Book Analysis: WHEN THE LION ROARS

Author: DiAnn Mills
Publisher: RiverOak (May 2005; 320 pages; Paperback)
ISBN: 1-58919-030-0
Genre: Fiction/Contemporary

When Paul Farid pilots his plane loaded with relief supplies into one of many southern Sudanese bomb-battered villages, he's prepared to face almost anything... or so he thinks. He's prepared for tough-yet-pretty Dr. Larson Kerr's distrust of Arabs. He's prepared for guerilla Colonel Ben Alier's hatred of anyone once connected with Khartoum's Islamic government. He's even prepared for martyrdom if it will release him from the guilt haunting his tireless missions aiding the people of his homeland.

What no one is prepared for is a surprise attack by Government of Sudan (GOS) helicopter gunships. Paul's plane is riddled with bullets, leaving him stranded. Ben's young sister is kidnapped, and in his attempt to save her, Paul is wounded more seriously than he initially realizes.

In the wake of their grief, tensions escalate. Ben's rage grows hotter against the Arabs, Paul included. Wrestling with a God who seems to allow bad things to happen to good people, Larson relies more and more on Nyok, the young boy Ben has assigned as her "warrior-protector." And Paul finds himself snared in the fragile web of a possible love triangle.

Good scenes end with good hooks that snare readers and pull them into the next scene... and the next... and the next. When the Lion Roars is filled with exactly these kind of scene-ending hooks. My favorite is the lion scene near the beginning. With the stakes unexpectedly elevated in that scene, it was impossible to put the book down until I found out what happened next.Scenes compel readers like that when at the end something changes. New information is introduced via any of the five physical senses. That information changes the whole game. It may raise the stakes. It may simply make it harder for the character to reach his or her goal. But either way, it demands a response, a decision from the character. And when the scene ends immediately before that response occurs or the details of the decision are revealed, readers feel compelled to read on to find out more. They are hooked!

When the Lion Roars is a story of decision akin to a coming-of-age story. It revolves around Nyok (the one major viewpoint character not mentioned on the back cover). Will he join the guerillas or pursue an education? This is the conflict Larson and Ben lock horns over, that spurs them to definitive action, and that injects movement into the larger portion of the book. In a story of decision, characters wrestle over what is the right thing to do. The conflict is secondary to the characters' confusion, unhappiness, and need to commit to a specific decision. Nyok symbolizes the soul and future of Sudan, a topic the characters are very concerned about--when they aren't arguing over who's going to influence the boy's destiny. What will bring peace to the troubled people of the Sudan? It's an issue that Mills doesn't throw easy answers at. Some questions, such as buying back slaves, she leaves unanswered. But it is through Nyok's decision she shows what she believes will help the larger problem.

The theme of the book is all about finding your purpose in life. "Purpose" appears in the first scene, and threads through the thoughts of each major character. Paul, hounded by guilt, has found his purpose but keeps trying to trade it for something more significant. Larson, cast adrift from her childhood faith by bitterness, feels aimless and lacking purpose entirely. Ben's rage has corrupted his purpose and threatens his destiny.

I felt lingering confusion about the story's momentum until I realized the back cover had misled me about the book's true nature. While When the Lion Roars may be marketed as suspense, it possesses few if any of the ingredients of the genre. Genuine suspense stories are stories of conflict, with two sides in opposition over a concrete goal. Larson is a typical Mills heroine: tough and ready to kick butt--the type of character most naturally suited to a suspense story. However, while Larson longs for the girl's return, she takes no action to make that happen, so she doesn't treat it like a goal. Only Ben does anything (mostly off-stage) to find his sister. When he and Paul eventually join forces, it isn't actually to find the girl, but to find out where she is not. The GOS, which would be the antagonist if this were suspense, is a faceless entity with a general, unspecific ambition to wipe out non-Muslims. Their random acts of cruelty and betrayal make the characters miserable, but do not create the goal-specific conflict necessary for action-driven suspense by throwing roadblocks in the protagonists' path. Without deliberate intent on the part of the GOS, their emotional impact as "the bad guys" is minimized, and the kidnapping storyline's momentum downshifts rapidly. That means that even though a lot of human rights abuse and tragedy happens at the hands of the GOS, it doesn't crank up the intensity of emotion in readers that they might expect.

When the Lion Roars caught me up with a fast-paced opening energized by well-crafted scene hooks. After the story changed gears and I figured out what it was really about, I found the theme reminiscent of Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life. Mills' story is mostly successful at simplifying the basic Sudanese conflict for mass understanding without over-simplifying the complex issues radiating from it.