This is a chronological walk through Kristian’s cancer, in his own words. Blog posts he wrote during his struggle with cancer have been compiled into chapters with a summary section at the end of each written by his wife Rachel. It’s incredibly personal, very personal, and of course very emotional throughout.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book like this before – written in the middle of the struggle, describing every up and down, no hiding behind cliches or spiritual catchphrases – and it’s pretty powerful. Simply by reading this informal journal we’re taken on a detailed and highly personal journey through cancer – it isn’t pretty, but it’s enlightening. I’ll definitely look at cancer differently having read this.
To be honest, I found the book quite difficult to read; firstly, the obvious subject matter, but also because it’s written as most blogs are, simply a collection of thoughts he’s having on that particular day with very little thought-through holistic storyline. That’s part of the beauty of it but I’m not entirely convinced it lends itself well to book format – it took me a long time to read it, and I read a lot. That said, the personal nature of it did genuinely draw me in to the point that I really felt like I had built a relationship with Kristian – it moved me to tears more than once.
An issue some might have with it is that he uses language every so often that some would consider offensive. I’m not sure whether this is because Australians (like Kristian) approach language differently to Brits (like me), or whether it’s simply a genuine expression of his frustration at that moment, but if that’s the sort of thing that would lose you, you’re probably not going to enjoy it.
Overall I’d certainly recommend this to anyone who is struggling with cancer, knows someone who is, or doesn’t know anything about it. Kristian’s focus invariably returned to Jesus in spite of the bad news that kept coming his way, and that attitude is something pretty much everyone could learn a lesson from.
I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.
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