Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Il libro dei desideri by Sue Monk Kidd

14 reviews

kcarney86's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Misogyny, Torture, and Grief

Moderate: Blood and Antisemitism

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

bandysbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

This is basically the telling of Jesus’ life through the eyes of his wife. She explains her absence from the biblical stories and he’s written in a way that he’s just a normal man, not a deity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Miscarriage, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

busy_izzi's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Pregnancy

Minor: Slavery and Suicide

v171's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

What's the book version of Oscar bait? Pulitzer bait? What ever it is, this book is that. It was a very charming story, and emotional at times, but I couldn't help but feel that it was, as another reviewer put it, bible fan fiction. And I don't know that the author would necessarily disagree with that. The authors note was very honest and insightful into her concerns and thinking when deciding whether to write this story, and I found that refreshing to hear. I enjoyed how the characters were written and the over arching story was an interesting one. 

But with that being said, I still just can't get over the thought that this was an easy capitalization on creating a feminist bible story, filled with headstrong, flawless women and modern motivations. I'm torn on the purpose of this story. It is clearly centered on Ana, the wife of Jesus, but it is so focused on her that Jesus is not present for the vast majority of the book. He only exists as someone to be, well, longed after off screen (off page?). One might argue that is the purpose of the story: focus on Ana as Jesus already has his own story. But to that, my response would be -- why make it about Jesus at all? What additional insights were we supposed to walk away with by making this a Jesus love story that he was hardly present in? 

Would this have been a stronger story if it was not about the bible? No, probably not. As historical fiction, it fell flat because the characters felt far too modern, so maybe the only way to salvage it WAS to associate it with the bible. But I also didn't feel that this story challenged the reader to reconsider how they approach Christian texts. It was literally just bible fan fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Forced institutionalization