The preacher who pursues his agenda out of an outsized sense of personal vanity, or the (former) friends who glory in their maliciousness, are easy to hold up as antagonists (and I’ll confess that at times, I found it hard to separate from my adult sensibilities and remember the helplessness of being a teenager). And it’s easy to identify with Ms. Shepherd, who, far from being intimidated by the manufactured conflict, is both prepared and determined to remain unbowed in her desire to speak the truth against irrationality.

Sounds like the author went with some pretty stock villains and heroes. Why does the preacher need to be vain? I know plenty of Creationist preachers who defend it simply because they believe it to be true, not out of some personality flaw. And while the malicious teenagers may be more true-to-life, it does sound a little too much like she was just writing in Mandy Moore’s character from “Saved!”

Granted, I haven’t read the book to know the nuances of the character development, but these stereotypes do seem just a tad obvious, don’t they?