godless Analysis

St. Andrew Valley is small, any-town USA. It's small enough that Jason seems to be able to walk just about anywhere he needs to go, the same police officer shows up to multiple scenes, and there's...

Our narrator is Jason Bock. He seems like a pretty reliable narrator, as far as first person narrators come. One hint to his reliability is the way he presents us with his own shortcomings and stre...

The main characters in godless are all about sixteen (a.k.a. young adults). They are smack-dab in the middle of figuring out how they relate to their peers, to their parents, to the ideals they wer...

IrreverentIn terms of tone, irreverent is one of the first words to come to our minds. Jason doesn't pull any punches. He says he'd like to be a nun because "you get to wear that cool thing on...

Hautman writes in a straightforward style, using the colloquial language of today's teens: "I walk past my mother, who stares at me as if I'm some sort of freak of nature" (20.25). Yup—walk down...

Jason's final words in the book are: I have a religion, but I have no faith. Maybe one day I'll find a deity I can believe in. Until then, my god is made of steel and rust. (31.52)Our intrepid agno...

At the end of the novel Jason has no more faith than he has in the beginning: "I have a religion, but I have no faith" (31.52). Despite creating a religion and gathering a small flock of believers,...

Jason's a great narrator. He speaks teen in an easily decipherable voice, and there aren't any big words. The only thing a reader might need to bring to this novel is some background in Judeo-Chris...

It's All Fun and Games 'til Someone Invents a New Religion.We meet Jason and Shin in their current world—they are snail-hunting BFFs, smart and smart-alecky (on Jason's part). The social lines...

One summer in his teens, a bored Hautman and his friends made up a mock-religion worshipping the water tower of St. Louis Park, Minnesota. (Source)Pete Hautman is fascinated by mushrooms. (Source)...

In general this book is pretty tame. Jason's dad finds Jason's drawing of Bustella, the Sirian Goddess of Techno War, who is wearing nothing but a sword scabbard; Magda strips down to her bra and p...

Larry Niven (9.50)Vernor Vinge (9.50)Robert Heinlein (9.50)Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (9.47)Tolkien, The Hobbit (9.49)Gary Wills, Why I Am a Catholic (24.10)Analog (25.5)Thomas Merton...