Scary Close – Donald Miller: Review

Scary Close is the new book from renowned author Donald Miller (famous for Blue like Jazz). While popular Donald exists on the outside of mainstream Christian culture and has more than his fair share of critics, mainly because he is not afraid to ask questions and admit to his doubts and flaws. Personally I am fan of his raw honesty. And Scary Close sees him at his most honest.
It has been several years since the last book by Donald Miller, and in that time he got engaged, then married and along the way learnt a lot about himself, his faith and the challenges of being an introverted writer dating an extrovert. This is a fantastic insight into his journey of discovery as he went from being a person with a string of broken relationships to a now happily married man, looking at the bad habits he had to break and the self-doubt and insecurities he had to come.
There is a lot to learn from, and while this is written from a Christian perspective it isn’t an overtly “Christian” book – obviously the basics of Christian teaching about marriage/fidelity/avoiding adultery are there, but it is not rammed full of bible verse. Some Bible stories do get mentioned along with the lessons Donald learnt from them, but this is a book that is not restrictive to a Christian audience – the lessons on good relationships would be useful for all regardless of their faith, and Donald’s openness in sharing where he goes wrong may even be refreshing for non-Christian readers to see that we don’t all pretend that we have it all together.
I feel this book is of particular benefit from those who are in serious relationships and are thinking towards marriage, there is a lot of wisdom from lessons Donald learnt about the challenges faced in making that transition from dating to marriage, and especially for introverts. In particular about how the way to have true intimacy in a relationship is to first realise who you really are – not who you are trying to be, but who God made you to be.
I really appreciated his openness and how he shares events from his life and wisdom that has been spoken into his life by friends. His writing style is as ever very conversational and he recounts many conversations with friends which relay insight in a way most writers can’t. For fans of Donald Miller or those in serious relationships Scary Close is a must read.
Scary Close is out now in the USA and in ebook, in paperback in the UK on March 12th

I was given a copy of this book by BookLook Bloggers. All opinions are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.