Book Review: Fatal Reality

“Only when we stop lying about who we are will we start growing into who we’re supposed to be.” –Kyle Borders, Fatal Reality

In a time where reality shows are ratings gold and “Reality Stars” capture the majority of entertainment headlines comes a new game involving an island, six contestants, a perilous race, and the biggest prize in history. 

There’s just one problem: neither the contestants nor the global audience has a clue a new player has entered the scene and is about to change all the rules. The new stakes? Only the winner will be allowed to live.

Fatal Reality, the debut novel by Jonathan Wakefield, introduces Kyle Borders, a well-known and respected evangelical leader who spends his life teaching how important it is to be real as believers and who joins the game with the hope of winning souls for God’s kingdom. However, like every other human on this planet, there is a secret from Kyle’s past he keeps hidden from everyone — including himself — and Daniel Vatz, a very disturbed individual who knows the truth has taken it upon himself to reveal to the world just how fake Kyle really is.

Joining the mix is an Atheist who believes humanity can only reach its full potential by throwing off the shackles of antiquated beliefs and perceived notions of right and wrong, a Muslim naval intelligence officer seeking Truth, a corporate banker from Chicago who will do just about anything to get to the top, a former NFL football player trying to regain his pride, and a TV host who has never seen beyond himself and his next contract.

Fatal Reality tackles the deadly race from multiple points of view, giving readers the opportunity to see the world through most of the character’s eyes. As with any reality series, you find yourself connecting with and rooting for each of the individuals for various reasons, and leaves you hoping against hope they’ll find a way to put their differences aside long enough for everyone to make it to the end alive.

While there are a few places where Fatal Reality borders on being dialog heavy and thus hampers the action a bit, the book is overall engaging and thought provoking. Readers, like the characters, will find themselves asking how far they would go to protect themselves and the lives of their loved ones, and are brought to the slow realization that the choices we make and the secrets we keep don’t just affect us individually, other lives are impacted as well. It also shows that no matter how far you fall there is always a chance for redemption. Best of all, the book does so without sounding preachy.

At 290 pages, Fatal Reality makes for a good weekend read, and if it offers any clear indication to Jonathan Wakefields’ future endeavors, I would say we have some incredible stories to look forward to.

Hey, Jen...Guess what!?!

I can still remember how sour my stomach felt as I walked through the doors of that conference room in the Denver Hyatt Hotel that November day three years ago. I was meeting the nine other writers who were part of my Craftsman group for the first time and part of our introductions was to give a pitch for the novel we’d spent the last several months working on. The last time I could remember being so nervous was the moment I stood before several hundred people at the district spelling bee in fifth grade — and suddenly forgot how to spell “commit.”

For some reason, at first I was expecting everyone to be older, with families grown or almost grown. Instead I found us split evenly with writers on both sides of 30. One of the Craftsman I met right away was Jon Wakefield, a soft-spoken but enthusiastic husband and father of two squirrelly boys from Virginia. He worked in technology, but he dreamed of being a full-time writer.

Prior to arriving, we’d all submitted our first chapter of our manuscripts and we received a notebook with everyone’s work and some evaluations that were to be completed prior to arriving. The genres varied from suspense, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy…you name it, it was there. One of the things we were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 was our overall interest in continuing reading the story (1 being uninterested and 5 being unable to put it down). After reading Jon’s chapter, I circled “1,” a number he’s never let me forget. (Thought to be fair, I think I only gave out a single 4.)

I learned more about writing working alongside my classmates and authors like James Scott Bell, Jerry B. Jenkins, and speaker/writer C. McNair Wilson during that one weekend than I had in the entire four years I’d spent in college writing classes. We were all stretched tremendously and six months later Jon called to run a new novel idea past me. I was immediately intrigued and told him to send me the first fifty pages when he was done. When he did, I forgot to write notes and had to read through it a second time.

Jon has come even further since then, he has started up his own copywriting business. He has become a leader in his community and spoken in public forums, and I just received a note from him this week telling me his new book Fatal Reality had just been picked up.

Jon isn’t the first writer in my circle to move another step closer to his life’s dream, and he certainly won’t be the last. And nothing gives me more pleasure than celebrating alongside them. Right now I only have articles and short stories to my name but I look forward to the day when I get to call Jon and say, “Guess what!”

Congratulations, Jon. I am incredibly proud of you!