Faith In A Box

Spirituality and Sexuality - can they coexist? Fundamentally, that's how Alex Sanchez' "The God Box" started and it seemed like a pretty interesting premise, and though the beginning seemed a little preachy, I understood why it had to be there, to lay the foundation for the story. Paul was happy and content living a Christian-filled High School life - he even has a girlfriend, Angie, whom he feels so comfortable with. But then one day Manuel comes along, and from the first moment he sees him, something is awakened in him. He realizes he needs to reconcile his feelings with his faith. Can it be done? He goes to his trusty God Box - a small box where he writes his prayers and intentions, and asks for enlightenment.  He even makes an appointment with a chaplain, who promptly sends him to be a minister who runs an ex-gay program. But love is stronger than faith, and he finds himself falling for Manuel. I liked the book a lot - there's a lot to take from it, and I even felt like I was learning new things about how to interpret Scriptures, whether I liked it or not. However, the book seemed to be preaching to the choir, pun intended. I am not going to knock this because this book can help someone out there who may be struggling with their faith. Having said that, though, I kind of detested the turns the book made towards the end of the story, wherein the gay characters were turned into victims once again, wringing the melodrama for cheap tears. Well, they were cheap tears for me, anyway. It seemed like a little bit of a cop-out for a story that started out intelligently. I must say that the book was a page-turner once I got into it - I was so into it I was reading well into the night. I am probably one of the few people in the world who has not read Alex Sanchez's Rainbow series, but that's in my TBR pile. 

BC-4