Hey all, happy Tuesday! Today’s post is a tag challenge and I was tagged by Bella, the lovely writer behind the blog Peculiar Treasures and I highly recommend her blog!

Now let’s get into the guidelines first before we dive into my hot takes on Christian fiction.

The Guidelines:

1. Put the Guidelines on your post
2. Pick one theme from the post that tagged you, and give it a shout out in your post
3. Link back to the original Story Blossoms post, and who tagged you! 
4. Make a list of what you’re so ready to see in Christian Fiction that you haven’t seen much of, or at all yet.
5. Challenge 5 bloggers by tagging them!
6. Do these in your preferred order, do be wholesome and biblically honoured, and be yourself

First, a theme that I loved in Bella’s post was ‘Christians setting boundaries and not being ashamed for it,’ and I totally agree! Set those boundaries, queen, don’t be afraid.

Alright—brace yourself, because I have a lot of opinions on Christian fiction that may seem controversial, and I’ll share those before I get into the themes I want to see in Christian fiction.

I don’t like reading Christian fiction...

And I know, that sounds so bad coming from a girl who writes a Christian blog and has literally written Christian fiction, but GUYS, it can be so painfully cringey. It’s not the faith itself that’s cringe, but how the faith is written out. Y’all, I just typically avoid Christian fiction.

However, how does one define ‘Christian fiction’? Is it just fiction written by a Christian author or a book with explicitly Christian themes? Depends on the person you’re asking, haha, but I consider it a fiction book with Christian themes that impact the plot in some way, shape, or form.

There’s a series you’ve probably heard of—if you’re a Christian homeschooler and you haven’t heard of this, then I’m sorry: you’re not really homeschooled or Christian—and it’s The Wingfeather Saga.

Guys this series is literal perfection, it’s got Christian themes and a whole ‘trusting in God’ thing going on, but it’s fantasy and it’s not really the main plot. I can’t explain it, but it’s too good.

Other great examples of Christian fiction or novels with Christian themes are The Chronicles of Narnia (of course), The Pilgrims’s Progress, and Lord of the Rings. I think that allegorical stories portray faith journeys in the best way rather than stories set in the modern-day.

Then there’s a different book and its sequal—it’s not very popular at all—and OH. MY. WORD.

And the faith aspect—well, let’s just say that I vowed to never write Christian fiction because of that. Everybody trusted God, which is great, yes, but it was SO unrealistic and not relatable at all.

When I’m going through a really hard time I just hide. I don’t pray or worship or talk about Jesus, which, admittedly is not the best way to go.

But after the MC’s mom died and their dad left them, the main character was exactly like this:

“She wept, the tears in her eyes felt like pieces of her soul, falling to the dry desert ground which felt more like her heart than she wished it did. Softly she whispered, ‘Why doesn’t Dad love me? Oh, well, at least…I know God loves me. And I’m going to trust in Him no matter what.’”

I’m not even kidding when I say some sentences—pretty much the whole book, actually—were written exactly like that.

It made me cry—not because of the relatable themes, but because it was cringe.

Anyways, those are my main thoughts. I’m not a huge fan of Christian fiction due to my attentive cringe-detector, so when I find good Christian fiction, then I’m in love forever.

Now what are some themes I’d love to see in Christian fiction?

• Mental health addressed correctly

I bet you didn’t see that coming at all. But in all seriousness, I think it’s awesome when it’s addressed correctly and then it’s from a Christian POV?! Then I can die happy. Wingfeather Saga is a great example—it always is—because you can really see elements (even if they’re slight or subtle) of anxiety, OCD, depression, and it’s something that I really admire Andrew Peterson for tackling in a middle-grade fiction series.

• College students/high school graduates

As great as it is to read fiction about characters your age, I’m already around enough high schoolers. I want to read about college-age students and/or young adults. I feel like there’s a lot more temptations: partying, drugs, sex, and alcohol, that are totally present in high schoolers’ lives, but even more present in college life, especially while you aren’t living in your parents house and don’t have that accountability.

So I’d love to read more about young adults struggling with living for the Lord and not of the world.

• Normal people

Yes, you read that right. I want to see more normal people. And here’s what I mean by ‘normal’ because obviously as Christians, we want to be different, we don’t want to be of the world, right?

What I mean is that I want these teenagers who play football, go to concerts, go on first dates, wear baggy jeans, go to prom, stay out late at night laughing in Waffle House, and live ‘normal’ lives but live them for Jesus.

They don’t need to only wear Christian shirts or be happy all the time, because in the end, they’re still people!

• Prodigal Son retellings

The story of the prodigal son is such a good one and it can be written in so many different ways! You can go all out with the story or make it a more wholesome less-extreme story.

One of my favorite Christian fiction novels is Tristan’s Gap by Nancy Rue. GUYS this book’s portrayal of the Prodigal Son (or daughter, technically) story is fantastic. It’s not preachy, it’s from the POV of the mother, and there’s so many amazing stories going on inside it. Highly, highly recommend this book.

• Adoption stories

I love adoption stories in Christian fiction, but only if it’s sad. And I know that a lot of adoption stories aren’t sad and that a lot of them aren’t stories of abuse or child neglect. But you guys know me—I love sad books.

I think adoption is a beautiful representation of our redemption in Christ, and similar to the Prodigal Son stories, I love when it’s sad and deep and emotional. Stories like the movie The Sound of Freedom make me cry and I don’t know why, but I just love them.

Alright, those are all my thoughts on Christian fiction.

And as I close, I do want to make this known:

I don’t hate Christian fiction and I don’t think it’s bad to write that genre. There’s tons of great examples of Christian fiction, right? But I just have a very specific taste in books and my cringe-tolerance is pretty low when it comes to Christian fiction. (Call it Christian-fiction trauma, if you will.)

So I hope you guys don’t come after me and hate me for saying I don’t love Christian fiction…

I’d tag some bloggers, but everybody I was going to tag has already been tagged, haha! So if you want to continue this tag, then please do.

I hope y’all enjoyed my thoughts on Christian fiction, thanks for reading!
~Willow