Review/Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

When Brie's sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie's world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.

As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.

I probably wouldn’t have picked up this book on my own if it hadn’t been on the Contemp Challenged. What I found was a so so book about the loss of a sister. The plot revolved around Brie’s search for the truth about how Faith died. While the premise of the plot was different, I am afraid that the plot was not enough to fully engage me primarily because of the characterization.

From the start, Brie’s connection to Faith was pretty non-existent. Faith and Brie’s parents were quite religious while Brie was not. I found it hard to accept that after Faith’s death, that Brie suddenly had an all consuming desire to figure out exactly how Faith died. Her motives just didn’t ring true. I also had a hard time with the connection to Alis, who slowly became Brie’s love interest. One character I did like was Tessa, but again I really couldn’t wrap my head around the relationship that Brie and Tessa developed over the course of the story.

One thing I did like about the book was Jaden’s ability to create suspense, which she did throughout the book. However, I really wanted more about the cult. The ending was exciting and exposed the cult enough to satisfy most of my questions. I was also impressed with how Jaden handled the religious aspect of the book, never preachy, she does explore the possibility that sometimes religion can turn into over zealousness and lose touch with the true meaning of faith.

Although Losing Faith did not totally engage me, I feel that it is a book that will appeal to the YA audience, and that the book more than establishes Jaden as a strong voice in contemporary YA fiction.