Book Review: June Bug

June Bug by Chris Fabry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Published: 2009
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction
Pages: 326


Imagine being nine years old and standing in Walmart and seeing your face on a missing child poster.  That's what happened to June Bug.  She and her father live in an RV rumbling about the country.  When their camper breaks down in Colorado, they befriend a Walmart worker who starts to put the pieces together after seeing a segment on the news about some new clues uncovered in a kidnapping in West Virginia.

This is the first book I've ever read by Chris Fabry.  The writing was fantastic, and one one point, too good.  As someone who has sat across from a classmate of the Marshall University football team, when I saw November 14, 1970 in the book, I groaned and though, "He isn't going to go there, is he?"  Of course, he did.  The carnage that Fabry described, to me, wasn't something out of the history books.  They were friends of a friend.  I know I had a stronger reaction to this than the average person, but it churned my stomach.  That said, the fact he wrote it so realistically does show his talent as a writer.

I was pleasantly surprised that even though this is a Christian book, the Christian message was toned down in it. There are few things I hate more than a book where there is a character who blatently preaches or shares the Gospel.  It always feels contrived to me, and I'm glad to say this book didn't go there.  It's a Christian book, but it's religious themes are muted to where you can enjoy the story without being clobbered by the author's beliefs, and in so doing makes it a much better story, and much more effective as a Christian book, in my opinion.

I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves reading fiction especially anything set in West Virginia.