Review of “Flight 316” by Maurita Burgett

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

Could you imagine being stuck in an elevator with THE Adam from The Bible?
What if you could talk to a man who has seen God face-to-face?
​What kinds of stories would he tell you?
Would you believe him? Would you think he was crazy? What would you ask him?

Flight 316 actually surprised us with its terrifically intriguing premise. The execution was a little rough, but not offensively so (like another Bible-based novel we read this month that made us feel like tearing our hairs out by the end). This, at least, was pleasant and well-meaning. It was unaggravating save for some light feminism, occasional foul language, and slight tweaks concerning Bible characters like Simon of Cyrene.

Flight 316 follows Grace Jackson, an internationally-renown psychologist and therapist. Grace grew up as a devout, semi-obsessive Christian who became drastically disillusioned with the faith and God as she encountered more negativity in her life and in the world (extreme poverty, famine, disease, war, etc.). She asked herself why God would allow such terrible things to happen including to good people. She started to question if God existed at all and if her faith may have been misplaced.

By the time we meet her in the book, she's between being an agnostic and an atheist. We're told that she actively denounced the belief in God in her writings and interviews, painting believers as been misguided, superstitious, or possibly even mentally ill.

On a fateful flight from Dallas, Texas to Honolulu, Hawaii, Grace encounters and sits next to a strange man who smells of leather and cinnamon. Sparking a conversation, the two quickly develop a level of trust and intrigue in each other. However, the conversation takes a dramatic turn when the man in question claims that he is THE Adam from The Bible, the very first man and human being!

Grace reacts the way that many of us would, with a mixture of shock, fear, unease, and curiosity. She begins to think that Adam is suffering from a mental illness or possibly even some sort of head injury/trauma like many of her clients.

When he insists and speaks about being the first man with stern certainty and seriousness, Grace retreats and initially refuses to sit with him until a long thinking process and an intervention by one of Adam's employees (who is also on the flight). The employee reveals that Adam never seems to age and says that they all came him “Dorian Gray” jokingly.

Now, this whole set up in the beginning is good to great. However, after that, it starts to become pretty shaky.

First of all, the whole mystery and surprise gets lost too soon. That was a bit of a bummer. It would've helped if we had a little more build and suspense leading up to the big reveal.

However, we almost immediately flash back to THE literal Adam in THE literal Garden of Eden with THE literal Eve living with THE literal God. So, there's no mystery, suspense, or surprise of who Adam really is.

He's not mentally ill, delusional, or pulling Grace's chain.

We learn that Adam has been alive for practically all of human history, having encountered many of the patriarchs, apostles, and important Biblical figures like Samuel, John the Baptist, Peter, and Jesus himself!

It also turns out that Adam has been disguising himself under different pseudonyms like Simon and has been involved in various events throughout time including being there at the crucifixion.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in this book are the descriptions and background information of the Garden of Eden and the Fall. We get a decent idea of what Eden may have been like. One of our favorite things is that Adam seems to have a lion pet named Simeon who kinda acts like a Golden Retriever.

We also get a little more motivation behind why Eve was tempted by Lucifer/Satan/the snake and why she made the choice that she did.

It's actually a decent explanation.

Many of us would've made the same choice if someone threatened our kids and family members. It reminded us a little bit of how Luke raged out in Return of the Jedi when Vader threatened to turn Leia.

However, the temptation scene also points out how cartoonish some of this book is. Satan literally spreads his arms, dances, and sings while he's tempting Eve like he's the Genie from Aladdin. Later in the book, there are some other cartoonish moments like the whole Jesus-laying-the-smackdown-in-Hell thing. It just seemed more like something you'd see in a Japanese anime than in a serious biblical work.

So, there are some warnings we'll give you depending on your world view and sensibilities:

- There's a bit of a feminist twist to the creation and existence of Eve that the narrative seems to be needlessly fixated on.

- The book seems to have an anti-abortion message, advocating for the “rights of the unborn.” That may offend some people and delight others depending on if you're pro-choice or pro-life.

- There's a surprising amount of foul language in this supposedly-Christian book that may put off more traditional Christian readers

This book also begs the question: What the heck were other passengers thinking with this seemingly-crazy passenger claiming he's the son of God? Like, when you're on a plane, you can hear everyone. No one thought this was alarming? And why did Adam choose a busy plane of all places to meet someone to have a supposedly-secret and supposedly-sensitive conversation?

Like, it sounds good in concept, but when you step back and think about it, it becomes a bit funny.

The book does provide some interest and intrigue, attempting to answers questions like:

Why suffering/bad things happen?
What was God's actual plan/goal in regard to dealing with Jesus?
What was Satan's actual plan/goal in regard to dealing with Jesus?
What did Jesus' spirit/soul do while he was dead?
Why did Jesus have to die?
Why was Peter given so much props in there church despite denying Christ three times?

We actually enjoyed this book and what the author was trying to accomplish. This is a work of Christian fiction that draws mostly-positive attention to The Bible and Jesus, which we can definitely commend and get behind.

Check it out on Amazon!