The Academy

Authors: J.T. Payne and Ryan Mix

I don’t often review Christian-based literature or novels.  However, this debut novel by the talented J.T. Payne and Ryan Mix startles and ponders the lives of its characters and their relationships counterintuitively, as they spend most of the novel assuming that Christianity might not be what it says it can be.

Original and spellbinding, The Academy presents Sylas Ernst, a high school senior at the Christian Academy, a small, elite Christian high school where his friends and parents encounter the opposite of what the school stands for.  As the school principal manipulates his students, grafts his staff, and acts as a grafter to the politicians of the town, Sylas attempts to grasp the concepts of what is real to him, who his true friends are, and whether he wants to be in the cool crowd or be authentic.

Stunningly written, as influential as The Shack, I did not consider this novel denominationally, but rather as a novel beautifully written and potted that strikes its own pose and holds it as clean as a color.

Bravo.

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale

Overall: 5

Review by Broad “A” 

We received a copy of this title for our book review. All opinions are our own

The Academy is available for purchase on Amazon.com and your local bookseller.