josh`s father being a pastor, was
used to frame the base of the family environment. According to me the role of each character
could have been improved by involving them more into the plot. Therefore the characters in
this novel do not seem to have a chance in standing the test of time.
This novel is able to truly represent its title `Shaken` in a perfect manner. As both the character
and the setting was truly shaken in this novel. Overall, this novel will be able to stand the test of
time as it has a strong story to tell the people in terms of faith in God and hope. I would
recommend this novel to all mature audience, especially for those who love reading about loss
and restoration.