Book Review: “The Known Unknown Secrets” by Yong Ho Nam

Book Review:

“The Known Unknown Secrets”

by Yong Ho Nam

I had high hopes for this book. But maybe my hopes were too high.

I blame the hype.

This book claimed to prove that God, The Bible, and Jesus are all real and true. The author offers several reasons why he believes and helps those who believe feel good about believing. We don't have a blind faith.

But proof? I don't think he proved anything. Except that he needs to learn how to write novels.

Besides not living up to his self-created hype, the other obstacle the author faced was the language barrier. Clearly, English is his second language. As such, several grammatical mistakes, misspellings, misused words, etc. convolute his writing.

Worse too, he prefers passive verbs, not active. He tells, not shows. And he crowds the book with expository material wherein he attempts to prove the tenets of his faith.

But then again, those expository chunks were the reason I bought the book.

He weaves a tale of a pastor chosen by God to protect a boy who will become a great Christian leader. From whom must he protect him? From the CIA agents enlisted by the Devil to kill the child.

That premise gives the Devil too much power. The author via the pastor, known only as Pastor Y, states we can know God wrote the Bible, because of it's fulfilled prophecies, because only God can accurately predict the future. So then, how does the Devil know the future of the boy? And if the Devil knows that much, how does he not know enough to tell the assassin, known only as the Devil's killer, where the pastor and the boy are? How can the Devil know the future if he doesn't know the present? That made no sense.

And believe me, I found the characters' lack of complete names annoying. Yes, referring to each character by who he is does help the reader keep track of who's who, but it'd still be nice if they had names.

I didn't like how the author referred to the GDs and the CRIPs like I should know who they are. Not until well into the book doesn't he offer some explanation. And he may have explained the OG, but I don't recall what that means. I also felt confused. The pastor was supposed to have come out of a treet gang where he had been a drug dealer, but then the street gangs seemed to be Christian organizations? Maybe I misread something; or enough wasn't explained.

I like the title "The Known Unknown Secrets". I find self-contradictory titles to be fun.

But not self-contradictory plots.

I don't regret buying the book. I don't mind risking $8 to find proof that Jesus and the Bible are true. (As mentioned in my last blog A Novel That Claims to Prove God, The Bible, and Jesus Are Real, even John the Baptist and the disciples had doubts, so what chance do we have?) What price can one put on one's soul? Proof would truly be priceless.

Sounds a little like a "Master" Card commercial:

Computer: $800

Ebook: $8

Proof of that Jesus and the Bible are true: Priceless.

With proof, I'd be better able to make Jesus my Lord and Master.

In the meantime, I'll do the best I can with the faith I have.

I believe the author did the best he could with his language barrier and wrote the best he could. And from a good heart, with good intentions. The story had some fun moments. Writing a novel isn't easy, so I give him kudos for a valiant effort.

Plus, sometimes I can learn more about writing from a badly written work where I realize what the writer should've done as opposed to a well-written work where I wonder what the author to create such a brilliant.

Besides, I actually enjoyed the expository chunks. I learned that Asian countries convert to Christianity more readily than other cultures, because the life rules of Christianity are so similar to Confucianism. He also explained how the cruelty of Japanese soldiers made that country odious to other Asian countries. As well as offering his "proofs" of the Christian faith.

So I found it worth the read. And I learned some things. Which is about all you can ask from most books anyway.

The book is an ebook, a PDF file of 265 pages, but the book itself must be much shorter, because there are often large gaps between sections of text.

I appreciate what the author set out to do, learned some things, and had some fun along the way.

If you want to "enjoy" the book for yourself: Click Here!

If you'd rather laugh and celebrate humor in the Bible:

Or save money with the Kindle edition (if you have a Kindle):

Or if you'd rather not contemplate religion too much and just want to laugh with a funny novel with lots of monsters:

Sorry, no Kindle version available for that one.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean