Review of Rachel's Tears

On April 20th 1999, two young men, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, students at Columbine High School, in Littleton, Colorado, gunned down 13 of their fellow pupils. Rachel's tears tells the story of one of their young victims, a young Christian girl by the name of Rachel Scott.
The book begins with a dedication to the memories of the 13 victims. with a short paragraph describing their lives. In many ways this is the most moving part of the entire book. The concise details that are given of so many young livescruelly cut short by hate-filled gunmen is heartbreaking. From that point on we move into the specific story of one of the victims, Rachel Scott.
Her story is told through the eyes of her divorced parents and this proves to be a literary drawback (as well as other more obvious problems) as each chapter is made up of two or more separate sections where mother and father separately write their piece. For me this makes for a somewhat disjointed read.
The opening chapter describes the events of that fateful day through the experiences of Rachel's parents. The reader is given an insight into the dreadful trauma that theysuffered. The shock, despair, and searing pain of losing a daughter are all vividly described.
Subsequent chapters continue to detail for us the life and Christian faith of Rachel Scott. The story unfolds of a typical high school American girl struggling with the usual teenage obsessions. However, what sets her about from her peers is her intense faith in Jesus Christ. This passion for God is revealed in her private journals and the selection of writings that are quoted in the book give us a fascinating insight to this young girl's spiritual life. The book concludes with an account of her Dad's ministry to young people which he commenced a little while after his daughter's death.
Rachel's tears is an interesting and at times very touching story. Of course, bearing in mind the subject matter it could hardly be anything else. Sadly though this in itself is not enough to make it a good book Christian book. Rachel's tears has serious faults namely the failure to declare plainly the gospel of Jesus Christ; secondly,the overt promotion of mysticism; thirdly, false ecumenism is encouraged; fourthly, biblical parenting is rejected in favour of modern psychology; fifthly,the biblical view of Christian liberty is rejected in favour of a license to sin.
In closing while one sympathises with the grieving parents I cannot in conscience recommend their book.