{Book Review} "Disaster Falls" by Stephane Gerson

Rating: 4/5

The Gerson family lost its youngest member, 8 year old Owen, on the rapids of Disaster Falls. Many years later, Owen's father has published this book detailing their family story after losing Owen. Stephane is a historian and author, and writing is definitely something he does well. Delicately, he relates his family's first year after losing Owen, writes of how each of them handled their grief differently, and how another death in the family years later has impacted how he views death. This book is so well-written that even though it's a very tragic story, you won't want to put it down.

While it's a well-written book, as a Christian, I found parts of it hard to read because of the way the author refuses to believe that his son's death was anything but a terrible accident. While the book is not anti-Christianity at all, the family is not a Christian family, and that makes reading of the death and how the family handled the grief so hard to read. I wanted so badly to explain to the author God's sovereignty and explain that nothing just happens on accident. This critique doesn't have to do with how good the book is--it's just a personal note for other believers to be aware of as they read. It's still a tragically well-written book, but the beliefs of the family make it even more tragic.

I received a copy of this book through the Blogging for Books program. All opinions are my own.