Healed

By Dean Skinner

A modern-day thriller of the Book of Job. As one reader put it, Healed reads "as if it were written by both Steven King and M. Night Shyamalan." This 45–60-minute read was recently on six of Amazon's #1 Bestseller lists including:

#1 New Release One-Hour Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Short Reads

#1 One-Hour Literature & Fiction Short Reads

#1 Single Author Short Stories

#1 Horror Short Stories

#1 Paranormal Suspense

#1 Christian Suspense

Amazon reviewer: "You may have never heard of Dean Skinner but based on his work 'Healed' you should. This book is like a spicy sublime pepper…slow burn with some exquisite heat at the end…not for the faint of heart though."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dean Skinner
• Release date: Jun 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201065430

Dean Skinner

Dean is an artist and an author of supernatural thrillers. His last book, Healed, was number one on six of Amazon’s best seller lists and remained within the top spots in multiple categories well over a year since it was published in 2021. And his first book, Broken, held multiple top ten spots, including number one in Horror Short Stories, four years after its release in 2019.  Dean is also an artist who has painted over one hundred large-format portraits. His work has been featured in galleries throughout the US and UK and he has been commissioned by numerous NFL athletes, including Derrick Henry, All-Pro running back. If you’d like to see Dean’s artwork, please visit instagram.com/deanskinner. In November of 2018, Dean went to 20Books Vegas, a yearly gathering of some of the publishing industry’s most notable self-published authors. Here, Dean was so moved and inspired by this talented group of people that three months later, he finished writing his first draft of Broken and published it later that year.  Dean is originally from Bridgeport, West Virginia and now lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife, two children and giant, fluffy Sheepadoodle.

Book preview

Introduction

Why is light given to those in misery,

and life to the bitter of soul,

to those who long for death that does not

come,

who search for it more than for hidden

treasure,

who are filled with gladness

and rejoice when they reach the grave?

Why is life given to a man

whose way is hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

For sighing has become my daily food;

my groans pour out like water.

What I feared has come upon me;

what I dreaded has happened to me.

I have no peace, no quietness;

I have no rest, but only turmoil.

-  Job 3:20-26

Chapter 1 – Saved

It’s been three years since I found God. And I found pain. All of the time. It’s not supposed to work like that, you know...or is it? I mean, don’t get me wrong...I am so very, very grateful I found God. I would be dead by now. I’m sure of it. Either by my own hand or His. Hit rock bottom and as the saying goes, found Jesus. And he did truly, truly save me. But...I don’t think it’s supposed to work like this. I thought once you found God, your pain got better, even went away. Healed. At the least, you weren’t afflicted with pain all of the time. And I do mean, all the time. It’s nothing terrible. It’s nothing life-threatening. It’s not cancer or any other type of terrible, life-threatening illness. But still...ever since I found God, I’ve had one ailment after another. One that replaces the most recent one...time after time, after time. And I’m not talking a week or a day later. I’m talking the very same day. I’m talking the moment one ailment, one pain, one rash, one unexplainable bout of diarrhea goes away, something else takes its place. Day of. Very same day. Like magic. Like...fuck! I just want a little bit of peace. Just a month. A week would be nice. I’m just so fucking tired of fighting. It’s exhausting. And there are many days, a lot of days, every day, I just don’t know if I can do this anymore. This life. This fight. This struggle. I turn to God. I do. Every. Single. Day. I even cry out to God. And sometimes when I truly release it, it’s better. Not the pain, but me dealing with the pain. But...it’s still always there. The illness, the ailment, the fucking whatever, and I just want some peace. Some motherfucking peace. One day. One week. A month. A year. God that would be incredible. Something I haven’t felt for so long. One year without pain. Without sickness. Without the struggle. Without crying out the Lord and saying "Why is this happening to me?!! Why are you doing this to me?! Why me?!! Please take this from me, Lord. It’s tiring. So fucking tiring. I just get so tired of the battle. Help me, Lord. Heal me, Lord. Please heal me."

As I sit here at my kitchen table, before the world awakens, Bible on one side, journal on the other so that I can capture and release my thoughts in an unsuccessful effort to be more positive, I realize that I once again am actually crying out to the Lord. And once again, my prayers will not be answered.

Chapter 2 – Grady

I’m in line waiting for coffee. Trying not to think of my latest plague. But it’s hard when you want to jam a stick up your ass and

Reviews for Healed

[Graham Downs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book says it’s a modern-day retelling of the Book of Job. Well, after reading it, I can tell you it isn’t. There are some parallels, sure, and the characters definitely reference Job. But there are just too many things missing for it to be considered a “proper” retelling.

It’s about a man who gave his life to Christ three years prior. Ever since, he’s suffered many diseases and complaints. They’re nothing serious or life threatening; they’re just constant, painful, embarrassing, and irritating.

He’s not a fan of Catholicism, but he has a friend, a Catholic priest, whom he regularly meets for coffee, and they engage in light-hearted banter about Catholicism and Christianity.

Although it’s not what it says on the tin, it’s very good, and I identified with it a lot. I’d highly recommend reading it if you’re a Christian going through tough times in your life. There’s a great twist at the end, too.

As a Christian, I’ve never considered Job an inspirational or motivational story, and neither does the protagonist. At one point, he jokes maybe he IS, in fact, the subject of some sick wager between God and Satan. But he never really believes it. The story prompted me to go off and re-read the Book of Job, though, and I think it might just do that for you, too.

It’s just a pity about the writing. It’s a bit “all over the place”, full of run-on sentences, and missing, misspelt, and misused words (“Site” instead of “sight”, for example).

I could ignore those, and still give this story a four-star review. I urge you to look past them, too. Another thing that’s pretty cool is it shows that Christians are all just regular people, like you and me, not even against dropping the odd F-bomb here and there... Aw, who am I kidding? There are LOADS!