{"id":5068,"date":"2015-05-18T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5068"},"modified":"2022-11-22T07:48:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T13:48:51","slug":"jesus-jackson-by-james-ryan-daley-book-review-death-atheism-jesus-in-a-linen-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5068","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Jackson, by James Ryan Daley (book review) &#8211; death, atheism &#038; Jesus in a linen suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Jesus-Jackson.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"178\" height=\"276\" data-attachment-id=\"5900\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=5900\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Jesus-Jackson.jpg?fit=178%2C276&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"178,276\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Jesus-Jackson.jpg?fit=178%2C276&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Jesus-Jackson.jpg?resize=178%2C276&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"book cover of Jesus Jackson by James Ryan Daley published by Poison Pen Press\" class=\"wp-image-5900\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Big brother <a href=\"http:\/\/www.exploreforensics.co.uk\/the-four-manners-of-death.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dead<\/a>, <br>terrible rumors at school, <br>surely answers can be found&#8230; somehow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jon idolizes Ryan and thinks that going to Catholic high school will be less bad because his big brother is there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Ryan&#8217;s death on orientation day leaves Jon with a huge hole in his heart and <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2013\/07\/15\/the-six-types-of-atheists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">no faith<\/a> to ease his pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus Jackson &#8211; &#8220;spiritual contractor &#8211; 100% faith guaranteed &#8211; call for free estimate&#8221; &#8211; promises to help him out; just a few questions to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book trailer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iD3nMqCzjxo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> is great &#8211; don&#8217;t miss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ask for this October 2014 release at your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/libraries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">local library<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/indie-store-finder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">independent bookstore<\/a>, and travel with Jonathan through his landscape of grief and the questions that Jesus Jackson asks him to ask himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you ever found it easier to accept the crazy theory than the true answer for a difficult problem? <br>**kmm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>: Jesus Jackson \/ James Ryan Daley. Poison Pen Press, 2014.\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/jamesryandaley.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.poisonedpenpress.com\/jesus-jackson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iD3nMqCzjxo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">book trailer<\/a>] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My book talk<\/strong>: Jonathan&#8217;s big brother left this life too early, before they&#8217;d finished examining all religions to find one that is true, and now a guy who looks like Jesus offers to help the 14-year-old atheist find some meaning in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following in Ryan&#8217;s footsteps at St. Soren&#8217;s would be easy for Jonathan if he were athletic or cute or good at pretending that Catholic school made sense. When Ryan is found dead below the school&#8217;s steep running path, Jon is devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the day of his big brother&#8217;s funeral, a guy named Jesus Jackson offers to build him new faith in a god, but Jon clings to atheism like a life raft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jon and his new friend Henry find suspicious shoeprints at the accident site and decide to investigate Ryan&#8217;s friends and classmates when the police ignore this new evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus Jackson shows up here and there, asking just the right questions to get Jon pondering life and faith and whether anything matters at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What can Ryan&#8217;s girlfriend share about his behavior?<br>How can Jon get evidence that jealous Alistair pushed Ryan?<br>Can a &#8216;spiritual contractor&#8217; really build Jon&#8217;s faith in something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jon&#8217;s divorced parents are dealing with grief in different ways, his school counselor won&#8217;t leave him alone, and weird details about Ryan&#8217;s time at St. Soren&#8217;s keep popping up &#8211; freshman year can&#8217;t get any worse, can it? And Jesus is just around the corner, with more questions about Jon&#8217;s questions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big brother dead, terrible rumors at school, surely answers can be found&#8230; somehow. Jon idolizes Ryan and thinks that going to Catholic high school will be less bad because his big brother is there. But Ryan&#8217;s death on orientation day leaves Jon with a huge hole in his heart and no faith to ease his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,51],"tags":[90,22,7,4,75,11,20,5,70,37,16,18,40,44,43,49,15,206,9,21,35,3,8],"class_list":["post-5068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-mystery","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-belonging","tag-brothers","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-growing-up","tag-memories","tag-relationships","tag-religion","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-teens","tag-us-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5068"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13236,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068\/revisions\/13236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}