Lucas Stone suffers a horrific accident, experiences the terrors of Hell, and returns from the dead paralyzed and alone until an unexpected new friend finds him.
Perspective by Peter:
I reviewed this novel in 2013 soon after its release. It now has a new cover, been revised and has been re-released. I always wanted to re-read it and I had my chance over the past week. I have copied my review from 2013 and added more of my thoughts from this second reading.
The Road To Hell is Jess Hanna's début novel. You would not believe it! He writes like an experienced writer. And for a first novel, what a suspenseful, and thrilling read it is!
Hanna has successfully created a story that remains true to the Biblical principles of spiritual warfare. It portrays the lengths Satan and his demons will go to in order to deceive and destroy a Christian's faith and relationship with God all part of their rebellion against God.
Hanna has developed some very believable and relational characters, mainly Luke and Mike, being the main protagonists. He has not made them to be super-spiritual, they certainly show their faith wavering in the face of the adverse situations they find themselves in.
The antagonist, Drake, is portrayed as a pompous, egomaniac who evolves into a demon-possessed pawn in satan's quest to destroy as many believers and non-believers as possible. I can see how this transformation would be possible and from what I know about demon possession. The way Hanna has portrayed this transformation and possession is very plausible and similar to how it happens.
The author has described Luke and Mike's experience of Hell as very graphic and I must confess, I was very tense with my heart beating fast as I was reading; even the repeated accounts of the same.
I appreciated his inclusion of how some of Pastor Tom's watered-down account of the issue of Hell even questioned its existence. This was further distorted by the heretical theory developed by Drake and promoted in his book, The Revelation Letters. This watering down and heretical doctrine/theology is taught in some churches and that is a very tragic situation. It was also reassuring to see how Pastor Tom has a change of heart, mind and attitude if and only due to him being open to the revelation of the Spirit (through Ryan and Samantha) bringing relevant Scriptures to him about the true reality of Hell. Pastor Tom allowed this conviction from the Spirit of God to shine forth the error of his own false and uncertain belief of Hell and this led him to embrace the Truth of God's Word and not be an avenue of false teaching, leading his congregation astray.
The spiritual warfare elements in this novel are very realistic and pretty much how I imagine them and again, from what I know about this. Reading this novel, (and others in my library) encourages me to seek more on this and to increase my knowledge of the strategies of our enemy and the biblical and spiritual weaponry at our disposal.
Hanna's depiction of the redemptive aspects of the novel, involving Lucas and Mike is very powerful. It is relatable and shows how the Spirit works on the heart. Hanna successfully brings the characters to the end of themselves and they are confronted with the choice of Heaven and Hell. They both choose Heaven through Christ's gift of salvation and the redemptive power of the Cross. It shows how this motivated both of them to follow a lifestyle of living out their faith and salvation in others' lives in order for their recipients to not be deceived into accepting false teaching and doctrine leading to an eternity in Hell. This is contrasted by Drake knowing both sides of eternity, Heaven and Hell, through Lucas' testimony of both and Drake still decides to accept Hell in all its horror and eternal death. His heart is so hardened that he would not allow anything to change his mind or accept the truth of what Lucas impressed upon him. He even rejected Lucas' forgiveness towards him and this provoked such a violent emotional reaction. There is that saying, that there is none so blind as they who won't see!
Hanna has portrayed descent into demon possession well and how it devastates the human mind and heart. It is hard to read such an account of demon possession (that of Drake). But then again, reading or watching the effects of evil, in reality, is just as hard and even more so as it goes against every grain of our being. We were not created to live like this or to accept this destructive deceit from Satan. Our fallen nature plays right into Satan's hands as he exploits this. But God did not leave us powerless in this regard. He breached the void between our fallen selves, our sin and the snare from Satan and redeemed and sanctified us through his death on the Cross, overcoming sin, Death, all evil and its perpetrators, and most of all the Father of Lies. And it is this that Hanna beautifully portrays.
This is one book I just cannot praise enough. For me, it ranks up there with Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness and its sequel, Piercing The Darkness and a few others in my collection.
Any reader will find this as a cannot put down experience. I stayed up late to finish this and had no regrets, except maybe feeling tired the next morning!
Hanna has successfully delivered a novel full of entertainment yet sober truth of spiritual warfare, the Word of God, God's sovereignty, the victorious living Jesus achieved on the Cross for mankind and the battle between satan against Christians and God.
I highly recommend this novel and suggest that Jess Hanna is an author to follow, being entertained and educated in biblical doctrine in the process.
The following three ratings are based on my judgment:
World Building 55
Characters 5/5
Story 5/5
The two classifications below are based on the booklet, A Spiritual System for Rating Books by David Bergsland:
Spiritual Level 4/5
Enemy Spiritual Level 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Spiritually, based on my review and on the aforementioned reference booklet, A Spiritual System for Rating Books by David Bergsland (Radiqx Press) and that The Road to Hell contains elements of the criteria of what constitutes Christian Redemptive Fiction outlined in this booklet, (click on the title below to see what this is based on), I bestow to Jess the:
Reality Calling Christian Redemptive Fiction Award
Congratulations, Jess!
If you like to investigate this novel further, click on the image below:
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