Godless **** 1/2

Hautman, Pete. Godless. New York: Simon Pulse, 2004.

This was a great book. My library doesn't have this book (yet!) but I read it because it was recommended to me by a public library children's/YA librarian. I am glad I read it!

Jason is rather charismatic. He could sell snow to Eskimos. His mother is a hypochondriac and his father is very religious, to the point of obsession. His father is always trying to get him to be religious, including making him go to the teen night at their church. He isn't interested in religion, but he goes to be a pain and ask questions the youth pastor can't answer.

Jason, along with his friend Shin, come up with a new religion, one that reveres the town's water tower. Shin takes it quite seriously, while Jason is just doing it because he thinks it is funny. Joining them in their church is the son of a local preacher, the town bully, and a girl from the church youth group, on whom Jason has a major crush. Their goal is to climb the water tower, which they do; they end up prying open a door and actually swimming in it, which they consider their "Baptism". Shin starts to take things too seriously along with a few other members.

This entire book really is all about religion. Jason is really quite anti-religion, so if you are a person that is really religious, his approach may offend you, so I would read something else. Jason is really not an athiest, he is really just in search of what he believes in. He isn't into Christianity, but that is all he has been exposed to, and he doesn't know anything else. This is really about finding who he is, and a part of that includes finding out what he believes in. This is more of a character study than anything, so anyone that is more interested in plot and action might be disappointed; not that this is boring, but the focus here is on the characters and who they are, and how they change.