Review of Ascent From Darkness, Michael Leehan

From an early age, life seemed to leave Mike wanting. His family life was dysfunctional, he never felt safe due to suffering a nearly lethal attack from a stranger, and he had been labeled suicidal due to an accidental overdose from pain pills and alcohol. In his search for relief from fear and desperation he prayed, but only found hypocrisy in the Christian religion he saw around him. It wasn’t long before Mike sought and then embraced life as a Satanist. From the making of a blood covenant with Satan to hearing, seeing, and experiencing his evil minions, Leehan’s life was controlled by Darkness.  Ascent From Darkness journals his trek back from Satan’s isolation and destruction to Jesus’ grace that waited for him.
Leehan’s style of writing was easy to read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, although I found the graphic details involving satanic worship a bit disturbing. Because he wrote about well-known characters (e.g., LifeChurch members and Pastor Craig Groeschel), I have no doubt that all the explicit details shared in this book are true. Unfortunately, I found I needed to stop reading and distance myself from the book for a couple of weeks to be able to return to it with a discerning and prayerful spirit.  This helped when I continued into the later chapters.
I strongly recommend this book for well-grounded Christians only.  Evil is real and all around us. Citing one example of Leehan’s account of the evil spirits’ saying, “I don’t think he can see us,” should be taken as a serious warning; be sure that they are always looking for new victims.