Children of the Good by Felix Whelan

(Found on Felix at Fifty)

"But the Good is coming back..." -Felix Whelan, Children of the Good

Religion as we know it has been brought to an end. Self-worship has taken its place. But when two Gooders have a child, they find that odd things keep happening. But the evil of the world is not going to go away willingly. They will do anything they have to do to survive. Will the world be saved? Or will the evil win all? Find the official description on Goodreads.

Children of the Good jumps right into the thick of things. The reader is immediately brought into the world with little information about it or what has happened in the past to bring the events of now to a head. It helps keep the reader reading as they are curious about the world that they have discovered and why a young girl would be on what seems to be a trial. It was also disturbing that some characters actually enjoyed the things they were doing that many would view as terrible or horrible. I found myself shocked by some of the characters reactions to certain actions. It was disturbing.

Throughout the book you start to gather bits and pieces but the reader is given a large amount of history of the self-worship movement in the middle of the book. It helps readers to understand what has happened to create this world and it reads almost like a history textbook except more interesting. It wasn't nearly as dull as history books tend to be. And by history books I mean textbooks. Just thought I'd clear that up for sure.

It was also great to see the rationalizations that certain characters make in order to justify their actions. It's a glimpse into the characters of the self-worship movement and allows readers to understand more about what the movement has created. 

Children of the Good was also thought provoking. It asks questions that many don't have answers for and raises the issue of what is good and evil? There are plenty of more things raised by this book but that tends to be one of the major ones. 

The book also holds true to life as bad things happen to good and innocent people just as well as the bad. Sometimes in real life there isn't always a happy ending. It was great to see a book reflect that. Usually I like a happy ending kind of thing but occasionally it's good to have something different.

If you haven't already you should give Children of the Good a look. You'll find yourself asking questions for sure.