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maddiebusick's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Minor: Slavery, Police brutality, Alcohol, and Deportation
emscozyreadingcorner's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I randomly stumbled upon this book in the Goodwill bookstore and I was fascinated by the cover art. Upon reading the back and realizing that it was Biblical fiction, I knew I had to read it.
This book was by far and away one of my favorite books I've ever read. The main protagonist, Ana, is courageous and fierce. The author uses Ana's story to explore what it might have been like to be a feminist woman at the time of Jesus, yet she does not shy away from the idea that Ana has desires for things that are expected of her as well.
That is all I will say in the non-spoilery review of this. Just read it.
There are so many things I love about this book, but I'll start with Ana's relationship to the other characters, especially the women. Ana's changing perception of Tabitha throughout her life is my favorite. She goes from dislike to tolerance to considering Tabitha a sister. I thought that there was something so special about that, especially because Ana's dislike of Tabitha mainly stemmed from Tabitha's desire to get married as was expected of her, while Ana sought to escape marriage. As Ana went through her life, bearing witness to Tabitha's rape, later becoming Jesus's wife, she seems to grow a deeper understanding of and appreciation for Tabitha. Yaltha was also a favorite character of mine and I deeply appreciated that whilst we went through so many sadnesses in this book, Yaltha was given the happy ending of an old-age death. She provided so much humor and all the wisdom of a mother figure never given to Ana by her own mother. Ana's relationship with Mary and Salome as a mother and sister figure were also endearing. I cried as they held hands with Ana during the crucifixion and helped her to anoint her husband's body in the tomb.
The theme of found family was especially prevalent. Ana never felt as though her birth parents really cared for her; in fact, their trying to sell her to Antipas as a concubine was proof of that. But Ana was able to find a family who truly did care for her. Yaltha, Mary, Mary Magdala, Diodora, Tabitha, and of course, her husband, Jesus.
I enjoyed reading of Jesus as a human. He was the first to have an open acceptance of Ana as who she really was. He accepts her truth without question. When she says she does not wish to have children, he respects her decision. When she gets pregnant and suffers a miscarriage, he defies custom and comes to her when she is considered religiously "unclean." Ana's relationship with Jesus is a remarkable exploration of the prejudices seen in Christianity and a profound way of saying that Jesus would have accepted everyone as they were.
Ana's relationship with Judas was another point of intrigue. After he betrays Jesus and kills himself, Ana chooses to mourn the version of Judas she knew as a child. She understands that Judas hated Rome more than he loved Jesus, but does not forgive him for what he did. As someone who has family members I love but don't talk to because of differing beliefs among other things, I thought this was a touching testament to how we do feel when people we love wrong us. We choose to remember and mourn the people they were when they were kind.
Ana and Yaltha are a cunning and intelligent pair. Repeatedly, they find ways around the confinements set upon them by society. Their resilience and determination to find happiness in a world which seems to defy is is nothing short of inspirational. As Yaltha says, "Life will be life and death will be death."
For me, the ending was the sweetest part. Ana found a purpose and a happy life with Tabitha and Diodora. She was enough as she was. And I think that message is incredibly important, especially for someone who spent her life looking for her purpose and not knowing what it was.
This book was incredibly well-researched. It was driven as much by Ana's own self-discovery as it was by time. I thought that the character development and world building were well-paced and balanced with each other. I did not feel the need to rush through this book; however, I did feel the need to take my time with it and let Kidd's storytelling unfold. .
This book was by far and away one of my favorite books I've ever read. The main protagonist, Ana, is courageous and fierce. The author uses Ana's story to explore what it might have been like to be a feminist woman at the time of Jesus, yet she does not shy away from the idea that Ana has desires for things that are expected of her as well.
That is all I will say in the non-spoilery review of this. Just read it.
The theme of found family was especially prevalent. Ana never felt as though her birth parents really cared for her; in fact, their trying to sell her to Antipas as a concubine was proof of that. But Ana was able to find a family who truly did care for her. Yaltha, Mary, Mary Magdala, Diodora, Tabitha, and of course, her husband, Jesus.
