Book Review: Idolism

Title: Idolism

Author: Marcus Herzig

Genre: YA

Reviewer: Aly

Book Blurb:

A new Pope, a world in social and political chaos, and a young singer and songwriter who has his unbelief tested as his big mouth accidentally propels him towards global superstardom. These are the ingredients of this thought provoking, tongue-in-cheek debut novel.

Seventeen-year-old Julian Monk never expected to be a famous singer, but when opportunity strikes, he strikes back and throws himself headfirst into that new, exciting world of record deals, TV interviews and screaming fan girls.

His band mates are rather less enthusiastic about that new life they never really asked for. Dealing with their newly acquired fame and fortune is one thing; dealing with Julian is quite another. His sudden and unexpected metamorphosis from the shy and timid creature they have known all their lives into a surprisingly charismatic public speaker and global superstar takes everyone aback, and when Julian sets off on a very public crusade to replace faith and bigotry with reason and compassion, he raises more than just a few eyebrows. He raises hell, and his friends are no longer having any of it.

Meanwhile at the Vatican, a former televangelist is elected Pope. Hell-bent on transforming the Church into a modern, ‘hip’ institution, Pius XIII is giving his PR advisor a headache or two. Intrigued by Julian’s radical way of inspiring some people while antagonizing others – including his own friends – simply by preaching love and understanding, the new pope can’t help but wonder where he heard that storyline before. They say God has a plan for every man, but this man has a plan of his own - and it involves a teenage atheist pop star.

Review:

Idolism is centered on a topic that many find it hard to read books about without coming to some kind of harsh conclusion. Either the book deals with religion in a way that people with religious believes feel their believes have been mishandled or like, Idolism, their religion has been handled fairly and carefully.I didn't really find anything that could annoy people who are religious or make them upset about the handling of the topic. It also didn't seem to handle just one religion but a small variety. These were handled carefully and without putting any one religion down. This keeps things from becoming too harsh or frustrating to the readers.

The chapters were short and narrated by different characters. There were four or five characters who served as narrators but we never get a chapter from Julian. This made him much more mysterious and his actions much more unexplained and difficult to anticipate if they weren't already. It lent an air of surprise to the book and more specifically Julian. However because of the shortness of many of the chapters and the amount of characters I didn't feel as deep a connection with the characters as I usually would. I did enjoy hearing their different voices and learning things about their lives but I didn't feel as if I was in the book, more like I was reading it. If you get what I mean. One thing I didn't really like was that the chapters tended to start with a short reiteration of what had happened before but from a different point of view. While it gave readers a different outlook on things, it could also be annoying and repetitive at times.

Julian was extremely intelligent and many times explained what he meant if he made a comment that people might be questioning. However as we get deeper into the book, it seemed as if his explanations were becoming more like lectures. Some of them were interesting but others I found myself wanting to skim over after a while because they seemed to be going too long or weren't keeping my attention.

Idolism seemed to draw connections between religion and fame, some more obvious, while others were less so. But reading the book, I could understand the reasoning behind these connections.

Idolism is a solid book meant to make readers think. At times it may be hard to continue but give it a chance and let it make you think.

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