Catholic Review of: Catholic Reluctantly

Browse the teen section of a bookstore at your own risk. Outnumbering the classics are novels flaunting sex, materialism, even the occult. So when I learned about the John Paul 2 High and Fairy Tale Novel series—both by Catholic authors—I wanted to know more.

The Shadow of the Bear and Black as Night are the first two volumes in Regina Doman’s Fairy Tale Novel series. The Shadow of the Bear is based on the Grimms’ fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red," and Black as Night on their "Little Snow White" (more familiarly, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves"). Instead of "Once upon a time, in a land far away," it’s "Once upon a time, in New York City." In both novels, we follow two sisters, Blanche and Rose Brier, on their fantastic adventures in New York City.

These are Catholic stories. The Briers are a Catholic family, and it comes through in how the girls make decisions, treat their mother, and interact with others. They learn and grow, and they rely on their faith to sustain them in difficulty. In both novels, characters interact with priests and religious who are multi-dimensional characters, not simple stereotypes. For example, Black as Night finds one of the sisters, Blanche, hiding out in a rough neighborhood, staying with friars who serve the poor. I haven’t met many stories that take readers into friaries or soup kitchens or city missions, and Doman does a great job describing these scenes and developing the friars’ characters.

Blanche and Rose encounter some of the same temptations and challenges as your average teen: peer pressure, drugs, sex. But in their adventures, they also face danger, violence, and evil. Characters are threatened and kidnapped; one narrowly escapes date rape. It is worth noting that Doman works to write in such a way that an innocent reader won’t lose her innocence reading the novel. (The attempted date rape scene, for example, is written such that an innocent reader could easily think that the character simply didn’t want her date kissing her, not recognizing that he had other intentions.) The Brier girls face interior challenges as well, and learn about love and courage. Doman’s books dispel any notion that being Catholic has to be boring.

On the more literary end of things, there are some elements I would’ve liked to see more polished. For example, I would have liked a new set of characters in Black as Night—not because I didn’t like the characters in The Shadow of the Bear, but because I thought the characters from that book weren’t a great match for the frame story of Black as Night. One character in particular was inhibited from continuing the growth she began in The Shadow of the Bear. It seemed like she had to regress a little in order to fit the role that the fairy tale called for.

You don’t have to love fairy tales to enjoy Doman’s Fairy Tale Novels. In fact, a reader expecting a Disney-esque fairy tale might find herself surprised by these gritty, real-world stories. Luckily, though, as in fairytales, the girls do live happily ever after.

Catholic, Reluctantly is the first title in the John Paul 2 High series by Christian Frank. I found it so engrossing that I read it in one sitting.

The premise is that a few Catholic parents have formed a new Catholic school. John Paul 2 High School opens its inaugural year in a rundown school building with seven students—not all of who want to be there. One student had to give up sports to attend. Another is the principal’s daughter. A third came because of a gun scare at the local public high school. A couple more came from home schooling families that wanted to support the venture. All of them are believable characters. I recognize them from my own high school experience, and I recognize them from my years as a youth minister. They’re Catholic, but Frank doesn’t pretend that "Catholic" equals "canonized."

Throughout the novel, the teens face moral challenges and have to make real—and difficult—decisions. They deal with pornography, bullying, jerk boyfriends, and the fallout from divorce. In the process, they learn about friendship, faith, and virtue. Like Doman, Frank deals with the tough issues honestly but carefully.

The plot is part mystery, part adventure: Not only do we follow the students through their everyday challenges, but the school itself faces opposition from city officials and from a mysterious "poltergeist." Frank fills the plot with plenty of intrigue and leaves a few loose ends for the next book in the series to pick up. I recommend Catholic, Reluctantly as an entertaining, enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to future volumes.

The only drawback to all three of these novels is their cost. They are far more expensive than mass-market paperbacks, coming from smaller publishing houses that can’t produce and move the volume that large publishing houses can. But they still need our support and encouragement if we want to see growth in good, well-written Catholic stories.

-Sarah Rozman (from Lay Witness magazine. www.cuf.org)

You can purchase this title here.