T.L. Hines, Waking Lazarus, Review



T.L. Hines is a very unknown author in the Christian fiction world, yet I can’t see why. I just finished his debut novel, Waking Lazarus, and I have to say, what a novel!

The story is about a man named Jude Allman, who has died three times, and each time has risen back to life. He can’t figure out the reason for this, and soon he ends up changing his identity and becomes a janitor to avoid the press who wants to use him for their own healing.

Soon he gets visited by a girl named Kristina, claiming that he’s something special and has been called by the Lord. Since Jude wasn’t a Christian, it was hard to accept this so he wrote her off as just another fan trying to get healing.

But soon he begins to get visions and he tastes copper just before someone dies. It begins with a guy who gets run over, then a nurse who was about to commit suicide. The visions get creepier as the story progresses, and soon he finds himself rescuing two children from a child kidnapper.

It’s then where things get scary. Jude, the Chief of police, Odum, and Jude’s partner, Rachel, embark on the most dangerous mission of their lives.

The twists in the end will leave you shocked, and they were definitely something I didn’t see coming!

Waking Lazarus is a brilliant thriller/horror novel about God’s perseverance in our lives. It shows that nothing can stop His plans, not even death, as seen when Jude gets hit by lightening, drowns in freezing water, and freezes inside a car.

The content is pretty soft for a novel of this kind. It does get violent, but nothing a young teenager couldn’t handle. Jude dies several times, and gets chased by a man with an ax. Children are seen being held captive in cages, one is chained to a bed and several are stuffed in bags while unconscious, a woman gets shot in the head, and a car falls off a cliff.

I highly recommend Waking Lazarus by T. L. Hines for fans of thriller and horror in the same vein as Peretti and Dekker. And other than a few scenes of violence, there is nothing else you need to worry about,so it’s quite clean. I’d recommend twelve and over, but I doubt they would understand what’s happening; even I didn’t get it at times, and I found a few scenes to be a bit strange.

But overall, Waking Lazarus is a fine testament to God’s faithfulness.


God Bless!