The Shack is a story told completely from the memories of Mackenzie Allen Phillips. It was written by one of his good friends who was deeply moved by Mack's experience. The Shack is about a man named Mackenzie (Mack) Phillips. He is a Caucasian man in his fifties and a Christian, but he is not very religious and seldom attends church. To most he seems like a typical person if not a bit more shy and discreet. He always seemed to have a great sadness over him. Those who knew him knew that the sadness was from the murder of his daughter Missy several years earlier.

One day Mack receives a letter in the mail telling him to go to the shack where his daughter was murdered. The note is signed 'Papa' which is what his wife calls God. Mack isn't sure whether this is a cruel trick or if it really is an invitation from God, but he decided to find out.

No one except for Willy (the author of this book) knows that he is going to the shack. Mack is extremely nervous about what he might find there, but he decided to go for it and he entered the shack. Inside Mack sees no one and he is extremely upset. He sits on the floor and falls a sleep. When he wakes up and realizes where he is, he goes to leave. As he is leaving a great change occurs. The snow on the ground turns into a field of flowers and the rundown shack turns into a beautiful log cabin. When he enters the shack again there he finds a large African American woman, a young Middle Eastern man, and a woman who is very hard to see and focus on. They present themselves as the Holy Trinity. God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit.

Mack stays and spends the weekend with them gaining a trust, friendship, and connection with God to help guide him through life. Many questions are answered about life, love, trust, and who they are. Mack had a very hard time trusting and believing them at first, but at the end of the weekend he loves them with a great passion. They present him with the gift of finding his daughter Missy's remains and helping him burry them. Mack has a great understanding for all the questions that haunted him and he feels almost unreal after the visit.

He heads back home, but on the way back he is hit by a drunk driver. In the hospital he is unconscious for 4 days and can barely remember anything. Slowly the entire weekend comes back to him and he tells his wife about what happened.

Personally I enjoyed this book for the most part. This book greatly changed my perspective of the Holy Trinity and the way we are meant to live. It was very confusing and hard to understand a lot of the messages that were taught to Mack. I often had to backtrack and reread certain parts of the book to make sure that I fully grasped what I was reading and even then I was a bit lost. Whoever reads this book will find themselves questioning how they live their life and what they believe. A lot of theological matters are discussed in this book. I would recommend it for someone who has some religious understanding and who can easily look at different viewpoints.