1 out of 4 stars
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Rebecca Brown’s Power Over Death is a short book detailing her incredible near-death experience and the faith that helped her through it. She uses passages from the Bible and her own brush with death during the birth of her son to inspire faith in others.
The synopsis for this book touts it as “a reading experience of a lifetime,” and I’m fairly sure that I’ll never read another book like this in my lifetime. It was strange, unfocused, and unbelievable, and I have no idea what to make of it. I rate it 1 out of 4 stars.
Let’s start with the writing. There were misspellings and grammar errors on just about all of its 62 pages. On the very first page, Brown writes “Multiply Scleroses” instead of “multiple sclerosis.” It’s obvious that the book has not been professionally edited – I’m not sure it was even proofread by the author herself. After all, there’s really no excuse for using ‘Hugh’ instead of ‘huge’ in a published work.
The writing, however, is the least of this book’s problems. Rebecca Brown asserts that the story she shares is “a true real life experience.” She goes on to say that her story “is not fiction or make believe.” This is ludicrously, undeniably, and unconscionably false. Her story involves a pregnancy that results in her dying on the hospital bed and having her soul brought back to her body by Jesus Christ in time to give birth to not only her son, but also – and this is a direct quote – “three buckets” of fish.
Rebecca Brown wants her readers to believe that she gave birth to a human child and a bunch of fish. In her words, “They were picking up fishes that came out of me as if a fisherman had pulled in a net and dumped it on shore. I was so afraid, and ashamed, I was down-right embarrassed.” Conveniently, the records of her pregnancy were “…sealed, but later destroyed.” I’m on board for near-death experiences. I’m on board for receiving divine assistance to return to the land of the living. I’m not on board for fish.
I’m at a loss. I refuse to speculate about any aspect of the author herself – in addition to being rude and in poor taste, it’s quite simply not my job as a reviewer. As such, I can do nothing but take her book at face value.
So, what is its face value? It’s a “true real life experience” that is unequivocally not a true real-life experience. It’s an unfocused exhortation to allow God and Jesus to heal you of all of your sickness. It’s a piece of writing that has been written poorly. I don’t need to analyze the message or intent of Power Over Death to confidently say that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I rate it 1 out of 4 stars – it’s unforgettable, all right, but probably not in the way the author intended.
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Power Over Death
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