Book Review: "Bad Connection" by Melody Carlson

God is there, there's no denying, It's supernatural

Samantha McGregor is your normal, average, everyday teen girl. Except for one thing: she gets visions from God. She uses her unique spiritual gift to help out others in need. In this book, Samantha sees visions of one of her classmates who has been missing for several weeks. Everyone seems to think that Kayla has just run away from home, but Samantha sees her being tied up and in danger. She turns to the police for help to save her friend. But what if this is just her imagination working overtime?

First things first. This is not a Christian version of "Medium." Yes Samantha can see supernatural visions of the present and glimpses of the future. But she is very quick to defend that this is as a spiritual gift from God. I really enjoyed this book. It's a unique type of teen fiction and Melody Carlson handles it superbly. The storyline was excellent. I didn't know what was going to happen and was really awed by the twists and turns throughout the book. I liked how you have would the plot dealing with Kara and Sam's visions but also have Sam living a normal teen life. Sam is not portrayed as a someone who tries to flaunt her powers, instead she only wants to help out others. At times it'd be creepy seeing what she saw. I have no idea what I would do if something like this ever happened to me. She also acts very mature for her age in dealing with the police. The situation that Kara eventually found herself in, unfortunately, is all too real and there are many girls that have fallen prey to men like that. A good precautionary lesson mentioned there. I would highly recommend this book for teens. Melody Carlson has proved again that when it comes to teen fiction, she is the best author.

Bad Connection by Melody Carlson is published by Multnomah (2006)