Review by alm494 -- Once A God by Victor A. Wilkie
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- Latest Review: "Once A God" by Victor A. Wilkie
Review by alm494 -- Once A God by Victor A. Wilkie

3 out of 4 stars
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It is uncommon these days to find a typical rags-to-riches story. A person grows up poor thinking that they never want their future to be like their present and such, set out to succeed in life. Victor A. Wilkie’s book Once a God: The Spirit of Miriam, a dramatic fiction, tells the life of a complex man, Jonah Atkins, with a scarred childhood whom makes his way up to becoming one of the world’s most richest and powerful being. The book was publicized on July 17, 2012.
The book starts off with Jonah Atkins in the emergency room in a coma. His mind drifts away to begin telling the story of his proposal to his lover, and soon to be wife, Mae. While Mae’s mother approves of Atkins and his proposal, her father’s disapproval leads to the reveal of Jonah’s tortured childhood. Nonetheless, Jonah and Mae marry and give birth to two boys, Michael and Charlie, and a little girl, Lara. However, Lara unexpectedly passes in her sleep, causing Jonah Atkins personality to change. Soon after the death of the little girl, Jonah comes across a woman by the name of Miriam Barkley, who becomes his mistress, though his love for her was far more than that of a typical affair. The story then shifts when Miriam’s past finds its way back to her, creating mass complications for Jonah Atkins.
While there is not much of a thesis to the story-line, some may believe that the moral of the story is that money buys happiness, or that people will go extreme lengths for those they love. However, I believe the author’s purpose of this book is to teach its readers that a person creates their own destiny based on their own decisions, good or bad, not based on their past. Before I read this book, I always believed that my decisions came with consequences, no matter the outcome. I also believed that my past does not define my future, as I have the ability to change my actions. This book only furthered my beliefs, causing me to enjoy the book even more.
When I first began reading the book, I almost could not bring myself to finish the first chapter. It was not so much the story-line that made me dislike it, but the fact that there were too many things happening in the first chapter that could have been split up between two chapters. However, I managed to keep in mind that this was the reminiscing of a man in a coma. After continuing on past the first chapter, I was hooked. It became more like a movie in my mind as I was reading. With its constant appeal to emotion, it was an extremely entertaining read.
The end of the book threw me off, and I nearly forgot that Jonah was in the ER unconscious. It left me questioning what happens next and that is the aspect that keeps the audience wanting more. If the author were to write a sequel to this book, I would be interested in reading and reviewing it. Overall, I am rating this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would not give it a 4 because there were a few minor errors here and there throughout the book. While the errors hardly made it difficult to read, there were moments when I had to reread a sentence or two to make sense of it
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Once A God
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