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tifftastic87's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
A Children's Bible follows a group of teenagers and their younger siblings in what is essentially a multi-family vacation gone wrong. Giving a plot synopsis is difficult as the story is told from an unreliable narrator who also doesn't really know what is going on. We start off with the parents being uninvolved and the kids kind of being on their own, that is a continued thread we follow. What happens in the second half is a climate disaster in terms of a flood that leads to apocalypse style events where we have raiders and bandits and various illnesses. All of these are told from the first person rambling perspective of a, likely 17ish-year-old, teen.
The characters are incredibly two dimensional. We don't know enough about them to really care as the narrator is telling us back conversations and she doesn't really like anyone other than her younger brother, who is maybe around 10? The only real character we get info about is the younger brother, Jack, who gets a bible as a gift and sees it as a metaphor for everything happening.
The themes in here are kind of unclear, or heavy handed. It was clear there is a climate crisis and we can blame the older generation and the wealthy for that. However, the conversation never really happens anymore than at a childish level of "you did this!" There was a current of biblical stuff which was... unusual?
Lastly, there was only one character who was described as having "olive toned skin" and he was the character that took the most abuse from the plot. There was a lot of fat-phobia as well that was just unnecessary.
Content Warning that isn't an option in the drop downdeath during child birth and closed door sexual interactions among miners
The characters are incredibly two dimensional. We don't know enough about them to really care as the narrator is telling us back conversations and she doesn't really like anyone other than her younger brother, who is maybe around 10? The only real character we get info about is the younger brother, Jack, who gets a bible as a gift and sees it as a metaphor for everything happening.
The themes in here are kind of unclear, or heavy handed. It was clear there is a climate crisis and we can blame the older generation and the wealthy for that. However, the conversation never really happens anymore than at a childish level of "you did this!" There was a current of biblical stuff which was... unusual?
Lastly, there was only one character who was described as having "olive toned skin" and he was the character that took the most abuse from the plot. There was a lot of fat-phobia as well that was just unnecessary.
Content Warning that isn't an option in the drop down
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Violence, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Death, Cursing, Torture, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Body shaming, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Homophobia, Grief, Sexism, and Misogyny
Minor: Racism
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This was a fine story, but a lot of the allegories went right over my head. I think being more familiar with the Bible would make this a more interesting read. I did like that science wasn't disparaged for religion and the MC reminded me a lot of myself growing up. I don't have a lot of thoughts on this one, it was a good story but nothing really sticks out to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Violence
Child birth, death from child birth
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