Evaluating Ted Dekker

I have always been an avid reader who grows attached to one author at a time, sucking their books dry until I find a new "victim." Growing up, it was Carolyn Keen, then M. J. Auch, John Erickson, and Beverly Lewis. In my sophomore year of high school, my cousin's husband introduced me to Ted Dekker, a Christian author who writes thrillers and fantasy books with the underlying theme of good versus evil.

The Circle trilogy ( comprised of Black, Red, and White as the originals, and Green as "book zero") was my first impression to Ted Dekker. I loved each of them, though White and Green had me hooked on an emotional level. As I finished the three Circle books, I craved more and read the Showdown, Saint, and Sinner books from the Paradise series. After reading those, Green came out and I seemed to get a better grasp on it because I read the Showdown books in between. Maybe that's just me. They offered good insight to the history/future/present confusion. Though the timeline is still not clear to me, the way Dekker could write so many books that are connected through a web of characters and back story still amazes me. I began reading "The Lost Books" (Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, and Elyon), though they didn't interest me as much. I'm sure the timeline within the Circle would make more sense, should I choose to re-read them.

After being enthralled in the Paradise Novels, I realized just how much I loved Dekker's writing style. I literally felt as though Marsuvees was standing outside my window, ready to claw my eyes out for his own use. I've made so many joke with my friends who read his books, too, that he MUST be a serial killer himself. The adrenalin rush Ted Dekker gave me with each page was exciting to me. Because I had spent the past two years reading everything by Beverly Lewis that I could, I was not used to the graphic content of Dekker's books (Most Amish families in Lancaster County don't have villainous complexes).

Though I haven't read everything Ted Dekker has written, I can't deny I will always love his "serial killer" books most. The way he can describe the mind of a possessed man in Adam, or the desperate emotions of a father in Boneman's Daughters, or even the prejudiced Nazi in Obsessed, the vivid style he writes in never ceases to keep my heart racing. With each pop of a bone in BoneMan's Daughter's, I, myself, flinched as though it were me.  The passionate romance he has in each of his stories brings me to tears, with the balance of the exhilarating drama of a killer or a demon. Dekker really is a master of romance and murder, combining the two seamlessly.

Once I became a true-blood "Dekkie" every time I got a new book from the library or Barnes and Noble, I would finish it within the day. Green, Obsessed, BoneMan's Daughters, Skin, Immanuel's Veins, Adam, and The Priest's Graveyard were finished in only hours. Even now, I'm anxiously waiting the release of Forbidden in September, and The Sanctuary next year. Ted Dekker truly is an amazing author that I would like to meet someday, and be able to manipulate words into stories in the same way he does.