If you want an book that will take you on an bit of a emotional roller coaster, The Shack is the book for you. It starts with Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, getting abducted. She got abducted when the family was at a family vacation. The police found evidence that of Missy being brutally murdered in an abandoned shack deep in Oregon’s wilderness.

Four years after the discover, in the middle of Philips’ sadness, he receives an note. The note is apparently from God, it invited him back to the shack for an weekend. Philips goes against his better judgement and arrives at the shack during a winter afternoon. The things he finds at the place that causes many of his nightmares, changes his life forever.

In this story, where religion is growing irrelevant, there is a continuous wrestle with the timeless question, “Where is God in a world filled with unspeakable pain?” The answers that Philips’ will not only change him, but it may also change you.

William P. Young wrote this book for six children to share his journey through pain and misery to light and love. The background of what the symbols in this story means is important. They help color Young’s view on God and Christianity, resulting in an flawed view on both.