Book Review: The Edge of Belonging

After reading several longer, more detailed novels, The Edge of Belonging offered a respite for my mind. A little brain candy compared to the meat and potatoes of some other novels.

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Cons:

I really enjoy a book with plenty of twists and turns with an unexpected ending thrown in. Ivy's relationship with her emotionally abusive boyfriend seemed a little trite and expected. That said, if you've experienced emotional or physical abuse and reading about it is a trigger for you, this might be a book you want to avoid. The novel also deals with infertility and suicide if those are topics you prefer to avoid in fiction.

Pros:

Novelist Amanda Cox fully developed her characters. As mentioned above, the characters have experienced a gamut of trauma from infertility to depression to the suicide of a loved one and even homelessness. In its entirety, the novel paints a beautiful picture of what community and family should look like as the family of God. Although the characters have troubling experiences, Cox paints their lives in beautiful ways, a reminder that God can use all of us no matter our background.

My Thoughts:

I raced through this novel. Although the book did not include deep mysteries or cold cases, I found myself invested in the lives of the characters.

Harvey has struggled his whole life to convince himself he doesn't need anyone. He's fine being alone. Until he discovers a newborn infant abandoned in the woods.

Pearl's mourning the death of both her husband and her son over the last twelve months. Her husband's death meant the church he pastored has called a new man to the pulpit. Neither Pearl nor the congregation of sure of him.

Thomas has accepted the pastorate vacated by the death of Pearl's husband. He and his wife Miriam left their friends to lead this church filled with a congregation that isn't quite sure they approve of this young couple. In the midst of it all, they are both grieving the loss of personal hopes and dreams.

Their worlds crash together when Thomas discovers Harvey searching for food for infant Ivy.

What a beautiful picture Amanda Cox has shown us of God at work.

5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.

6 God sets the lonely in families,[a]

he leads out the prisoners with singing;

but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 68:5-6