Click here to read the corresponding review written by author and journalist Scott Monk.
The Blood Miles focuses on Chris Walker who lives in a land infected by the Tox. The Tox makes nasty cysts appear all over people’s bodies and affects their brains. However Central promises the Cure from the Tox and will soon initiate the Great Cleansing to get rid of all the Tox in the world. Chris is infected with the Tox, and so The Blood Miles follows his journey to try and find Central, but he comes across many roadblocks along the way. He also comes across things that make him question who he is and where he came from. Will he ever find Central? What really is the Tox? And will he learn the ugly but true secret about him and all of humanity?
Late last year, my dad asked if I wanted to review The Blood Miles. To be honest, it was a bit boring to begin with and it took me a good while to get into it. I think it was due to the fact I had to read it, and so didn’t like it in principle. There were also a lot of characters and places that were introduced, so that took a while to wrap my head around. At one point I think Chris was travelling with two other people whose names started with C, so that was a bit confusing, and I put it down for a while after 100 pages.
The Blood Miles
Andrew Moody
Pilgrim’s Progress meets Mad Max in this post-apocalyptic roadtrip. On the day he saves his fortress town from raiders, Chris Walker makes a devastating discovery that will overturn everything he believes and force him to leave the safety of his home. As he heads out into a shattered land, Chris must fight for his life and battle his own demons. Will he find a cure for the Tox that is spreading through his nervous system? Will he finally learn the terrifying truth of its origin? Can he put his trust in the mysterious Envoy and his promises?
However, when I picked it up again I began to enjoy reading it and saw the deep Christian values and storyline in the book. The more I read, the more that I got invested in it and the more I understood the Christian undertones. I think I read for two hours straight one day, hungrily turning pages and hanging on for the next piece in the puzzle.
Some Christian themes were more obvious than others, like the Envoy being Jesus who offers everyone a cleansing from the Tox (sin). There were other things too, like how people didn’t like those who were trying to get to the cure, even arresting them just for believing in Central. Many people in the book didn’t believe in a cure, but Chris felt better and stronger believing in it, relating to the reality of feeling stronger knowing God and living a fulfilling life.
Overall, I found The Blood Miles interesting both in its characters and plot. On one page Chris is blind, then on the next he’s getting shot at by some people in a van. There are fast-paced action scenes virtually every chapter, and also mystery and suspense: will Chris ever find Central? Now, I won’t spoil the ending, but I must admit that I am still wondering about it. It was very intriguing and didn’t reveal everything about what happened.
I think that if I gave The Blood Miles to one of my non-Christian friends, they could read it as a normal book and not necessarily pick up on how Christian this book was. I found it kind of like a modern-day The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
