Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

The Sacrifice Zone by Roger S. Gottlieb is a novel that highlights spirituality and social issues that need our immediate attention. The story revolves around three people: Sarah, Anne, and Daniel. Daniel is a college professor with a jaded outlook on the world, so falling in love with Sarah is the simplest thing he ever did. Sarah is a free-spirited environmental activist who is ready to give her everything to protect nature and preserve it. Anne fights every day to forget the pain of the past by practicing Buddhism. All three have different battles to fight, and they all have to make tough decisions. Sarah needs to do more than just find tranquility in nature and fight for it before everything is devastated. Daniel has a hard time coming to terms with what his life has become and Anne needs to find peace inside herself.

The Sacrifice Zone is not your typical spiritual novel. You can tell that Roger S. Gottlieb has a game plan with the story. Each character has a purpose, and readers explore it with the characters as they navigate their complex lives. The multiple POVs are a great way for readers to get personal with the characters and experience their stories firsthand. Out of the three protagonists, Anne is my favorite. She has mental scars after going through the trauma of seeing her sister lose herself to drugs, yet Anne is not ready to give up. Finding peace in Buddhism is her saving grace. While spirituality plays a vital role in this story, the author pays special attention to emotions, which makes the characters truly human. At the same time, author Roger S. Gottlieb stresses how nature is suffering because industrialization and current economic “progress” are destroying nature. We need more Sarahs to nudge us in the right direction.