Book review: Door to Freedom

Back in 2015, I was given the opportunity to review the book Side by Side by Jana Kelley. It was a realistic and an enjoyable read, which I was excited to hear is turning into a trilogy. The second book in the series was published this year, and is called Door to Freedom. I was very happy to be offered the chance to review it as well!

These days there seems to be some sort of hype-driven fear that all Muslims are evil and just waiting for their chance to kill someone. This book helps to drive that unrealistic fear away and shows that Muslims are people just like us, with friends, with family tensions, with hopes and dreams, but mostly with a deep need for the peace that comes only from the Gospel.

As with Side by Side, it was wonderful to feel as if I was back in Sudan through all the descriptions in the book. I could feel the grit of the dust, hear the honking of rickshaws and taxis, taste the food, and feel the heat. In Side by Side, we meet Halimah who is a convert to Christianity and has to flee and leave her family and all she knows behind to save her life. We also meet an American couple, Mia and Michael, who are working in Sudan with an aid organization.

Door to Freedom is set about a year later. Rania, Halimah’s sister, misses her sister dreadfully and expresses her feelings through art. She keeps thinking about her sister’s courage and eventually she builds up enough courage to read the book of John that Halimah had left behind and she becomes a Christian. Soon she faces the prospect of marriage to a much older cousin, but her mother steps in and convinces her father it would be a good idea to send her to live with family in Dubai where she can also study art. We are left at the end of the book with the hope that Rania’s mother might also be on the road towards putting her trust in Jesus.

Mia and Michael have matured more in their faith and have become more bold in their witness, and experience various trials as a result of that. In fact, Door to Freedom deals with some more of the difficulties of living in a country like Sudan in more detail, including a fairly tense few chapters where Michael is under investigation by the police.

I loved seeing how the characters have developed and matured, and how Michael and Mia have increased in their boldness in sharing the Gospel. There was, however, one thing that didn’t sit right with me: the ‘lone ranger’ type of work Michael and Mia were doing. From my experience (which was, I admit, pretty limited) in Sudan, Christians stuck together and supported each other, even when they were not working with the same organization. In the book, Michael and Mia lead a couple to Christ and even baptize them, but without other Christian witnesses and with seemingly little long-term Christian support and discipleship. There might well be an explanation for this, but it struck me as odd. It’s also odd to me how little other Christians feature as a support network for Michael and Mia — we do hear about them going to church, but it doesn’t seem to be a large part of their lives. Maybe we’ll see more Christian support for them in the next book?

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Door to Freedom, and I’m very much looking forward to reading the next book. I should mention that while this is a series, each book stands on its own pretty well. Get yourself a copy, or enter the giveaway to win!

Giveaway: I’m giving away one free copy of Door to Freedom! Reply in the comments section with a sentence about why you’d like this book and I’ll enter you in the draw. I’ll announce the winner next Friday, the 10th of March. (This giveaway is sponsored by me.)

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I received a complimentary copy of Door to Freedom but have not been compensated in any other way for this review.