Despite a promising start and an interesting premise, I struggled to finish this book. Not really my cup if tea I'm afraid.

Really enjoyed this book. The writing was brilliant. Thank you net galley for a copy of this title in exchange for a review.

Incredibly poignant.. Call Me Joe brings a biblical past head on with the modern world. Written in a way that brings a subtle calmness to Joe’s character. Cleverly written with an eye-opening message.

The cover of this book was what drew me in straight away, making me need to pick this book up.

One afternoon, the world plunges into darkness, and when the light returns again, so does a man called Joe, who claims to be the son of God.

This book discusses a lot of important issues, like climate change, but the discussion of religion typically isn’t something that I gel well with when reading, and it’s hard to avoid when you’re reading about someone claiming to be the son of God.

I think the characters are interesting enough, but this story does have some unbelievable plot points to it. It’s an okay book, but not really my kind of genre any more.

This book wasn't as well written as I expected and was far too religious for what I would find comfortable. The idea of the story was good, but I found too much preaching about the planet and the damage we continue to inflict.

3.5 stars
A fascinating idea with lots to compare with today’s world. Joe was an interesting character and I really enjoyed reading how others reacted to and around him. I felt the other characters, including Sophie were a little under developed, but felt the mix of science and religion was cleverly written.

Great read but took a while to keep all the characters straight as it opens with lots of characters at the time of the sun going out momentarily. Interesting take on a post apocalyptic event, as not something I would read normally.

Really loved the premise of this book and the start was so enthralling.

I do object to being preached too via fiction though...and the veganism and pollution talks and saving the planet was all a bit too much.  I was hoping for a closer look at humanity and human nature rather than just being lectured on what we are doing wrong with the planet.

At the beginning, I found it difficult to take Sophie seriously given her relatively comfortable lifestyle...it is easy to judge others....she is doing her bit but people can hardly be blamed for wanting to be comfortable in their life and not wishing to forfeit their own livelihoods by getting factories closed down etc.

However as the story moves on it does thankfully become less about preaching and more about discussion.  When Joe is asking people questions...the answers are ones that we would find quite interesting to know. ...and Joe is such an enigmatic charismatic character that it is easy to get swept up in his story.

The rewriting of the Bible was very interesting and loved everything on the island of Teiti.  I loved that some stories were picked out and some were false...it was a very clever weaving of such a huge religious ideology and a new story they were telling here.

I think the story faltered with a few  aspects...the main one being Joe and Sophie's relationship...I was disappointed in the way it unfolded and wish it had been more rounded...as it was so pivotal to our understanding of the story.

The other one was we didn't get enough about the Twelve...we needed to know them better than just a glancing introduction and then them just being mentioned....I would have preferred to know more about then Twelve than what World Leaders were thinking...which felt like putting words into people's mouths and didn't work for me....although no one was named..it was very clear who they were and it felt uncomfortable...we don't know how those leaders would react in this situation and would rather have focused more on the real fiction side.

There was also some confusion about whether heaven existed....at one stage it was categorically said no as you live for the now and later that some people would be rewarded in heaven....this was a bit too important for mixed messages given the tone of the rest of the book.

I enjoyed that the authors did not shy away from hard issues...they stated the answers to the big questions in a very forthright manner and I enjoyed that.  Alot of these types of books shy away at the last minute of actually saying anything controversial and although the ideas were completely unattainable and going from one extreme to another...I appreciated that they stated the answers so strongly.

I did love the across the board acceptance of sexuality and lust...and how it came across as completely authentic and obvious as to why there wouldn't be equality in such matters.

However I was really disappointed with the ending and the preaching going further than we thought....I did feel to some extent I had been duped into reading the book...I am all for fiction making us think but I do object to being preached too and for being manipulated to a degree and maybe the book should be marketed as a plan to save the planet rather than fiction and at least people can go into it actually understanding what they are reading.

