Uncharted by Angela Hunt: A review

As promised I am writing this review after my book club. THe first part of this review is before I went to book club.

Uncharted by Angela Hunt

There are some books that you have to get passed the introduction of all the characters to get into the meat of the book.  This is one of those books. The prologue draws you in, where did the bottle with Sarah’s name on it come from.  Who is the lady on the beach? At first I thought it was her mother and that she was just being snippy when she called her the woman under the umbrella. From there we get into the characters.

This is a group of people who worked with John in selling his book, Happily Ever After, when they were in college. 3 guys and 3 girls, but we are introduced to them in their current life. They all seem to have issues, one being they do not have time for each other, all are very self-centered. One is a psychopath and only one is a humanitarian, and he dies immediately bringing all the other’s together to his funeral.

Previous to his death he has asked all of them to help build a school on a remote island and all of them have refused. Now after his death they decide to help John Watson. They all go and get caught in a storm, where John, the boat captain and his son die. “Miraculously,” they all survive on a deserted island. Theories are past around and escape attempts are made but they cannot get off the island. They find treasures of their past but chalk it up to coincidence. Then they find a mysterious cave which shows them their past.

It is a little bit of a stretch to think that all of them went on this trip. That they all happened to clear their schedules and that the two parents left their child behind to go on this trip, when previously they were fighting about whose job was more important so that they could pass her from one person to another.

This book is about spirituality, how you live your life now affects where you will end up. The island is a land of limbo, purgatory, will they ever get off this island? Is there a purgatory? What is the book Happily Ever After about? Is it a representation of the New Testament? Why is vanity lumped in with murder? Does Karyn who wishes to save her daughter have any redeeming qualities? Are we all destined to a remote island with no chance of escape, since none of us are perfect?

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The questions I ask above were discussed at book club. We all felt that if you were to redeem yourself that you would not be sent to this hopeless place. The author defines the difference between Hades and Hell. HAdes being a place where you wait until you are judged. There is some hope if only a little that you will somehow with repentence be judged and sent to heaven. Hell is a place that once you get there you have no redemption. If that is the case from reading this book, you are in hell, but there is a small indication at the end of the book that they might be in Hades.

No matter what this book makes you think about your past, did you do something that you have not reconciled. Have you thought evil thoughts or took action that brought about someones ruin? What if you thought you were doing a good deed but it turns out you were wrong?

I will contrast this to a book I read over the Christmas. In this story there is a place just outside the pearly gates of Heaven. SOme people pass through without stopping. THe people on the outside of the gate are wiating for their chance to go in. This is where we meet our main character, he has been sitting here for some time and has watched people go through the gate that he knows were not very good people. Then he sees his girlfriend that he wronged because of his self-centered attitude, by not marrying her. SHe never married and he starts to feel remorse especially as she passes by him to go into heaven. He starts evaluating himself and that is when he gets called before the coubcil. HE asks why has he been kept outside the gates, when thsi other person got in that he knew was not a good person. The answer was he did something that was selfless to save others. So our character is sent back to earth as an angel, whois only seen by the litle girl he is trying to help. WHen he finishes this mission and is allowed into heaven, he meets his girlfirend and all the others who came before him. But he feels so good about how he has helped that he wants to go back and help others. THAT is the kind of inspirational book I want to read. This book was found in a mystery book I just happened to pick up around Christmas. And I remembered this book about 4 AM this morning and will have to find the name but it stuck in my head so I had to get up and write down this inspiration.