I enjoyed reading of Jesus as a human. He was the first to have an open acceptance of Ana as who she really was. He accepts her truth without question. When she says she does not wish to have children, he respects her decision. When she gets pregnant and suffers a miscarriage, he defies custom and comes to her when she is considered religiously "unclean." Ana's relationship with Jesus is a remarkable exploration of the prejudices seen in Christianity and a profound way of saying that Jesus would have accepted everyone as they were.
Ana's relationship with Judas was another point of intrigue. After he betrays Jesus and kills himself, Ana chooses to mourn the version of Judas she knew as a child. She understands that Judas hated Rome more than he loved Jesus, but does not forgive him for what he did. As someone who has family members I love but don't talk to because of differing beliefs among other things, I thought this was a touching testament to how we do feel when people we love wrong us. We choose to remember and mourn the people they were when they were kind.
Ana and Yaltha are a cunning and intelligent pair. Repeatedly, they find ways around the confinements set upon them by society. Their resilience and determination to find happiness in a world which seems to defy is is nothing short of inspirational. As Yaltha says, "Life will be life and death will be death."
For me, the ending was the sweetest part. Ana found a purpose and a happy life with Tabitha and Diodora. She was enough as she was. And I think that message is incredibly important, especially for someone who spent her life looking for her purpose and not knowing what it was.
This book was incredibly well-researched. It was driven as much by Ana's own self-discovery as it was by time. I thought that the character development and world building were well-paced and balanced with each other. I did not feel the need to rush through this book; however, I did feel the need to take my time with it and let Kidd's storytelling unfold.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Grief
Moderate: Child death and Pregnancy
Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Suicide
It's set during the time of Jesus and follows the life of Jesus. Click the spoiler tab for a list of scenes. No character names will be mentioned, but what happens to them specifically will be.emberysing's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
personally, it means a lot to me to read such a beautiful story get to the heart of my spirituality without traditional restraints. and it’s women! women women women finally in the narrative telling their stories their way! honestly, I have been starved of reading about women in this kind of spiritual context and <b>what for</b>.
overall this just isn’t my type of story, and I couldn’t really connect to the main characters as much as I would’ve liked to have. but there’s a lot of heart in the story. it’s wonderful storytelling.
overall this just isn’t my type of story, and I couldn’t really connect to the main characters as much as I would’ve liked to have. but there’s a lot of heart in the story. it’s wonderful storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Rape, and Violence
leahsbooks's review against another edition
DNF @ 28%.
CONTENT WARNING: forced marriage, negative representation of all Jewish characters
While I respect what the author was trying to do here, I found it especially offensive in its portrayal of Jewish characters.
The author displayed a stunning lack of sensitivity in how the Jewish characters were portrayed - they were rich, manipulative, and greedy, without fail. Ana's father traded his daughter to achieve financial goals, and his brother Haran was rich and cruel, who scammed his own brother to increase his own financial gain. They had no redeeming characteristics at any point. Ana's mother was manipulative, constantly scheming to get her way.
"From my mother I'd learned the skills of deception. I'd secreted my womanhood, hidden my incantation bowl, buried my writings, and feigned reasons to meet Jesus in the cave, but it was Father who'd shown me how to strike a despicable bargain."
In addition, while there's clearly a lot of research that went into the creation of this book, apparently not enough of it went into researching Jewish customs or history. Because there were a stunning number of issues that I noticed in the section that I read. The first thing I caught was that more than half of the Jewish months were spelled incorrectly. Shebat is actually Shevat, Tebet is actually Tevet, and Ab is actually Av. But even more disturbing was the completely incorrect and misleading views on rape that the author chose to attribute to Jewish beliefs. In Judaism, even in biblical times, rape has always been viewed as a crime and not something that brings punishment upon the woman. In this book, however, the author has decided to completely change that when a soldier rapes a side character:
"'She was distraught, and I'm sorry for her, but she shamed herself. She brought dishonor to her father and to her betrothed, who will surely divorce her now.'"
Instead of seeking justice, everyone around them blames the victim herself and then ... her father CUTS OUT HER TONGUE as punishment for saying that she was raped. What the actual F?
