Rating: 
Summary: Christian Fiction With An Edge--A Dull Edge, But An Edge
Review: "This guy is the Stephen King of Christian fiction," a friend of mine excitedly exclaimed when he got his copy of The Oath. I calmly reminded him that a) I'd never heard of Frank Peretti before and b) I didn't exactly care for Stephen King in the first place. Though the first part of my response has since changed, I still see nothing in The Oath to get excited about. The story is set in modern times, in a backwoods town where people mysteriously die in rather grotesque ways. After loosing his brother, the protagonist goes to investigate and finds more than he bargained for. Basically, The Oath takes complex spiritual issues and simplifies them by personifying them. Even that description is more exciting than this book. I'm not trying to write a negative review, but I really didn't like the characters; they were bland, Christian fiction stereotypes. Now, that's not to say the book wasn't readable--it was highly readable--and the story was actually clever, just not as well executed as I had hoped. Peretti has mastered the art of moving a story along, something many writers in his genre haven't figured out yet. There's a lot going on in this book and you don't get bored. The Oath is a safe book. I'd let my children read it without hesitation. There's nothing truly offensive within its pages. It has a wonderful moral lesson about feeding (indulging) sin and how sin overtakes us--something non-Christians would probably find puritanical and ridiculously executed. Nevertheless, I find nothing to truly hate about The Oath. It is what it is--a bedrock work in a genre that lacks definition, leadership, or any clear direction. It is the quintessential Christian fiction title--murky at times, laughable at times, but mostly entertaining, wholesome, and definitely a professional presentation (unlike much of what passes as Christian fiction). So what if it's a moral play? For anyone interested in Christian fiction, this is a good book and one that won't sour your pallet.
Rating: 
Summary: Stranger than fiction
Review: I'm an admirer of Piretti's work however I kept asking myself 'where is this book going'. This is a fascinating tale of a town that has kept a secret (Oath) for hundreds of years. Why Pieretti needed 550 pages to tell it may be the main secret here. It's a little bit more violent than normal for him but the violence plays a definite part in the main storyline. Small inconsistencies in the story and some unbelievable situations were easy to overlook since this is an unusual book anyway. Still, I'm glad I read it - it was entertaining and fun. Give it a try.
Rating: 
Summary: DING!! Knock-Out!
Review: This was the first work of Peretti I read. Now, I have mostly all of his books, and soon hope to own his Cooper kids series in the future. But in this book, something's going on in Hyde River. And the only Christian, Levi Cobb is considered weird, like a lot of Christians are these days. What is it that is attacking Hyde River? Why? When will it strike next? Everyone knows about it, but because of The Oath, nobody talks about it. I'm talking about it, and anyone who takes God seriously and reads this book will talk about it. But, hey, be a Levi Cobb and be a little strange! Read this book. You wouldn't believe how much fun we have in our strange worlds. Frank Peretti is strange, and that's what makes him one of the greatest authors today! Not many people can match him, and that's why those that do, are Christians, packing knock-out punches! I only have one regret about this book. It was my first Peretti, and I waited too long to finally pick it and and give it a chance. Now I'm hooked!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I love how Peretti writes. The Oath is captivating and unexpected until then end.
Rating:
Summary: Evil Materialized
Review: Cliff Benson, a nature photographer, is killed while camping with his wife in the woods surrounding the small town of Hyde River. Cliff's brother Steve, a wildlife biologist, comes to investigate what seems to be a grizzly attack. He soon discovers that something much more hideous is involved, and suspects that the town folks know more than what they are willing to share.Steve's suspicions are correct, but the truth is far worse than what he imagines. Something is out there, and it's not just a big animal or some ancient monster that somehow survived to this day. The town has a dark secret. A terrible evil done many years ago obtained a physical form, and has been haunting Hyde River ever since. People do not talk about it, some refuse to believe it, but they all know the story. They know why it is not safe to be outside after dark, and what the red mark means that once in a while would show up on someone's chest, right over the heart area... The idea of a "cursed town" is not new, but Frank Peretti adds a new dimension to it drawing a clear spiritual parallel. The monster that haunts Hyde River is evil materialized, sin itself. It lingers around, waiting to "hook" you, no matter whether you believe in it or not. It disguises itself to blend with the surroundings. It may not strike right away, letting you think that you are safe, or that maybe nothing is out there, after all. But it will strike one day. When you are "hooked," it marks you its own, and it will come and claim you. There is only one way to remove the mark... If you are a Christian, you already know what it is.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Not That It's Terrible
