My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay

My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay ISBN-13: 9780802489821 Trade Paperback: 391 pages Publisher: Moody Publishers Released: Sept. 2007

Source: Bought through Half.com.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Cori signs up for a mission trip to Indonesia during the summer after her senior year of high school. Inspired by happy visions of building churches and seeing beautiful beaches, she gladly escapes her complicated love life back home.

Six weeks into the trip, a conflict that has been simmering for years flames to deadly life on the nearby island of Ambon. Before they can leave, Cori and her teammates find themselves caught up in the destructive wave of violence washing over the Christian and Muslim villages in the area. Within days the church they helped build is a smoldering pile of ashes, its pastor and many of the villagers are dead, and the six teenagers are forced to flee into the hazardous refuge of the jungle with only the pastor's son to guide them.


My Review:
My Hands Came Away Red is a very well-written Christian suspense/general fiction novel. The details were so vivid and rich that I was immersed in the story, and I'm still half-convinced these events really did happen. The characters were vividly real, complex, and acted in very realistic (and varied) ways to the situations they faced.

The high level of suspense was mainly from the physical danger they were in but also from relationship tensions. The main characters were Christian teens, and their faith and understanding was typical of teens (and many adults). They struggled realistically with their view of God after seeing the horrors and experiencing the hardship they faced.

There was no sex. There was a minor amount of "he cussed" style bad language and one instance of fake bad language. The story was not gory. I'd highly recommend this novel. I had hoped the author had written more novels that I could buy and read, but--to my sorrow--so far she hasn't.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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