Review of Church Boy

[Abi McCoy]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Church Boy" by Tim makava Lee.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Church Boy: Secret Sins was written by Tim Makava Lee. It is the story of a young man, Mack, who grew up in Arkansas and Pontiac, Michigan. The story begins on Mack’s wedding day; he is standing at the altar with a woman named Julie but thinking of two other women. His pastor and others in his church don’t want him to marry her, but he believes that he is doing God’s will. As the pastor asks him if he accepts Julie as his wife, Mack’s mind takes him back to the beginning.

The rest of the book follows his life growing up with his grandma and uncles in Arkansas until his mom moves him to Michigan. Since before he was eight, he was exposed to pornography, drugs, and sexual situations. The day after his ninth birthday, he begins down his path of “secret sins.” He continues pursuing sex and hanging out with the wrong crowd even after someone he is close to is killed. When visiting his grandma again in Arkansas, he joins her church but does not change many of his bad habits. Eventually, after suffering verbal abuse from his father, bullying from his peers, and intense depression, he begins to look for love rather than lust, becoming more committed to Christianity. Is Julie his real love, or is he making a mistake standing at the altar with her?

I enjoyed the way the author organized this work. The first chapter begins as a set-up for the rest of the story, which is a flashback of Mack’s life. This was a great way to highlight why Mack was having the issues and thoughts he was on his wedding day, and it showed how he ended up becoming involved in the church. The author also referenced Bible verses throughout the work when they were relevant to what he was writing; this was a great way to incorporate Biblical thoughts throughout without slowing the story down.

Unfortunately, there are many things wrong with this book. It does not appear to have been edited at all. There were tense changes throughout the work as well as shifts between third and first person. There were many run-on sentences and sentence fragments. Many sentences also took several rereads because their meaning was unclear, and there were many errors. Another thing I disliked about this work was that women were only described based on their skin color and their body shape. I know this book was largely about Mack’s sexual deviance but including more details about women other than just their physical appearance would have been appreciated.

I’m rating Church Boy: Secret Sins 2 out of 4 stars. The message of the story was good, and the author organized and told the story well, but it all got lost in the poor editing of the book. The errors, tense shifts, and poor sentence structure greatly detracted from the story. This work would be suitable for people interested in growing up as a young Black man in Michigan in the 1980s and 1990s and for those interested in someone’s Christian redemption story. Due to the many adult topics broached in this work (such as sex, drugs, abuse), I wouldn’t recommend this work to young readers. This work also contains references to Bible verses throughout and several shorter chapters that are essentially small sermons, so it is probably best suited to readers who are Christians or are interested in Christianity.

******
Church Boy
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Luchris_michael]

Love is both easy and hard to find. The plot of the book is a good one. God review.

[Chinaza Nnabuenyi]

Everyone has one or two secrets we keep to ourselves, but these secrets often tend to hurt us in different ways. I love this review, great job!

[Gabriella1997]

We don't choose whom to love, our heart does, I hope mack gets better at the end, nice review.

[Abi McCoy]

Love is both easy and hard to find. The plot of the book is a good one. God review.

You are definitely right about that. Thank you!

[Abi McCoy]

Everyone has one or two secrets we keep to ourselves, but these secrets often tend to hurt us in different ways. I love this review, great job!

And sometimes they affect us in ways we don't even realize - I'm happy you enjoyed the review!

[Abi McCoy]

We don't choose whom to love, our heart does, I hope mack gets better at the end, nice review.

I guess we'll have to find out in the next book. Thank you!

[Rm21]

i like how the author sets up the work to suck you in from the beginning. it's too bad that the lack of editing gets in the way of a good read.