Review: Spiraling Out Of The Shadows
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 22, 2014
Being a teen these days is not necessarily a walk in the park. Although written for the young adult audience, Spiraling Out Of The Shadows, is a good read for parents of high schoolers who wish to understand the pressures today’s teens must cope with! It portrays the struggles with painful accuracy. Although set in Sydney, Australia, the themes are transcultural. The same dynamics play in New York or Seattle.For teens, the benefit of this book is the objective portrayal of how consequences of choices work out. By looking at the consequences of decisions, the reader has the opportunity to make a different choice before falling into those consequences. That can be said about the parents as well as the teens in the story! You will find all the current temptations--booze, drugs, peer pressure, friendship and loyalty, teen sex, control, suicide...it was all in there!The story is very well written. Tabbie and friends, a group of four who have been together since, for.ev.er! I appreciated her loyal friendship and her struggle in regard to that loyalty. In the story life peels off one friend after another as each girl makes choices, or choices are made for her. Tabbie ends up being the stable one of the group and with the help of some good friends from a youth group is able to affirm her values and solidify them. Evans makes an important point that our dream is not necessarily the same as our bff and it is possible to c confuse the two.The story really underscored the value of a solid faith and family life. I appreciated the Christian elements and the characters reactions to those values. But like another reviewer said, I wanted a more straight forward presentation of salvation so a reader would understand how to accept Christ as Savior. Still, often one only is able to get out a sentence before a friend cuts you off.Technically the book was flawless…if there were any editorial gaffs, I was not distracted by them. If any were there, they were overshadowed by the story line which became quite tense at times. A reader is tempted to yell at the characters ocassionally!An excellent read for the intended audience (and their parents)! I highly recommend it.