The White Line - J.S. Helms - ★★.¾

AUTHOR: J.S. Helms

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: May 5, 2026

RATING: 2.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A Christian novella about the power of faith and forgiveness. A contemporary retelling of the Book of Jonah from the Bible. I liked most of the story but the writing didn’t work for me. The ending was a disappointment. Not a light read. I wish I could have liked this better because it has a powerful message. Recommended, but not to everyone. Triggers for human and animal deaths.

Plot Preview:

Even after a family tragedy, Jonas continues in his pastoral work, ensuring the spiritual health of the locals as the Pastoral Care Coordinator at Grace Street Ministry. But while he has grace and forgiveness for those he serves in the community, he hasn’t found it in his heart to forgive certain people from his past. When he is asked to minister to death row inmates – one of whom is a man whose crime mirrors the tragedy that devastated Jonas – he refuses and runs. But God works in mysterious ways and Jonas soon finds himself questioning his decision.

The story comes to us in the third-person perspective of several characters, though a major chunk of the narrative comes from Jonas.

I love the concept of this book. The Book of Jonah in the Bible isn't a typical prophet narrative as Jonah is a prophet who questions God and doesn’t immediately do as he is told. Even at the end of his story, we don’t see his redemption or regret. Using Jonah as the inspiration for a contemporary retelling is hence a fascinating concept. To a great extent, the plot of this novella does justice to the original story. However, a book cannot be judged on plot alone. Unfortunately, I struggled with the writing in this novella.

Bookish Yays:

🥰 The novella as a retelling. Just like Jonah’s story has four chapters, this novella has four “Acts”, which contain parallels to Jonah’s experiences to some extent or the other.

🥰 Jonas as a character. I never related to Jonah but I could relate to Jonas and I found his pain justifiable. If I were in his place, I too would have run away from that assignment. I actually felt sorry for him in this story. His flawed portrayal helped retain the spirit of Jonah’s experiences.

🥰 Some of the secondary characters, specifically Lana, Earl, Jamie, and Minerva. I wish there had been more of each of them.

🥰 The faith content, using a fair mix of biblical verses as well as real-life implementation of God’s teachings. One scene I especially liked spoke about how we are here on earth fulfilling a responsibility given by God. Though short, that entire scene was beautifully written.

Bookish Okays:

🤔 The portrayal of how God’s grace works in our lives, even when we cannot see it. I must say, this is a very complex topic and it is not easy for a novella to do justice to all the nuances of this theme. But it does a fair job handling at least a part of it, though I cannot say that all my doubts about divine mysteries were answered. (Then again, no one on earth will be able to answer these.)

🤔 The book leaves a lot unsaid, which is intriguing as well as frustrating. In some cases, the character himself doesn’t know the details of an incident, so the lack of detailing can be justified. But in another case, I definitely wanted to know more of what led to such a decision.

Bookish Nays:

😣 The frequent head-jumping. Jonas presents the main third-person perspective, but the story jumps to several characters in between. The shift in narrative to their POV doesn’t always work smoothly, especially as some POVs are just a few paragraphs long. Most shifts happen between sections but at times, headjumping occurs within a single page. This might not affect many readers, but I find it tough to concentrate when the narrative isn't from a steady perspective (whether single or multiple.)

😣 A lot of telling in the writing. I can let some telling go, but when combined with headjumping, I found it distracting.

😣 The lengthy time span that the plot covers, which is confusing at times as the passage of time isn't always clear and comes to us only with vague clues such as “a few weeks”.

😣 The ending. While I get that this mirrors the finale of Jonah’s story, it feels abrupt and incomplete in a fictional novel. It needed more.

😣 While there are several deaths in the book, I found one very tough to handle. (You’ll know which one if you read the book.) This felt unnecessarily brutal, and given who was involved, also needlessly painful. I wish another option had been chosen to correlate to Jonah’s experience with the vine plant.

Overall, this story had its heart in the right place, but the writing style and certain plot inclusions didn’t work for me. Most of the writing issues could be fixed with a strict round of editing. Then again. not all readers are as fussy about writing, so those who mainly look at the plot could still find this a thought-provoking read.

It helps to know Jonah’s story if you have to appreciate this better as a retelling. But the book can also be read as a standalone.

Recommended only to devout Christian readers who aren’t fussy about writing styles. Do note that the book contains a few triggering scenes and doesn’t offer many clarifications. Pick this up if you want something to ponder over, not if you are looking for easy answers.

2.75 stars. (3.5 stars for the plot, 2 stars for the writing. Averaged. I’d have rated the plot higher had the ending been different and that triggering death not been a part of the narrative.)

My thanks to the author for providing a complimentary digital review copy of “The White Line” via BookSirens at my request. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.