Micah's journey and transformation was quite interesting. I want to quickly interject here that upon his first tour of the house I would LOVE to live there myself! Some of the rooms he discovers are fantastic, others a bit more disturbing, but each is very unique. Micah starts of as a wealthy, worldly man who gets a strange inheritance in the form of an amazing and very special house.

I have since read a few variations that have improved upon this, luckily for future readers. When I first grabbed the book, I did not know if was a religious novel so the original summary does not express that at all and I feel that it should. Even for me, as a Christian, I can see this book as being potentially intimidating and how the path to God is shown here would have bothered me deeply, even if it is taken to an extreme. So there is my first urging to all readers-if this novel's Christian basing does not match your beliefs, there is a good chance you will not enjoy this book. That is fine with me but I know some do not enjoy reading it and the plot synopsis does not exactly share that crucial tidbit. Let me also start off by stating very clearly that this novel is Christian Fiction. Certainly not a complete waste of time, but I did find myself rolling my eyes on occasion because of some of the inane actions of and conclusions drawn by the characters. Not being all that familiar with christian-based fiction, maybe that's just the way these sorts of novels are. I also didn't think there was much in the way of meaningful suspense, and what little suspense there was seemed to be resolved in a pretty heavy-handed, expedient manner. I thought the book jumped into it quickly, before I really had time to get the whole 'suspension of disbelief' thing going.

A good novel tends to ease into the supernatural aspects of the story. The Christian angle notwithstanding, I didn't find the characters to be particularly believable. I had the distinct feeling that if the author met me, he would tell me I was going to burn in hell. If you are turned off by televangelists or Jehovah's Witnesses, you will probably hate it. If you're a confirmed believer in all things God/Savior/Sin, you will probably love it. As a 'non-religious' person, I found this book to be a little too over the top with the holy-roller stuff. This book was not at all what I was expecting. Holy crap! No, that's not a two word review, but it could be.

Rooms by james l rubart