Book Review: The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle

“I think it takes a lot of energy and hard work to pretend things are perfect. I think I’d get really exhausted trying to pretend that. Sometimes it takes a lot of guts and bravery to admit that things aren’t perfect, that they’re not even okay. How would anyone know I needed help if I was always pretending everything was fine?”

― Katrina Kittle, The Kindness of Strangers

Katrina Kittle is the author of the book "The Kindness of Strangers". It was released by William Morrow Paperbacks on January 2, 2007.

Synopsis from Amazon...

A young widow raising two boys, Sarah Laden is struggling to keep her family together. But when a shocking revelation rips apart the family of her closest friend, Sarah finds herself welcoming yet another troubled young boy into her already tumultuous life.

Jordan, a quiet, reclusive elementary school classmate of Sarah's son Danny, has survived a terrible ordeal. By agreeing to become Jordan's foster mother, Sarah will be forced to question the things she has long believed. And as the delicate threads that bind their family begin to unravel, all the Ladens will have to face difficult truths about themselves and one another—and discover the power of love necessary to forgive and to heal.

My reaction to this novel...

I've never read a novel by Ms. Katrina Kittle before, and I felt really conflicted about it. She was attempting to get over a message to her readers, one that is addressed in many novels I have read, and I believe she was successful in doing so. I like how she was able to portray the gruesome events that a child would encounter in a horrifying light. As I read this, I found myself wondering how someone would actually process this tale if it were to come to pass. Nobody with a rational mind, in my opinion, could possibly comprehend the suspect's mentality. It is utterly wicked.

The subject matter made it a tough book to get through at times, but it's comparable to driving by a car collisions and being forced to look. I just couldn't understand how an adult could do that to a child or how traumatized he could be to the point where, even if they had done it to him, he was always trying to please them out of love and a simple need to be loved. I felt like throwing up all over from what they actually done to the kid.

Actually, I really enjoy the concept or subject that Katrina Kittle is trying to get through, and I can say that the method she goes about communicating it is quite simple to comprehend since she avoids using jargon that can turn readers off. However, I found it challenging to read since Katrina Kittle frequently used profanity that included the name of God. This, in my opinion, is a truly poor aspect of her writing. She frequently invoked the name of God in vain, which truly angered me at times, and I skipped several of her phrases. That truly annoys me. She ought to do her homework correctly because she created her characters Jews, thus she should be aware of such things. And even though I am not Jewish, I am aware as a Christian that we must not take God's name in vain. I was disappointed with her writing because she employs it so frequently in this book. I truly hope that her other books won't be unpleasant like this one because her readers could get the impression from it that it's acceptable to use swearing words with the name of God. The fact that I repeatedly recognized it and found it to be so repulsive makes me wonder if the other readers did as well.

This book was really difficult for me to read. Maybe the next time she writes a narrative like this, she should include a disclaimer that there will be a lot of profanity and breach of the third commandment because she invokes the name of God frequently in her profanity. For me, I really don't want to recommend this book since there are many books that address the same topic without using the name of God incoherently only for cursing and those books are way better than this.

My Overall Rating: ⭐(1/5)

Where to buy this book...