Book Review:Insight

Insight by Diana Greenwood

• Reading level: Ages 15 and up
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (April 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310723140
• ASIN: B005K6FUDG

Fourteen-year-old Elvira Witsil lives in a remote area of Wisconsin with her mother, Connie, who acknowledges Elvira only when chores need doing; her grandma, a cantankerous woman who can't hold her tongue; and her baby sister, Jessie --- who, the family discovers, is a seer.

Along with the burdens of a difficult family, Elvira also bears a daunting secret --- she encouraged her father to enlist in WWII. Ever since he was declared missing in action, Elvira has felt responsible for his presumed death. But Jessie also carries a secret about the father she never met --- a secret so powerful that when her mother, Connie, learns of it, she sends the family on a journey to California with a traveling preacher.

This powerful teen manuscript tells the story of a family's journey toward forgiveness and a young woman's journey toward faith.

I enjoyed this book a lot.

The cover of this book doesn’t really have anything to do with the story-my own opinion-. It suggest a paranormal one, while actually even if there is some supernatural things in the book, it doesn’t deal mostly in it. But I loved the cover just as well. It’s eye-catching and interesting.

This book is about self-discovery, love and loss, life and death, acceptance and understanding, past and future, hope and faith, forgiveness, healing and God's love. This is a complete journey into the lives of ordinary people who found themselves and God along the way.

With the author’s writing, I found myself in the road in 1940’s with the main character Elvira. I really empathized with her. I cried and laughed along, carried and felt the guilt she have over her father’s presumed dead. I also felt her mother’s neglect and meanness towards her. I struggled with her in her transformation toward a woman of faith.

Ms. Greenwood brought her story to real life and inspires readers like me a lot. Her characters are developed well-enough that they’d stay in the reader’s hearts even long after reading Insight.

This book wonderfully stated the thoughts and feelings every teen and to-be-teen experienced. It’s a hard thing turning from a child to a teen, but it’s much harder when there’s no one to guide you, especially when you needed the most your parents.

Insight is a great reminder, that we don’t only have problems to worry about. We have blessings and every little thing we should be thankful for. Faith and the questions that comes along with it are detailed without really making the reader uncomfortable with the religion-subtext.

All in all, Insight is a fast-read, all-pack book I would recommend to kids, teens and adults 9 and above. INSPIRING. Highly Recommended. :)




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