Knuckle Sandwich by Adam Palmer 4/5 stars
Jeremiah is the bass player in a three member college Christian rock band in the 1990s. They seem bound for fame, but things begin to unravel as egos, young romances, and stage politics start to interfere. Adam Palmer brings his real life credentials in this funny, interesting look into the life of an 'almost had it big' band that's high on its Christian message without being annoying.
I guess what pushed this commendable first effort from a former musician turned teen Christian fiction writer from a three to a four star rating for me was that so few Christian fiction books, especially ones with guy appeal, deal with these issues so honestly. There's real temptations (and failures), Christian hypocrisy, and satire of Christian consumer culture here, but it isn't explicit or exploitative, the characters are real and relatable even as they screw up, and the satire isn't mean spirited.
It's a good choice for teens 9th grade and up looking for something a bit different from Christian fiction. Perhaps the biggest negative is that it's firmly rooted in the 1990s culture Palmer came from, and might seem a bit dated in places
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