A Review of 'Godless' by Pete Hautman

"Fed up with his parents' boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god-- the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend, Shin; cute-as-a-button (whatever that means) Magda Price; and the violent and unpredictable Henry Stagg. As their religion grows, it takes on a life of it's own. While Jason struggles to keep his faith pure, Shin obsesses over writing their bible, and the explosive Henry schemes to make the new faith even more exciting-- and dangerous.

When the Chutengodians hold their first ceremony high atop the dome of the water tower, things quickly go from merely dangerous to terrifying and deadly. Jason soon realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling it, but control he must, before his creation destroys both his friends and himself.

Pete Hautman, author of Sweetblood and Mr. Was has written a compelling novel about the pwer of religion over those who believe, and over those who don't."

This was an amazing read. I found Godless both thought-provoking and enjoyable. The character of Jason Bock has an interesting sense of humor-- sarcastic yet challenging. His humor pulls you through the story. It's thought-provoking in that the points or arguments that he brings up are things I've never thought about before.

Jason represents something very real: A kid that stops to think and starts to question his beliefs.

Jason's father was not my favorite. Up until the end, it felt like he was force-feeding religion to Jason who just coughed it right back up. Anger just built up in me when I read what he had to say in the book.

The water tower was an interesting concept to me as well. Out of anything that Jason could have built his new religion around, he picked a water tower. After reading Pete Hautman's bio on the back inside cover, I found out why.

I feel like this book has a good representation of two general groups: the believers and the non-believers (for lack of a better fitting term for each).

I give Godless:
One last request: if you feel so inclined to leave a comment, please keep it respectful. That's the unspoken rule for commenting on any post, really.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude