Review: Stranded

About the book:
Kazakhstan is on the brink of civil war, and Elders Schofield and Johnson need to get out ASAP. But when their train explodes, all the evidence points to the missionaries! With terrorists on their trail and the whole country against them, the elders’ only refuge is the US Embassy in Astana—800 miles away. Fans of “The Saratov Approach” will love this jaw-dropping thriller.


About the author:
Born and raised in Springville, Utah, the first time Nathan Huffaker boarded a plane was when he left home to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kiev, Ukraine. The two years he spent in Kiev later helped him to base parts of “Stranded” on his missionary experiences. Huffaker recently graduated from Utah Valley University with a degree in English and now resides in Spanish Fork, Utah, with his wife and five kids.

From Reidhead Randomness:

This was a fun book!  It takes you on quite the emotional, action, adventurous journey.   You follow Elders Johnson and Schofield on their journey in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

 I looked up Almaty, Kazakhstan on a map/Wikipedia:  (It is a country in Central Asia, with its smaller part west of the Ural River in Europe.^[3] Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country by land area and the ninth largest country in the world; its territory of 2,724,900 square kilometres (1,052,100 sq mi) is larger than Western Europe.^[3][7] It has borders with (clockwise from the north) Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea.).  So that gives you a quick idea of where this book takes place.

Stranded has many teaching moments.  In the very first chapter, there is a great example of how missionaries should teach by the Spirit, rather than argue...which drives the Spirit away.  It also tells much about the culture of Almaty, like the wearing of slippers in the house, and how guests are expected to wear them too.

This was a very exciting book that I tried not to read at night because I couldn't put it down.  I would stay up way too late reading!  The story moves very quickly and you are half way through the book before you even know it!



I received the book in order to be able to do a review, however all opinions expressed are my own.