The Seat Beside Me
by Nancy Moser

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian suspense

The five survivors of a place crash deal with the survivor’s guilt and other difficulties in their lives as they try to understand why they lived when others died.

My husband bought this book on a whim, and I really didn’t know what to expect or even what the book was completely about, given the official synopsis. The book starts like a 90s disaster movie, in which we’re introduced to various people who are going to be on the plane and shown a glimpse of their lives pre-disaster. By the end of the first quarter, I was crying, and not just a little. Moser does a great job keeping the suspense and emotions high during the tragedy and immediate aftermath. At that point, I wasn’t really sure what the rest of the book was going to be about, but following the survivors as they tried to process the trauma and get back to life was more interesting than I expected it to be. And it all came together beautifully in the end.

There are probably more Christians or people who believe in God but haven’t given their lives over to Him than would normally exist in a sample group of this size, but I can accept that the author is exploring different dynamics with the people who survived, those they shared their last minutes with, and those they talk to or meet afterward. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes Christian fiction that explores trauma, loss, and guilt.

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