I read the book and saw the movie. Although Kirk Cameron did an excellent job in the movie, I absolutley love the book better. This a great read for christians and non christians. This a fiction so keep in mind that is not based on true event but lots of references to the Bible. I have not put this series down yet. I am on book four Soul Harvest and I am really like it ( )

I'd read this once before, quite a long time ago, but, I have to admit when I read it this time, I remembered nothing of the story. It's a good read and I will be reading more of the books in this series. ( )

I reread this Christian "classic" over the weekend---the first time in about 20 years. Like before, it inspires me to look more into prophecy and how it lines up with headlines---but it's still got its annoying flaws.

It's always bugged me the nonchalant way Rayford approaches the first few hours after the Rapture happens. I'd expect him to be in shock, panicking, psycho-emotional about what he knows in his gut has happened to his wife and young son. Instead, he's almost nonchalant when he makes his calls home: "I sure hope you're there." or "Well at least he knew Chloe was still around." Yeah...there's that...

Also annoying is Chloe's comment about not believing in ghosts (of her mother and brother) as she hangs out at home. What?! What weirdo says that just hours after losing loved ones?

Again, they're sorta lousily written but they're also strangely addicting. So...I press on. If my library has all 12, I'm sure I'll be through them within a month. ( )

I knew the book would be preachy, but the narrative became painfully obvious after 150 pages. The main character suddenly believes in God, the Bible, Jesus and the Rapture instantaneously. This after expousing his years and years of total disbelief. After his conversion, he speaks with a priest who wasn't taken (go figure) and just like that, literally within two sentences, he is 100% born again. His daughter Chloe, is skeptical and obviously is meant to be the voice of those who question all things religious.

The priest plays a tape from the pastor who was taken. The tape was made to explain to all who were left behind, just what happened and why. It is on this tape that the pastor warns all viewers of the arrival of the anti-Christ. Lo and behold, 35 pages later, as if on cue, he appears in the form of a Romanian president who is young, charismatic, very smart and who wins over the entire press and all world leaders while giving a speech at the UN. This happens around page 235.

It is at this point in the book that I knew exactly where this story was going, how it would end and how the next book in the series would be setup. And sure as snow is white, it turned out exactly as I predicted.

I was raised Catholic and was curious about the book. I was able to relate to the daughter, who spoke for all of the skeptics of the world. IMHO, like the Bible, this book is a work of fiction. And not very good fiction at that. The writing is geared towards junior high school readers and is very simplistic in structure, dialog and predictability. These problems, along with the fact that it preachers to the reader, I felt to be very demeaning. In short, the message is if you are not a believer, a Born-again Christian, you don't have a chance of getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. As Chloe says, "that's pretty sad for a loving God."

Books like this are not for me and I have no desire to read any of the other books in the series. ( )

I decided to read this because the premise was intriguing and it was somewhat internet famous for being awful. I went into it with fairly low expectations, but not quite low enough.
I managed to get through the first 20 or so pages as I enjoyed arguing with every flawed plot point, and then was only able to slog through the rest of the book by imagining how I would have rewrite the novel if given the chance.
The writing is abysmal. The writers have evidently never heard the catchphrase of every writing teacher: "show not tell!" None of the main characters are physically described (aside from Rayford having grey hair) so are difficult to picture. Hattie is apparently physically attractive, but we are never given any further detail or evidence of this fact. Nor are the characters given any real conflict with God (with the possible exception of the pastor Brian, who does have an interesting story). For the main part, they just didn't believe enough for no good reason, missing a brilliant opportunity to show an interesting and moving reconciliation with faith. The supposedly incredible inspirational speeches by Nicolae Carpathia read like a bad high school essay copied from Wikipedia.
Then there's the sexism. For the most part, women appear only to scold or argue with the primary male characters and are then berated into submission (an actual approving quote from the book showed Chloe being "really put in her place" by the pastor Brian). I'm not surprised that both Rayford and Buck are portrayed as being bad with women, since the authors have apparently never met a real one. But they like trying to talk to you pointlessly, going to beauty parlours (result never described) and crying! And don't forget women react positively to being lectured and stalked.
Numerous logical flaws pepper the plot as well. In one particularly galling instance (which made me want to throw the book in the garbage) Hattie complains that her sister has been put out of a job due to abortions no longer being required. Putting aside the ridiculous notion of family planning clinics as businesses, the clinic she works for explicitly also provides pregnancy related counselling, and with every unborn fetus in the world having been raptured, I can only imagine how overrun their crisis counselling services would be!
In all, I am baffled at the book's popularity, and astonished that there was even one sequel, let alone a whole series. Oh well, they couldn't possibly go 12 books without eventually learning to write...right? ( )