Prophet

“Oh God,” he whispered, “who am I? Who am I really?”
God heard his question.
And John knew it. No, no, I shouldn’t have asked for that. I don’t want to know. At least let me figure it out myself…Don’t tell me…Please don’t tell me.
But God heard the question.

Ever the master of Christian thrillers, Frank Peretti delivers another captivating tale in his novel Prophet. While it may not be suitable for all audiences, mature readers will find in this a story that provokes thought and exposes two towering industries in our culture for what they really are.

Plot

For this review, I’m going to simply copy the blurb from the back of my copy, since it does far better justice to the story than I could.

John Barrett, anchorman for “NewsSix at Five,” the city’s most watched newscast, has a problem. His comfortable, successful world is being jarred to the breaking point. He’s caught his producer skewing a story to fit her own prejudices, then lying to cover her tracks—and she appears to be hiding something much bigger. His father’s “accidental” death suddenly isn’t looking to accidental. Carl, his estranged son, has returned to challenge his integrity and probe to find the man behind the TV image. The supposedly professional and objective newsroom is now divided and fighting over Truth. And what are these mysterious “voices” Barrett is hearing…

The amount of plot threads Peretti weaves together in these pages is simply astounding. He tackles the danger of abortion from a medical perspective, the bias and subtle agenda of the news industry, John and his son Carl’s journeys to truth, and numerous other subplots. This is why I opted to use the given description for this book—there’s so much, I don’t know where to start.

My only gripe about the story might be that the first several chapters contain much long, detailed exposition on the workings of the newsroom before the pace really picks up about a quarter of the way in. It is interesting information and helps establish the setting, but I found myself zoning out during these times.

Characters

Like with the plot, one impressive aspect of the characters is simply the scope and size of the cast. There are so many different kinds of people involved, all distinct and important in some major or minor way.

I especially enjoyed John’s interactions with Leslie Albright, one of the NewsSix reporters. They work on a story together for the majority of the book. Leslie’s feisty personality is just fun to read.

Theme & Content Warnings

I mentioned in the introduction that this book is for mature readers. If you’re familiar with Peretti, you’ll likely understand what I mean. The book is clean—no cursing (although it does say things like “he cursed” many times), no inappropriate scenes—but the topics it covers are not meant for young readers.

It goes into the medical side of abortion, the ways it can harm a woman’s body. A character describes her friend bleeding out after a botched abortion. In one scene the news broadcast covers homosexuals protesting outside a Catholic church.

I already mentioned all the thematic elements Prophet covers: abortion, news bias, and the characters’ personal journeys. Peretti communicates these all in a way that is perfectly natural to the story while still delivering powerful truths to the reader.

Overall

I had to laugh a few times at the outdated technology used in the newsroom and around other settings, such as one paragraph explaining to the reader that an email notification does not mean one has received a physical letter, but this does not detract from the book in my opinion. It perhaps adds an unintended humorous side, though.

For those mature enough to handle the topics and intensity of some scenes, I would heartily recommend this. It’s an eye-opening and thought-provoking read.

And as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll write you in the next one!