In the Heart of the Dark Wood

"Almost two years have passed since twelve-year old Allie Granderson's beloved mother, Mary, disappeared into the wild tornado winds. Her body has never been found." In the Heart of the Dark Wood by Billy Coffey

And so begins the adventure of a girl, her friend, and her dog who follow the compass, given to her by her mother shorty before her disappearance, which suddenly begins working again two years after it stopped.

This is such a hard book to review. It kept me riveted to it's pages, yet I disliked the ending. 

It's a very supernatural book, with a Christian slant. Yet, I didn't get the feeling at the end that the story was Christian at all. The main focus didn't seem to be "good" at all (really I could say so much more on this but don't want to give away the plot!).

I loved the boy in the book. He reminds me so much of my Jacob that I rooted for him throughout the whole book, whereas I really started to dislike Allie. 

The tromp through the woods soon became quite tedious. It seemed too drawn out, too repetitive. 

I suppose I was looking for a symbolism that just never came. In the end I was like "what?!" Had it just been a supernatural book, and not Christian, I would have been perfectly happy with the ending. I was looking for more.

With all those negatives I still was pulled into this book and had to know how it ended. That is the sign of a good book to me. :)

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.