Book Review #4: Rescue: A Supernatural Adventure, Book 1 of The Naga Trilogy by Sean Sanborn

Hello Dear Reader!

I’m back with another book review in record time, because it took me just under two weeks to finish this book! I’m pretty sure. Also, from now on, I’m going to try and take two weeks to finish each book I start reading. So, hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up with that timeline.

With that aside, this book review is on Rescue: A Supernatural Adventure by Sean Sanborn. It’s Book 1 of The Naga Trilogy. I came across this book when Sean messaged me, saying he saw my Instagram post asking if indie authors needed reviews. I said I’d review it for him, he sent me a code for his ebook version, and that’s how I started reading it!

Now, on to the review!

Rescue: A Supernatural Adventure is a unique coming-of-age, supernatural fiction that mainly follows the story of Chaz, a missionary kid who lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In addition to these genres, I guess it could also be considered Christian fiction, because Christianity plays a really important part in multiple situations in the book. This combination of genres is something I haven’t run into before, and it definitely provided an interesting read.

Before I get into the book even more, here is the synopsis of Rescue (from Amazon):

“Chaz is a missionary kid in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chaz’s path intertwines with a village girl named Katya, whom after escaping being sacrificed to a dragon, is sold as a prostitute. Meet a visiting outreach team and fun orphans as you are swept away on a life-endangering journey that will either doom or save a group of desperate villagers. In this coming-of-age story, Chaz encounters mortal-threat, mystery and demon possession, as he learns to hear the voice of God and discover his spiritual giftings.”

End synopsis, and boy do I need to learn to write a shorter back-cover summary like this one.

The main protagonist, whom I actually thought was Katya but realized it was most definitely Chaz, is a middle-school-aged boy who lives Thailand with his parents who are missionaries spreading the word about Jesus. It’s unclear about whether or not he was born in Thailand or if he moved there with his parents. All I know is that they are not Thai, which is cool because they provide a contrast to the Thai culture that is well-described throughout the book.

I’ll be talking more about Katya later, so let’s focus on Chaz.

Chaz really does remind me of me along with a few other people I knew in middle school. He’s an adventurous spirit whose actions can either be categorized as reckless or having been done with previously calculated risk. Evidence for this can be seen every time the waterfall is mentioned in the book, which he climbs quite often. Chaz is also pretty awkward when it comes to girls he likes, which I feel is something a lot of people share.

He is also the middle child of three, the only boy with older sister Nicol and younger sister Sarah. As a person with two younger siblings, I can definitely relate to the bickering and love-hate relationships he has with his siblings, but I probably relate more to his older sister more than him because I’m the eldest child. His relationships with his sisters are some of the most realistic ones I’ve read because my siblings and I pretty much act the exact same way.

The team that visits Chaz and his family in Thailand to help with missionary work also contains people who remind me of people I’ve known in real life. The most memorable people to me were Rosalee, the quiet girl, Ashley, the nice pretty one, Jake, the good-looking nice guy, and Brandon, the dude who does things and starts conflicts seemingly for his own benefit. With a cast of characters like this, there were definitely characters I liked a whole lot more than others. Like Chaz, I did not like Brandon much at all.

A lot of aspects of Thailand were mentioned and described in Rescue, mainly places that vary in location and setting. For example, at the very beginning of the book, we’re introduced to Katya’s village, which is located in a forest near a river, away from any modern cities. The village was very traditional and didn’t contain many modern influences. Many of the families’ homes were huts, and fishing was one of the main ways of getting food. In addition, a spirit doctor lived in the village, and he plays a big role in the reason why Katya left her village at the beginning of the book. Then, we’re introduced to the city of Chiang Mai, full of cars, motor bikes, big buildings, the night market, and the mafia.

Yes, the mafia.

Also, this book touches on more unpleasant things that go on in the country, such as prostitution and the sex slave trade. As much as I want to talk more about this, there would be no way I can avoid spoilers, so I’m going to stop right here.

While there were a lot of things that I really liked in Rescue, there were a few things that stood out in my mind as I was reading. Sentence structures, in my opinion, were rather simplistic, and there were quite a few paragraphs where I noticed that sequential sentences with the same structure would start with either the same name or pronoun. Also, the book started with an entire chapter focused on Katya before switching to a chapter focused on Chaz, so I thought it was going to be one of those books where it switches between each character’s stories every chapter, but I quickly found out after reading five or six chapters that it certainly wasn’t the case. It’s not a big thing, but it was something had got my hopes up and had me a little confused.

The biggest thing for me personally, is that I wish Katya’s side of the story was touched on a bit more. She was introduced and had a whole chapter to herself at the very beginning, had another appearance in another early chapter, and wasn’t mentioned until the second half of the book. I would’ve loved to read more about her along with the more supernatural aspect of this trilogy. I say this because other than the instance of someone who’d been possessed by a demon and one of the characters receiving words from God, there wasn’t too much of it. So, I can only assume there will be a lot more of it in Book 2.

I mean, I was really looking forward to seeing that dragon that was mentioned at the beginning of the book.

Despite these things I noticed, they didn’t take much away from the story, and I really found it enjoyable. I got to learn more about Thailand and its culture and meet characters that remind me too much of people I know in real life. And you know the author has done a good job with developing his characters if they remind you of people you know in real life. Also, Sanborn includes maps of Thailand and the area where Katya’s village is located, a list of all the characters and their descriptions in the beginning of the book and a glossary of all the things that a reader may not know if they don’t know much about Thailand in the back of the book. That shows a lot of care.

So, Rescue rating:

7/10 and considering reading Book 2, because I want to see that dragon and learn more about Katya and the deadly secret that her village keeps that the children don’t know about. If you’re looking for an adventurous coming-of-age novel with a supernatural aspect and has focuses on religion, I suggest you give this book a try!

That is all for this book review! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I really do hope you give Rescue a try.

Thanks for reading!