Book Review: The Gospel According to LOST

I recently had the opportunity to read Seay's The Gospel According to LOST as a reviewer for the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program (I was supplied with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review). I'm one of those avid fans of ABC's LOST series and I figured with the amount of analyzing I have done over this show over the past several years that this book would really appeal to me. The scriptural references and parallels that can be made with the LOST series was nothing new to me, and has been discussed in depth on LOST message boards and on a Philadelphia morning radio show (Preston and Steve, anyone?) in the past. LOST is the only show that has sent me running for my Bible to try and get clues for future episodes or a greater insight for the story line. So with that in mind, I was hoping that Seay's book would expand on what I had already discovered through various discussions with other LOST fans. Sadly, I feel he fell short. Seay's premise is good, but it's superficial at best. He attempts to explain the main characters of the LOST story line, but I feel he glosses over some key characters who may actually be larger than their small parts lead you to believe. As far as scriptural references are concerned, I think this book is a little lighter on them than I would have expected. Perhaps I feel this way because I read a lot of Catholic books that are heavy on scriptural references. I would also add that this book is not written from a Catholic standpoint, either. There are a few areas in this book that have statements that are clearly from a protestant standpoint, which makes sense given that it is written by a protestant. The writing style of this book is mildly engaging. I suspect that people, like myself, who have really analyzed LOST down to the last detail will find this book lacking and possibly even boring. In reading the epilogue of this book the author succinctly sums up the reason for this book. He writes "I sometimes wonder if I wrote this book so that I could have a legitimate reason to rewatch LOST episodes while my wife put the kids to bed.". I'd have to say that this is, indeed, probably the driving force behind this book. If the author's analysis had been deeper and more meaningful, I'd say he had a better motive in writing this book, but honestly, I think he did write this as an excuse to shirk his responsibilities as a dad and say "Sorry dear, I can't help you put the kids to bed tonight. I've got to do more research for that book I'm writing on LOST." (Grabs chips and heads for the couch.).