Review on Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee!

There are just certain things that apart, truly are great all by themselves, but if you were to combine these two things, you get an end result that is quite remarkable. For example- love peanut butter, love chocolate, together they are amazing. Then there’s Batman and Robin- both very cool crime-fighters in their own right, but put them together and you have the Dynamic Duo. This is of course what you get when you combine fast paced, adrenaline producing, NY times bestselling author Ted Dekker ( Batman- hah!)  and the   breathtakingly passionate  and fearless writing of Tosca Lee and put them together.  The term “Dynamic duo”, doesn’t really do them justice with their combined offering of “Forbidden”.

  Forbidden gives us a futuristic dystopian society where geneticists or “alchemists” in the book have figured out a way to eliminate all emotions in the human race, with the exception of fear, deemed a necessary emotion for survival of the race.  Imagine a society where your only emotion permitted you, is fear, sounds a little dreary, huh?  This is how we find our main character “Rom” as the novel opens.  But very quickly he finds himself in a situation that puts him in trouble with the authorities.  He is chosen to carry something of extreme value by an underground group called “the keepers” which are being hunted down and eliminated to get the very thing that is now in Rom’s possession- and what is it?  Why it’s the key to “life” of course, or at least life as it used to be and was created to be.  Rom now finds himself discovering what it means to be truly alive and realizing that he has a responsibility to wake up the world around him to real life.  That is rather a daunting challenge and you will meet the different characters along the way that help him in that challenge.

I honestly didn’t want to go into too much detail in this review as I really don’t want to rob the reader of the pleasure of discovering this amazing story as it unfolds before you.  Yes, I would agree that Forbidden has the feel of the “Circle series” of Dekker fame, and the lovely prose of Tosca Lee is certainly apparent on the pages. I found it to be truly a fascinating read and loved the storyline and characters because it was passionate, fast- paced, and a story that completely draws you in.  I will say that it’s not for the faint of heart,  some of the scenes are quite graphic with regards to the violence. At one point I was thinking, “EW, why did they choose to do that?” But even with that said, I feel that with these authors, I really trust them, and think it was necessary to show the depth of the struggle.  There is some definite heartbreak in this novel as well, but the allegories are rich for sure and a novel well worth reading.  All I can say is bring on “Mortals”, the next offering in this series, I will be waiting with baited breath. (5 stars)

I  graciously received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher Center Street through the Netgalley program in exchange for an honest review.  I was not obligated to write a positive review.   All opinions expressed are my own.




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