Synopsis:

‘I had a dream last night… large enough to fill the rest of my life.’ This retelling of John Bunyan’s classic story is filled with drama, excitement and adventure. On his journey of a life-time to the City of Gold, Christian meets an extraordinary cast of characters, such as the terrible Giant Despair and the monster Apollyon. Together with Hopeful, his steadfast companion, he survives the snipers and mantraps, the Great Bog, Vanity Fair, Lucre Hill and Castle Doubting. But will he find the courage to cross the final river to the City of Gold and his salvation?

I struggled with this book. Several times I considered stopping. I found it boring. I was not engaged with the story and no character stood out to me.

The story is split into two parts. The first follows Christian on his pilgrimage, and the second part follows his wife Christina on her pilgrimage. I found the second half of the book very similar to the first part as she is going along the same route as that which Christian walked. They met all sorts of people – very cleverly named, such as Hopeful, Faithful, Talkative etc. and some which attempted to prevent the pilgrims and some which enabled their mission. They face all sorts of struggles in their bid to get to the river. Giants and hobgoblins needed to be fought.

The book contains the Gospel story and is full of Bible verses. If you don’t like “being preached too” through books, this is not for you.

I just didn’t enjoy this book.

4/10