In reading "Godless," I see an aspect of adolescence that is not often considered: that of religion. The main character, Jason Bock, does not know if he is Agnostic or Atheist, but he does know that he does not share his father's religious belief. Jason then decides to create his own religion, and uses the town water tower to represent his new God. Told from a first person perspective, "Godless" explores teens and religion without praising one over the other, or putting any religion down. I admire Hautman's ability to write about a subject that could cause worry in these times without bashing religion. This is a great read that could easily find itself on my classroom bookshelf one day.

Irreverent (obviously) and hilarious, a great book. Not entirely sure of the point of it, but I don't care much since it made me laugh a lot.

A boy bored with Catholicism on a whim decides to start a cult worshipping the massive water tower in his town. So? I’ve read about people seeing the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich.

This YA novel is a swift read of less than 200 pages. But don’t be fooled. The book plunges from the light hearted to the bizarre. With distinctive characters like a holy roller, town bully, nerdy weird kid and the local cutie, Mr. Hautman has crafted a disturbing tale of a joke that gets out of hand, the dangerous behavior that ensues and the power of religious demagoguery over susceptible minds.

It’s both just and unfair when Jason Bock gets blamed for the subsequent problems that befall his friends when he talks them into his fake religion. They all turn from him when things go sour but no one seems willing to take responsibility for their own behaviors or point the finger at Henry Stagg who convinced them to do something truly illegal. Jason has to suffer for his crime (blasphemy or criminal activity?) but in the end he’s more interested in the path and revelations he garnered along the way.

The book surmounts its YA origins to make the reader think about religion: what people hope to gain from it, how it torments the non-believers, afflicts the mind or comforts the soul. But most of all you get to know Jason Bock. He can’t bring himself to accept the easy answers about god and asks very tough and disturbing questions, inquiries any atheist or agnostic will recognize. He’s clever, smart, acerbic and a bit pompous. You might really like him or utterly hate him. In that Mr. Hautman succeeds: he’s given us a fictional being whose ideology lingers past the final page. What a character.

What an interesting concept. As a religious person it is so fascinating to have the elements of religion broken down in this way. Godless takes place in the small town of St. Andrew Valley where Jason Bock is done with Catholicism and decides to create his own religion “Chutengodianism”. The worship is centered around what else but the local town water tower. Things go crazy as could be expected and some hard choices are thrown at the main character Jason. At first look this book is ridiculous boys doing ridiculous things. It is laughable and frustrating. But at a closer glance a deep message about group think and faith comes forward. With quotes like, “‘You know what we need? Some commandments.’ ‘I got enough trouble dealing with the first ten,’ Henry says. ‘Ours will be easier.’” (Hautman, p. 62). You know that there is going to be some interesting commentary on a taboo and close to the belt subject. Though I can’t say I love Godless I definitely think that Hautman deserves props for bringing up a conversation that no one else wanted to have. I also think using teenage boys to have this conversation was really the only smart move.