Review of Shadows of Thought

[Kennedy NC]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Shadows of Thought" by Rev. Chris Reed.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Shadows of Thought by Rev. Chris Reed is the compilation of the musings of Rev. Chris Reed, written down as a poem. It is an anthology of poems composed initially by him apart from a poem written by Chantelle Mathiasson. This poetry collection seeks to send a message of God’s love to humanity and the magnificence of the universe created by God. It offers comfort to those struggling with the death of their loved ones, grief, and suicide. It questions the purpose of man. All these musings on the above topics are based on his personal life experiences and inspiration from God. A bit of his life history can be glimpsed from his writings. Are you looking for a new and refreshing approach to get reminded of God’s love, guidance, and presence in your life? Then, Shadows of Thought is just the book for you!

There are a lot of positive aspects to this book. With the short length of the poems, the author can convey so much in limited lines. He conveys a message of sacrifice, togetherness, faith, love, selflessness, and faith. These themes are recurrent in this work. This makes it comprehensive, precise, and rich.  A few beautifully crafted words express so much. Also, the writer does not just focus on religious matters as his name title may suggest but touches a wide range of topics, including political issues, effects of war, loss, and the significance of our existence on earth.

The writer conveys a strong love and adoration for nature. He teaches the readers to appreciate God’s love through the physical manifestation of His works. We learn to appreciate the beauty surrounding us that we tend to overlook. More so, the writer adopted a unique way of communicating to the readers; through a poem that must have been tasking. He manages to ensure a rhythmic pattern in most of his poems. Also, because words used in poems leave ample space for a lot of interpretation, the author creates a limited context with the words he uses. This prevents possible misconstruing most of the poems.

There are negative aspects to the book as well. There are grammatical errors in this book. They were an awkward sentence structure and order of words. However, this could be the writer expressing his poetic license. So it is safe to say this book was professionally edited. In addition, the poems were not properly segmented. The poems were all muddled up. A poem might be talking about the love of God for man, and the very next poem is about his mother-in-law’s birthday. This hampers with readers’ mood and causes a cut in the book's flow. Also, some ideas were repeated severally. I believe some poems could have been joined together since they had similar themes and were expressed with similar words.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars after due consideration of both the positive and negative aspects. I recommend this book to people looking for a poem collection bordering on diverse topics but especially God’s love for humanity.

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Shadows of Thought
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[Reading_Jack]

Poems that talk about the magnificent of God. I would to see hoe the author used words. I am intrigued.

[Nwankwo GC]

Poetry lovers will have a great time reading this one. Great review.

[Blessing Odii]

I think a book like this will be of great help to those that are grieving and depressed.

[Mildred Echesa]

A poem about Gods love is truly remarkable. It's like reading the psalms. Thanks for the review and the negative aspects are well listed

[Aisha Yakub]

Many beautiful things around us are sometimes overlooked; it's great that the author admonishes us to appreciate these things.