The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

Title/Author: The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
Publisher/Year published: the Penguin Group 2010
How I got it: I bought it after a month and a half of not buying books (my shelves are overflowing with unread books)
Why I read it: It sounded interesting, I had my eye on this book for some time and now it was finally available in paperback, which is a lot nicer on my bank account.

"Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary."

This is how the book starts. Gripped me right away.

The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a vast and desolate place - a place without joy or hope. Most of its occupants were taken there as boys and for years have endured the brutal regime of the Lord Redeemers whose cruelty and violence have one singular purpose - to serve in the name of the One True Faith.
In the midst of all this there's a boy, of 14 or 15 years old, noone knows exactly, they call him Thomas Cale, but that may or may not be the name his parents gave him. He's beaten down daily and has sort of become immune to the cruelty he meets. Until one day he sees something so unspeakable and takes action against it. After this, the Redeemers will be after his blood and he has to escape the sanctuary, something that no boy has done and lived to tell it.
His only hope is reaching Memphis, a city he's told is sinful, but also has walls that can possibly keep the Redeemers out.
Redeemer Bosco, who has always shown a special interest in Cale, is determined to get him back, whatever the cost.

At the end of the book I was glad to find (on the last page) that this book will have a sequel. This is something that's good to remember while reading it, cause I was trying to figure out how Hoffman would wrap everything up when he only had 100-50-30-3..?? pages left. Which was kinda confusing.

Thomas Cale doesn't have an easy life and at first I really had to get used to the believes of the Redeemers and the logical way their actions followed out of this. And Cale's own actions from the way they 'raised' him.
At first you only glimpse what's seen on the outside, a secretive, strange, violent boy. After a while you get to know him as a boy that hides his character behind this mask and can actually have his gentle moments. I had to remind myself several times this was a 14 year old boy, cause the way he acts is years beyond his age.

At the end I got a glimpse of why Cale was so special to Redeemer Bosco and I'm curious to find out exactly what this is and see how Hoffman continues this story.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this book. I liked it, but I'm still sort of confused by it. I did however enjoy how Cale's character developed as he encountered things he never knew before, like love and adoration.

For now this will get 3.5 stars, I think I need the next book (which will be out January 2011) to form a more solid opinion.