After a shocking courtroom tragedy, a disturbed Vietnam veteran and the vindictive judge who sent him to prison become an unlikely pair of time travelers in a chaotic multiverse. The fallen angel who rescues them wants to guide them to a radiant new life. But first they must return to the scene of a ghastly crime.
Billy Worster was a naïve teenager ill-prepared for the gruesome realities of war. The sole survivor of a deadly massacre in a Vietnamese jungle, he avoided certain death only because he ran away when the shooting started. Riddled with guilt, he comes home to a dusty Texas farm with post-traumatic stress disorder and the crazy notion that he can fly in and out of parallel worlds.
As Billy struggles with addiction and questions his sanity, he is arrested on a drug charge and ends up in the courtroom of Judge Madeline Johnston, a bitter old judge tormented by a dark secret surrounding her father’s death. She callously tosses Billy into prison, but when a greedy executor files a lawsuit to steal his inherited land, Billy is hauled back to her courtroom in chains, where a stunning twist of fate launches them into the sky on an odyssey of discovery and healing.
Spanning forty years from the jungles of Vietnam through infinite, parallel worlds, Rip the Sky examines how the power of forgiveness can lead us toward a better life, no matter how many worlds we may live in.
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This book touched me in many different ways, and some were surprising. We’ve all known a Billy at some point in our life—A person who is a little slow, has no confidence, is pimply-faced, poor, and slightly touched in the head. That is the main character in this story, Billy Worster, and I found myself immediately rooting for him.
Billy couldn’t seem to catch a break no matter what.
Drafted into the military fresh out of high school, he’s forced to grow up fast and furious in the VietNam jungle with a rifle in his hand. He quickly learns what it’s like to live in constant fear. In a blazing battle, Billy loses his best friend, is severely wounded, and is sent home with a purple heart, a crippled leg, and an honorable discharge. But Billy now has a secret, one he won’t tell no matter what.
The trauma of watching his buddies die gruesome deaths sends him spiraling into depression and addiction, with horrific bouts of PTSD. The author depicts those episodes in living color and shows Billy’s desperation to escape them with drugs and alcohol. Then, as things spiral more out of control and Billy loses his tenuous grip on reality, the story takes off in an intriguing and mind-boggling way.
I found myself highlighting sections of the narrative because they stood out so profoundly.
Billy can fly. Not physically, but through his mind, those journeys take him to fascinating places where he learns things and meets others he cannot possibly know in his human form. He discovers a place called Eden, where profound self-discovery begins.
There were several characters intertwined in Billy’s life that drew me. Rachel, the kind benefactor who gives Billy a job and a place to live, is someone I immediately related to. She wants Billy to succeed. “No drinking on the job,” she tells him sternly. And he tries, finally opting to join AA. She offers Billy a lifeline that unfolds in a big way.
His AA sponsor is another character who tries hard to help Billy. There is an attorney who is Billy’s drinking buddy, but he plays an integral part in the story. Then, some vile characters torture Billy, make fun of him, and do everything in their power to destroy him.
With his lifestyle of drug and alcohol use, inevitably, Billy gets sideways with the law. But nothing can prepare him for the stern Judge Madeline Elaine Johnston. In her courtroom, his life takes another downward spiral.
The judge is an interesting and complex character. The author does a great job of taking the reader into her mind, showing her struggles and grief that she keeps buried underneath her black robe.
And yet, Billy and Judge Johnston connect in unlikely ways that challenge the logical mind.
No one believes Billy when he says he can fly, and no one imagines that we might possibly live different lives in parallel universes. But can we? When you read this book, that question will be raised, and your beliefs will be challenged.
I loved this book from start to finish. The characters are well-developed and believable. The scenes are well-written and compelling, and the storyline is intriguing.
I’ll end this review with a quote from the author, “The truth is we can only find our best life by forgiving ourselves for the harm we cause and doing right by others. There is plenty of hate, violence, and anger in the world, and forgiving it all seems impossible. But I truly believe there is a light inside of us that we share, a patch of Eden, so to speak. We all need to gather there and learn to love one another.” Amen, Mr. Packard!
