Kiss by Healy and Dekker

As you all know, I just received and have now read Kiss by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy. I believe this is Healy's first book, but not Dekker's.


The first novel I ever read of Dekker's was When Heaven Weeps. What a powerful, beautiful story of God's passionate love for us. This is one of my absolutely favorite books of all time! The depth and insight of that book propelled me to buy more of Dekker's books.


Lately his books have seemed more action-packed, less insightful. I miss the deep conflicts between good and evil, the prominent spiritual truths, and the memorable characters found in his earlier works.


With that said, I enjoyed the fast pace of Kiss, the twists in the plot, and the happy ending. It was a page turner and from the first page begged me to discover the answers to all of the questions posed. The story does deal with the pain of mistakes, wounds and how we deal with them. I enjoyed those parts of the story as well.



Overall, Dekker and Healy did a great job of constructing a suspenseful story with some cool supernatural elements.


Have any of you read Ted Dekker before? What do you like about his plots?

Comments

Susan J. Reinhardt said…
Hi Jess -

Great job on the review. I've never read Dekker's earlier works, so I can't comment on them.

I've only read one of his books. While only superlatives can be used to describe his writing, I was uncomfortable with the way he handled the supernatural elements.

Blessings,
Susan :)
February 4, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Hmm, yeah, his later works are kind of general with the supernatural things. It kind of stinks. The earlier stuff was much more Jesus-oriented. You would probably enjoy When Heaven Weeps very much.
February 4, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Eileen Astels Watson said…
Nope, never read Dekker, but I think my hubby has. I'll have to ask him what he thought.

Hey, all you married couples, tomorrow I start a Valentine's Day Giveaway on my blog. I'm excited, I haven't done a giveaway in a while. There's a sneak peak of what I'm giving away in the top of my sidebar. If you're interested, tomorrow you can start claiming ballots.
February 4, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
Eileen,
Sounds great! I've read your last posts just haven't had time to comment yet. :-)
February 4, 2009 at 12:31 PM
nemil said…
The people who commented earlier had it right; Dekker's more recent works have less in the spiritual department. He's my favorite author, and I can't seem to bring myself to pick up Kiss even though I bought it the day after it came out. He has great plots, but I got into him for his Blessed Child and A Man Called Blessed books, which feature a ton of spiritual elements that just don't show up much anymore.
Have you tried Blink? It's my favorite book of his, although now it's called Blink of an Eye, I think.
February 4, 2009 at 2:13 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
Hi Nemil,
Yep, I have the blessed books too and thought they were wonderful. I loved Blink too. I am saddened by the shift in his books because he has such a great gift for showing the coolness of God.
Kiss is missing the depth. He and Healy skirt closely to dipping into some deep things, but in the end the story seemed to be mostly action.
I don't know why his books have changed, maybe because he's writing faster now to keep up with demand? Either way, I hope he'll produce something closer to his earlier stuff 'cause I'm just not into this new, generalized spirituality stuff.
Thanks for stopping by! :-)
February 4, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Terri Tiffany said…
A long time ago I read some of Dekker's and never picked up another.Not sure why but not my type I guess.
February 4, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Jessica Nelson said…
Could be. :-) He has a very strong voice and in some ways his portrayals of evil remind me of Koontz. Thanks for stopping by Terri.
February 4, 2009 at 4:03 PM
Sarah said…
I've never read Ted Dekker, but I think I saw a book by him a while back that I thought looked interesting. I think it was called "The House" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm way off. I do plan on reading him soon, but I have a stack by my bed I'm working my way through. :)

And I apologize if I just mentioned a well-known book of his rather flippantly. "Like, I just read this really good book called Gone With the Wind. Have you heard of it?"

I'm still kinda new to Christian Lit. :)
February 4, 2009 at 5:30 PM
Anonymous said…
I've never read Ted Dekker. But I'm not surprised at the "more action, less insight" curve. It seems like more and more authors are having to inject stronger, faster paced action into their books for them to sell. And when word count is tight in the genres they write in, it leaves little room for themes or deep messages.

The quiet, introspective books can't seem to find a place, so maybe this author changed their approach on the suggestion of their agent or editor, to keep up with competition.

I think it's rather sad, being a fan of the classics (Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, etc...). Even these queens of lit would have had a hard time selling their golden words in this fast paced climate.
February 5, 2009 at 1:15 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Sarah, no worries. :-) "House" was written by both Dekker and Frank Peretti. I haven't read it though. Good luck with your stack. LOL I have the same thing.
February 5, 2009 at 7:20 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Hey Anita,
It's either that or he's just racing to churn books out. I don't know. He's always had fast-paced books with cool action and evil villains, but the depth of his protags has changed, imo. Also, his references to the power of Jesus and saving faith are much, much weaker, which is disappointing as he truly protrays those things well.
btw, it's not sad that you like classics better. It just makes you look smart. LOL
February 5, 2009 at 7:28 AM
Kathryn Magendie said…
I haven't read any of those books, but it does sound intriguing!
February 5, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Jessica Nelson said…
Kathryn, you may like them. He comes up with very cool plots.
February 5, 2009 at 10:28 AM
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