My mom brought me a copy of Angela Hunt’s novel, The Novelist. The subtitle is “her story is only half the story.” Mom had read the book recently and said she couldn’t put it down. Since we share books often, I was going to take her recommendation to heart and move this book to the top of my ‘to be read’ pile. (A pile looking rather tipsy these days due to Christmas gifts and sale books found at a local bookstore, but I digress.) The Novelist grips the reader from page one–partly because its my fantasy on page, but mostly because Angela Hunt is a marvelous writer. With a few swift moving sentences, she sets up the characters, the family and a few conflicts. I was thrown off by the strange story starting within the story, but I just chalked that up to the mystery hinted at in the subtitle. There really are several story lines going on from the getgo and its a tribute to Angela Hunt that she keeps the lines from knotting. Plus, I appreciate that she irons out the questions by the end–like the strange story that is actually an allegory. Can’t say I loved the allegory running on but it served its purpose in revealing the novelist’s progression as a writer/spiritualist– and don’t put too much stock in my opinion on allegories, I don’t like puzzles either. This book is a thinking book. And a faith book. And a compelling book.