I would like to read a similar book...that is as intelligent and creative as this one..but without the hidden message and attempt at indoctrination.   Even if it is for the greater good...it doesn't make it okay.

I think many of us would come to the same conclusion of the save the planet message when reading the book without the attempt to recruit us and show that there was an ulterior motive to the book.   I just wanted to read an interesting piece of fiction that made me think about wider issues...I didn't need the extra sermons and thought the overall message was diluted hugely because of these.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Call Me Joe by Martin Van Es and Andrew Crofts is set in the future a little, where environmentally things are worse, which has resulted in things like butterflies nearly dying out.  One day, the sun goes out, and then a man appears, who claims to be Jesus returned.  He has ideas about how humanity needs to change their ways, and a lot of people listening to him.

There's political skewering, where you can spot various famous politicians (*cough* Trump, Putin and Jacinda Ahern *cough*), and a lot of what Joe says is about how humanity can and should improve.

I was reading this book, and had to pause to check if I had stumbled into Christianity section as this is quite a religious story, obviously, considering we have Jesus returned.

I wasn't a huge fan.  I found it to be preaching to me, which in places is a good point, but I didn't find the story to have many twists to it, which I feel it needed.

 Call Me Joe  was published on 1st March, and is available on  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

I'm afraid I couldn't find anywhere for you to follow Martin Van Es.

You can follow Andrew Crofts on his  website  and  Twitter .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and  Red Door Press .

Loved this book from the first page. Kept me gripped and I just wanted to find out what happened next. Surprisingly accurate (in my opinion) regarding the heads of state around the world ~ especially in the current climate. Would love to see a follow up to the one.

First of all let me apologise to the publishers and netgalley, I have had this ARC on my shelf for far too long but am very grateful for the opportunity to review it. I would like to add that I have read this book from my POV as a committed Christian.

The narrative starts by plunging the world into darkness for a period of 12 minutes (the number 12 will become important to the continuing narrative) the return of light is accaompanied by the arrival of a man dressed in strange clothes with long hair and beard, variously described as tramp or hermit. In fact this man turns out to be the Son of God returning to the Earth as promised in Religious scripture .

The first half of the book for me felt like a "chintzy" portrayal of the return of Jesus more on a par with the "kitch" of Cath Kitson, Laura Ashley or the Moonlight and Roses of Romantic film. The Son of God felt too imperturbable and I was really not a fan of the drawing out of his sexuality in his relationship with Sophie. I also felt there was an over reliance on the number 12 - which in my reading of the bible only refers to the apostles, many more numbers are important in those sacred writings. Jesus spent 40 days in the dessert facing 3 temptations, He performed 28 miracles and importantly in this storyline revealed only 10 commandments to Moses.

I was prepared to dislike the book, it felt full of incongruities, at one point I very nearly gave up but I can now admit to being rather hypercritical. The Author(s) draw together an excellent account of events in the second coming to show that the world is becoming (or already is) a place where we have created bubbles around ourselves that fail to see the needs of others or the affects of our actions on the world as a whole. They show a loving god who encountering things in the modern world such as homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia creates a reasoning where such things can be accepted. Along with world and religious leaders a new 12 (again) Agreements are drawn up to show how the world could flourish if everyone agreed upon their necessity.

In the end it is a truly visual and unique way to highlight the need for us to pull together. I don't know whether I would call it a Christian or an ecological / environmental narrative but it certainly does work well. It is not a book I will forget in a hurry. The staying of something in my mind after reading it would usually merit a very high rating but I am struggling to give this 4 or 5 stars because of its very slow start. I do wish rating could include fractions as I would definitely say more than 3.

Couldn't finish this despite 2 attempts, the premise sounded great, but it just wasn't for me unfortunately, I found that it dragged and I just couldn't get into it, even though I hate leaving a book unfinished.
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my copy in return for my honest review.