It was very clear that the story was written by a Christian with limited understanding of Jewish religion, culture, and beliefs. When she mentioned: "This I'd heard of-not the hymn, but Inanna the Goddess, queen of heaven, and Yahweh's adversary." Literally no Jewish person ever says "Yahweh," even in those times. We also wouldn't believe that God has any adversaries, because the central belief of Judaism is the presence of ONE GOD. You can hear stories about goddesses, but they aren't part of the belief system and therefore wouldn't be an "adversary" or competition of any sort. Yet another inaccuracy that I found was the use of mamzers:
"Mamzers were of all varieties-bastards, harlots, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, necromancers, beggars, lepers, divorced women, cast-out widows, the unclean, the destitute, those possessed of devils, Gentiles-all of them shunned accordingly."
The actual definition of a mamzer is "a child born of a forbidden sexual union," such as a child born of incest or adultery. That's it. Nothing to do with bastards, harlots, or any of the other things listed above. I'm not even sure why Gentiles were included in that list anyway, since Jewish people and Gentiles live side by side, often working together in the same house? It just seems like it was adding fuel to the fire.
I understand that the ideal audience of the story is probably not Jewish readers, but seriously, could SMK not have tried to portray at least ONE Jewish character as a decent human being? Ultimately, I couldn't get past all these constant digs at Jewish people, the historical inaccuracies, and how slow-moving and utterly boring the story was.
CONTENT WARNING: forced marriage, negative representation of all Jewish characters
While I respect what the author was trying to do here, I found it especially offensive in its portrayal of Jewish characters.
The author displayed a stunning lack of sensitivity in how the Jewish characters were portrayed - they were rich, manipulative, and greedy, without fail. Ana's father traded his daughter to achieve financial goals, and his brother Haran was rich and cruel, who scammed his own brother to increase his own financial gain. They had no redeeming characteristics at any point. Ana's mother was manipulative, constantly scheming to get her way.
"From my mother I'd learned the skills of deception. I'd secreted my womanhood, hidden my incantation bowl, buried my writings, and feigned reasons to meet Jesus in the cave, but it was Father who'd shown me how to strike a despicable bargain."
In addition, while there's clearly a lot of research that went into the creation of this book, apparently not enough of it went into researching Jewish customs or history. Because there were a stunning number of issues that I noticed in the section that I read. The first thing I caught was that more than half of the Jewish months were spelled incorrectly. Shebat is actually Shevat, Tebet is actually Tevet, and Ab is actually Av. But even more disturbing was the completely incorrect and misleading views on rape that the author chose to attribute to Jewish beliefs. In Judaism, even in biblical times, rape has always been viewed as a crime and not something that brings punishment upon the woman. In this book, however, the author has decided to completely change that when a soldier rapes a side character:
"'She was distraught, and I'm sorry for her, but she shamed herself. She brought dishonor to her father and to her betrothed, who will surely divorce her now.'"
Instead of seeking justice, everyone around them blames the victim herself and then ... her father CUTS OUT HER TONGUE as punishment for saying that she was raped. What the actual F?
It was very clear that the story was written by a Christian with limited understanding of Jewish religion, culture, and beliefs. When she mentioned: "This I'd heard of-not the hymn, but Inanna the Goddess, queen of heaven, and Yahweh's adversary." Literally no Jewish person ever says "Yahweh," even in those times. We also wouldn't believe that God has any adversaries, because the central belief of Judaism is the presence of ONE GOD. You can hear stories about goddesses, but they aren't part of the belief system and therefore wouldn't be an "adversary" or competition of any sort. Yet another inaccuracy that I found was the use of mamzers:
"Mamzers were of all varieties-bastards, harlots, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, necromancers, beggars, lepers, divorced women, cast-out widows, the unclean, the destitute, those possessed of devils, Gentiles-all of them shunned accordingly."
The actual definition of a mamzer is "a child born of a forbidden sexual union," such as a child born of incest or adultery. That's it. Nothing to do with bastards, harlots, or any of the other things listed above. I'm not even sure why Gentiles were included in that list anyway, since Jewish people and Gentiles live side by side, often working together in the same house? It just seems like it was adding fuel to the fire.
I understand that the ideal audience of the story is probably not Jewish readers, but seriously, could SMK not have tried to portray at least ONE Jewish character as a decent human being? Ultimately, I couldn't get past all these constant digs at Jewish people, the historical inaccuracies, and how slow-moving and utterly boring the story was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, and Blood
Minor: Rape