A look at the reviews on Goodreads points to a philosophical divide between the lovers and haters of the novel. Haters begrudged the preachy tone; lovers were almost Evangelical in their accolades. This podcast captures the heart of the matter.
Before I dive into my own personal critique, here are a few quotes from one-star reviews that validated my thinking:
# 1—"a slog to get through" [SLOG being the operative word.]
# 2 —". . . I found it tedious and just kept pushing through the chapters, frequently skimming the flowery, extraneous sections of which there were many." [Refer to # 1 and just keep reading, slog away, there must be a giant pay-off.]
# 3—"did NOT add up to the hype" [There was a lot of HYPE.]
Speaking of the hype and given the current political climate in the U.S., I can't help being suspect of the forces involved in getting this initially self-published book into the hands of a publisher. I wasn't necessarily offended by the preachiness of the story as some readers admitted they were. I'm a good Catholic girl who believes in the tenets of Christianity, if not so much the trappings of organized religion, and authors are allowed to have a point of view, after all. We still have freedom of expression, I think, even in Trump's America. Equally, I celebrate the free will we all enjoy to avoid reading material we find unpleasant. My real complaint about Theo revolves more around the quality of the writing and the manner in which it was hallowed after publication for its epic Christian message. I can't really defend that statement without giving too much of the ending away, but I'm going to try to explain myself from a literary standpoint. This is very subjective, I know, but bear with me.
I found the writing style pompous and dripping with vibes of old-man self-importance. Not sure this originated from the title character or the author, but no matter, it didn't resonate with me. The clumsy organization would have benefited from a good editor (as does most writing in my opinion). This is why. The entire moral-compass-reckoning of the narrative doesn't arrive until page 368 of 387! And, it unfolds completely in the form of a very l.o.n.g, syrupy letter written by a character who I won't reveal because I have no desire to spoil the ending for fans of the book.
In addition, I found the story's climax to be quite jarring and overwrought. In keeping with the religious theme, dare I say, apocalyptic? It seemed very out of place when the heretofore lumbering plot suddenly took a nosedive into a hell-scape of mayhem and violence. For me, it was akin to sitting on a porch swing sipping lemonade for a very long period of time on a lazy summer afternoon when out of the blue a fiery piece of Elon Musk's space junk punctuates the sky like a thunderbolt of damnation, leaving me shellshocked, not in a good way.
That's the best way I can describe my reaction to Theo of Golden.
