It goes without saying that religion and faith in either one or multiple gods (or different incarnations of the same god, depending on the faith you’re talking about) is and always has been a contentious and sometimes perilous issue. On the one hand, religious faith has inspired many to do good within their communities, helping other people and leading fulfilling, healthy lives. The flip side of that coin has led to wars, atrocities, and genocide in the name of eradicating those who do not subscribe to the religious doctrine of a particular country. It is truly frightening how religious faith can be twisted into a potent weapon that attracts followers and influences them to do the bidding of the wielder of that faith, be it a con man or even worse, a true believer.
Sarah Lotz perfectly captures that sense of dread and disquiet in her book The Three, a novel that follows the aftermath of an event in the near future called Black Thursday. During this event, four planes simultaneously crash in distant parts of the world, alarming many who reasonably wonder if another terrorist organization has managed to perpetrate another 9/11. Terrorism is eventually ruled out, although the most perplexing thing about Black Thursday is the survival of three children, one from three crash sites, who come out on the other side with almost no injuries. The miraculous nature of their survival leads to the development of a movement led by an American pastor, who believes that these children are signs of the coming apocalypse. The thing is, despite the insanity that this movement generates, there is a very disquieting possibility that he may be correct, and not in the way he imagines.
Lotz’s novel is structured as a book within a book, in which an investigative reporter, Elspeth Martins, has collected oral accounts of Black Thursday and the subsequent fallout involving the three children and those that surround them. Her choice of narrative technique is a wise one, as it brings the reader more fully into the story and allows for the full range of human emotions from the subjects being interviewed, as well as other accounts such as news, online messaging, and letters. Lotz does a masterful job of creating a compelling narrative from these oral accounts, and the scariest part of her story is the creeping insidiousness with which the aforementioned movement gains steam, and the ways in which the children may very well be the harbingers of a coming cataclysm.
In short, I highly recommend The Three to anyone who is interested in darkly suspenseful fiction, good characterization, and simply all-around good storytelling.
The Eclectic Post-Dispatch 