Dark Hour by Ginger Garrett: Old Testament Drama

As evangelical, God-fearing Christians living in at least a nominally Judeo-Christian world, it's pretty easy for us to saunter through life a little laid back about our faith and our freedom to worship God as we choose. True, the world becomes ever harsher towards true believers every day, and the concept of "family values" and "morality" - once bedrocks of this nation - have become slippery slopes of opinions, interpretations, and "alternate lifestyle choices". It's not hard to look around and realize that we're not home yet, the forces of evil growing with each passing moment.

Still, given all that - we've got it pretty easy. We can attend any church of our choice; if we don't like what this pastor is teaching or disapprove of that worship style, we can just pick up and attend some other church. Other, alternative belief systems have become more prevalent in our society, but we really don't pay them much mind, do we? We don't have to wonder what would happen if one day, a Satanist or demonologist was elected president, and the nation's motto changed from "One Nation Under God" to "One Nation Under Beelzebub".

Go to the store, pick up Ginger Garrett's Dark Hour, and shudder as you realize just what a sanitized¸ safe life we lead. Usually, I start my reviews with some teaser elements of the story to whet my reader's appetite, but in this case, I'd hate to give away anything about this novel. Set during Jezebel's reign of terror in Old Testament times, Garrett takes the reader and thrusts them into a world far away from microwaves, The Purpose Driven Church, and churches with coffee shops in them. Dark Hour takes place during a time before Christ came to Earth, shed His blood to create a new covenant with us, when the spiritual battlefield was engaged in all out warfare for the minds, hearts, and souls of the people.

Garrett is extremely meticulous in her research and fact-finding, painting a realistic panorama of biblical times, and this story makes you powerfully aware of the tenuous existence early followers of Yahweh lived. Even as stained as it is, in today's world the institution of Christianity is a long established thing, even given all of its sects, forms, and denominations. Dark Hour confronts us with the lives of people challenged to believe in this "strange, new god" that demanded complete obedience and faith.

That, and the novel's tangible essence of spiritual warfare gives it a gritty, visceral feel. We've all read great spiritual warfare novels like This Present Darkness, but we can't help but view them from a Western, Judeo-Christian perspective. Dark Hour portrays a frightening clash between holy Yahweh and old, ethereal pagan religions, and it serves to make a reader very thankful for the ease of our contemporary existence, indeed.

This is no "chic lit" book either; it's moving, powerful, and touching. Also, as the first entry into what's been tagged the Serpent Moon Trilogy, it stands alone as its own novel, while promising a deeper look into these long gone biblical times.