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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was the third book back-to-back in an unintentional trilogy of reads set in a climate/environmental apocalypse. Now craving a book with a very predictable and stable climate. I was taken in by this book and by how the dreamy and carefree summer (and then basically society in general) devolved. I feel like I never got to know the narrator, though I also admired her and liked her. I'm not very well-versed in the bible so was only able to glean some of the allusions and I'm sure there were plenty of bible easter eggs I missed. The generational divide between the parents and kids captured not how I feel about my parents specifically but more generally how it feels to be a millennial/genz/younger disappointed by the actions of older generations in the face of the changes that are coming our way.
Wow. That's what I started thinking on page 3 and throughout the reading of this book. I can't believe I haven't read her before. It's hard to do justice to this book through a summary which opens with a delicious multi-family summer vacation in which the kids are more mature than the adults and have their own agenda and social structure. The conscience of the novel is centered on it's youngest member, 7 (9?) year old Jack, who has been gifted with a children's bible. This is not a religious set and Jack's teenage sister, Eve (who is essentially raising him), questions the appropriateness of the gift. Jack however, is working his way through it and trying to make sense of it. Meanwhile, the world unspools in biblical ways while the adults wring their hands, look at their stock portfolios and drink.
A fabulously rich and inventive novel.
A fabulously rich and inventive novel.
This is a novel that starts as something very different than it ends as. It seems to be a late summer, easy-reading coming of age story that metamorphs into a fascinating biblical allegory and ultimately into an apocalyptic story of survival. Telling you this already spoils some of the surprises in this entertaining and efficient novel, but it's well worth a read and is one of the best novels I've read recently.
adventurous
reflective
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Y’all, why do so many contemporary books about class have to include a doomsday scenario? I’m thinking of Leave The World Behind, Severance, Station Eleven, all of which are much better books than The Children’s Bible. (And just fyi I found Station Eleven milquetoast-y and pat, so this is really saying something.)
I thought maybe we were in Eugenides territory at first: spoiled, bored kids run wild, etc. etc. A bunch of teens and kids are looking for ways to misbehave at a country house with their boring, upper middle class parents who just drink and gossip and cheat all summer long. The kids go on an unchaperoned canoe trip and end up camping near a superrich group who have anchored their yacht nearby. The kids hate-watch the wealthy group, and then frenemy-hang out with the rich kids, smoke their weed, and attend a party on their yacht. One girl even defects to the yacht and doesn’t return home with the group when they leave to avoid an oncoming storm.
I’m not even going to bother telling you about the rest of the book because imo it went completely off the rails, and not in a good way. I usually enjoy dark stuff and the uncanny, and I can deal with hard stuff like death and torture. But knit it into the plot, please, and write one coherent book! One without so many tropes like a Christ-like child, a deus ex machina, and so many dithering adults. This felt like two novellas connected by a hurricane. End rant.
If you are a person who understands how the hell the first half of this book connects to the second half, let me know in the comments.
I thought maybe we were in Eugenides territory at first: spoiled, bored kids run wild, etc. etc. A bunch of teens and kids are looking for ways to misbehave at a country house with their boring, upper middle class parents who just drink and gossip and cheat all summer long. The kids go on an unchaperoned canoe trip and end up camping near a superrich group who have anchored their yacht nearby. The kids hate-watch the wealthy group, and then frenemy-hang out with the rich kids, smoke their weed, and attend a party on their yacht. One girl even defects to the yacht and doesn’t return home with the group when they leave to avoid an oncoming storm.
I’m not even going to bother telling you about the rest of the book because imo it went completely off the rails, and not in a good way. I usually enjoy dark stuff and the uncanny, and I can deal with hard stuff like death and torture. But knit it into the plot, please, and write one coherent book! One without so many tropes like a Christ-like child, a deus ex machina, and so many dithering adults. This felt like two novellas connected by a hurricane. End rant.
If you are a person who understands how the hell the first half of this book connects to the second half, let me know in the comments.