A loose plot about the second coming off christ into the modern world. Well known politicians of today are parodied very nicely and their actions are pretty much what we would expect if this event actually happened. There is a lot of lecturing about all the things mankind is doing wrong, from the environment to poverty, which appears to be the point of the book

This was most definitely a book out of my comfort zone but nonetheless a wonderful experience. It kept me interested all the way and I wanted to read more and more of it.
It is definitely a read I would recommend, specially for those looking for a message of hope and empowerment. It is quite religious and honestly speaking, I am not quite prone to believe in lots of it but I am glad I got to read it and discover different perspectives.
Call Me Joe is so well written that it got me hooked and it did make me like to believe that there is someone out there trying to change the world for the better.

An interesting concept for a book, but I did not feel it really got to grips with the ideas it is trying to promulgate. Too much about the hero worship round the Joe figure and not about the serious concerns affecting the world.

When the sun goes out for 12 minutes no one in this cleverly written book could possibly predict what happens next . When the sun reappears, so does a man called Joe - a man supposedly with nothing. Such a pertinent and powerful read especially this year. A very smart offering that deserves a global platform.

Loved this book from the first page. Kept me gripped and I just wanted to find out what happened next. Surprisingly accurate (in my opinion) regarding the heads of state around the world ~ especially in the current climate. Would love to see a follow up to the one. Would also love it if this was true and the world could work together towards better times!!!!

I recieved a copy from Netgalley in return for an honest review. Call Me Joe is an extraordinary read where you will be plunged into the problems of our current lifestyles. The author boldly explains all the flaws in our system and way of life.

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi

One day the whole world is in darkness for 13 minutes before the sun appears again. Sarah is a school teacher and she loves her students. They meet a stranger in white robes who claims to be the son of god. The children later decide to call him Joe. Poltical leaders all over the world are exasperated and in mayhem. Joe's appearance and the sun's short dissappearance makes them all fear that their leash on people would break and that their power will be extinguised.
She had discovered that when powerful people become fearful they tended to lash out.

Charecters
Apart from Joe and political and religious leaders, the charecters of the books seemed undevoloped. Sarah is an intruiging charecter but she falls for the son of god too soon and I really didn't think her relationship with Joe was necessary. It seemed unnatural and awkward. The 12 acolytes' charecter development was okay.

“Don’t waste your time reading other people’s opinions of this,” Joe said, kindly. “They will either flatter you or annoy you. You know what happened; you don’t need to know what other people think about it.”

Plot
The plot is fast and very intersting. I loved the idea of this story and the way the author expresses our concerns in a strong willed and confident way.
World Building
The world building was vast but lacking a bit. Although the potrayal of the world if such an incident were to occur, would be exactly as the book has conveyed.
Relationships
Joe is a humble man and the idea of the son of god in a relationship was a bit uncomfortable to read, as he and sophie are not truly in a romantic realtionship. But the way the other charecters relationship with one another and the accuracy of the way politicians would react, was accurate and entertaining.

“Treat nature like you treat the people you love.”

Conclusion
What I like was the guidelines they proposed and I would definitely recommend it for everyone who is interested to be given a morale to which our life should be based upon. Changes cannot happen with an individuals effort. It has to be all of us united against the doom that we are creating just by existing.

I am rating it 3 stars for the lack of charecter building and because Joe's invlovement in consumption of drugs and acceptance to society's need for lust. This didn't sit well with me nor Sophie.

“It is harder to persuade people to do what we want if they are all united,” he spat the final word out like it was poison.

This is an amazing book and one that I have already recommended to everyone I've had a conversation with. Reading such a thought provoking book in the midst of a pandemic felt weirdly prophetic and certainly added an extra element of realism and questioning. It has been a very long time since I have read a book that has opened up so many interesting thoughts and discussions and whilst I do not consider myself to be religious the way that these elements are handled is both respectful and interesting.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who likes to think and engage their mind in deeper reflection. It may just be the nudge that we all need to live that little bit better.

It was a thought-provoking, well written enjoyable read. It was a bit too much about religion in my opinion. But, nevertheless, it was a good story.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.