Tosca Lee’s Novel ‘The Line Between’ Is Already Great and You Should Read It
For the next issue of Lorehaven Magazine, I’m greatly enjoying Tosca Lee‘s newest novel, The Line Between.
This novel is a thriller but also a pre-apocalyptic story. Within, Lee shares just enough medical future-dread to qualify as very near-sci-fi.
Some readers prefer mid– or post-apocalyptic (or dystopian) stories, that is, if apocalypses (or dystopias) must commence at all. Me, I tend to prefer pre-apocalyptic stories. That’s because it’s a lot more interesting to follow how this world could potentially fall apart.
(For example, I have little inclination to re-read The Hunger Games dystopian books or or re-view the films. But I already can’t wait to re-watch the newer pre–and mid-apocalyptic Planet of the Apes trilogy.)
Post-apocalyptic stories often seem duller to me because they pick up a long time later. They start long after The Cataclysm or The Incident or The Dark Times or The Capitalized Horror, leaving the interim nastiness to your imagination.
(Such a cheat also seems politically easier, so that readers can’t yell at you for blaming Communism or global warming for The Great Peril.)
Lee, however, serves up an unlikely heroine in 22-year-old Wynter Roth. She’s not a teenage castaway, archer, hacker, or apex of an excruciating love triangle. She’s a cult escapee. From one of the nastiest, most realistic-sounding cults made up for a thriller novel.
Mind you, I haven’t been part of a cult, thank God. But I’ve seen cult-like devotees up close.
It’s a scary subject and one that, I think, more Christian-made stories should explore—for real cults, or made-up ones like in this book.
Anyway, I’m not yet done with The Line Between. But now that I have a daily blog, I can share what I’m reading any time.
You can catch our full review of The Line Between in the spring 2019 issue of Lorehaven Magazine, which releases next month. We’ll also feature my cover story based on my interview with Lee, who’s not only crafting stories like crazy, but getting TV producers’ attention.
Next week: win a free book!
Meanwhile, you can preview our debut issue (spring 2018) without even a free subscription. Get more details at SpecFaith. And, starting next week, you can enter our contest to win a free copy of Thomas Locke’s post-apocalyptic novel Enclave.1
- Enclave is one of the few post-apocalyptic stories I have enjoyed. This is mostly because Locke explains how that world got to there from here. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy as well as nonfiction, such as The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ (coauthored with Ted Turnau and Jared Moore, from New Growth Press). Stephen explores biblical truth and fantastic stories as publisher of Lorehaven.com and cohost of the Fantastical Truth podcast. He and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, help with foster parenting, and serve as members of Southern Hills Baptist Church.
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