Review: This book isn't a bad book in the usual sense: It's story is reasonably interesting, and it's readers won't have a problem getting through the whole thing. The prose is only occassionally brilliant, and usually utilitarian--it just gets the job done. The short "scene-switching" get's to be annoying, especially towards the end. And the story. . . it's "just so". Everything goes the way you would expect. There are few surprises except in the details. Unless you were already pulled into the book for religious reasons before you began, there is little in it to make you live it. There is no overwhelming uniqueness or other quality--it hardly looks deep into your soul and tells you something about the universe or humanity the way that, say, Hemingway can. (But who can measure up to the greats?) Peretti's biggest fault with respect to the story is the utter flatness of the characters. Perhaps the action-pacted-ness of it left no more room for character development. One gets the feeling this book is aimed at a more mature audience (the age of the characters, the apparently sincere portrayal of sexuality, the graphic violence, etc.), but there remain elements (I don't want to give away the story!) that are just too hoaky, too Power Ranger or G.I. Joe. But those faults might be forgiven. After all, one doesn't expect John Milton when one goes to see Terminator 3. What can't be forgiven, what bothered me the most was that it seemed Peretti's sole motivation was to make a single theological statement: if you do bad things you will be punished horribly. What a soul-less, mindless religion. Where is the relationship with the Eternal Creator God, the mystery of the universe? How can there be depth in a spirituality that reinvents adult human beings as children obeying soley to avoid a spanking? Discussions about things like "is eternal damnation biblical" are irrelevant: I am God's servent even if I do not get the lollipop in the end; even if a spanking is fated yet will I believe in him. I question the morality of using threats of suffering as an evangelistic tool. How can we criticize the medieval Christians and Muslims who forced conversion at the end of a blade, when we do the same with the precipice of hell?
Rating:
Summary: couldn't make myself read the whole thing
Review: this book was horible!! I didn't get half way through the book before i lost ALL respect for the characters!! I am a fan of Peretti and I love some of his other books but i must say DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!!
Rating:
Summary: Good.... but not great....
Review: Peretti's writing style is well done, one could easily read this book in one night. Overall I felt the story was really interesting (I particularly liked the snippets from old diaries at the end of each chapter). Peretti's description of the dragon himself was well done. There were a few things that perplexed and/or irritated me however. I found it uncanny how the guys back at the Tavern knew almost everywhere Steve went and everyone he happened to talk to! The fear that the townsfolk had was unbelievable, one good example was Charlie scared like a lil kid. All of them scared of a dragon! I had no idea that the book was more slanted towards Christians. I felt the book became more preachy close to the end (Levi was a good character though, a really likable character). This'll be a good book for those who actually can buy the thought of the so-called "persecution of Christians" in America. Towards the end it starts to dwindle into poor, persecuted Christians, in small-town America no less (it'd work in say Muslim countries, or even China. But America?). Oh well, there's a dragon and an "evil force" behind it all, ya know? ; )
Rating:
Summary: So close but so long
Review: When I first heard about this book, my attention was immediatly grabbed. I'd been hearing how scary it was and how one can finish the book quite quickly due to Peretti's writing style.
I will say that I did enjoy the writing, and it did hold my attention, but scary? Not in the least.
I found myself at the beginning thinking this was going to be great. It started off as this great horror mystery that you just don't get from most Christian writers since God forbid an author portray non-Christians behavior as non-Christian. "I can't believe Peretti would have charecters sleep together!" I know! I mean, non-Christians don't do that! Please people...
Anyways, I'm reading along as the suspense builds, and what's so scary? A dragon. A DRAGON!! Normally books and movies don't scare me since I can pass off the fact that they're fictional. But to try to scare me in a fictional book with a fictional being? Impossible. Peretti should have stuck with the Bear theory. He could have made it work. But instead we're stuck trying to get scared by a dragon. Perhaps Peretti could have ended the book with the main charecter hoping on a unicorn and lancing the dragon with it's horn. It would have stuck with the "realistic" theme.
Though the book came far from accomplishing it's point, I will say that it entertained me in the way the show Saved by the Bell once did. Not a great storyline, but it holds your attention somehow to where at the end you think it wasn't that bad.
Perhaps I'll take the other reviewer's opinions and try Peretti's other books.
Rating:
Summary: The Oath
Review: The Oath, by Frank Peretti, portrays spiritually in the form of a dragon and a town full of sinful people. The novel begins with a great deal of excitement from the first sentence. It grabs hold of your interest almost immediatley. However, as the book unfolds most of the excitement is lost when the reader uncovers that the mysterious creature hiding among the woods of Hyde River is none other than a color changing dragon. As the novel continued, my interest seemed to lessen. I felt like it was a "hokey" portrayal of the effect of sin in our conscience. Overall, the book seemed to have a good message, however, I felt like the plot of the story was too drawn out and that it could be summed up better in less than 550 pages! With that in mind, I probably would not recommend this book to my peers because of the way your interest lessens as the novel progresses.
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