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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
Naamah was...well. Not what I expected.
I jumped to buy this book because hey queer retelling of Noah’s Ark focusing on Noah’s nameless wife? Sign me uppppp. I also felt v annoyed at the relatively low goodreads rating because OF COURSE we’re going to get homophobic Christians all upset and spewing words like “blasphemy” and “inappropriate” and “how dare you” and give this book 1 star. Cue the eye rolling.
But I found myself feeling extremely distanced and alienated from the execution of the story. I expected rich prose and dazzling, hallucinogenic dreams but what I ended up getting was a detached, simplistic style of writing and awkward conversations that just did not flow with one another. I just could not connect and this book didn’t tap into any deeper emotion in me.
I did overall enjoy the read and thought it was an excellent subversion of the classic tale of Noah’s Ark. There is power in naming a woman who is nameless and giving her agency. But I expected to be pulled in, seduced, and left gasping for air, all of which def did not happen.
I jumped to buy this book because hey queer retelling of Noah’s Ark focusing on Noah’s nameless wife? Sign me uppppp. I also felt v annoyed at the relatively low goodreads rating because OF COURSE we’re going to get homophobic Christians all upset and spewing words like “blasphemy” and “inappropriate” and “how dare you” and give this book 1 star. Cue the eye rolling.
But I found myself feeling extremely distanced and alienated from the execution of the story. I expected rich prose and dazzling, hallucinogenic dreams but what I ended up getting was a detached, simplistic style of writing and awkward conversations that just did not flow with one another. I just could not connect and this book didn’t tap into any deeper emotion in me.
I did overall enjoy the read and thought it was an excellent subversion of the classic tale of Noah’s Ark. There is power in naming a woman who is nameless and giving her agency. But I expected to be pulled in, seduced, and left gasping for air, all of which def did not happen.
This book is dark, graphic, occasionally gross, and above all extremely weird. “Wildly imaginative” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I picked it up mainly because I am all about mildly-to-severely blasphemous retellings of Bible stories. The story of Noah’s Ark, told from the perspective of Noah’s wife who doesn’t seem to be fully on board with their deity’s decision to genocide the world, seemed right up my alley. And there were indeed many things to like in this book.
Things I liked about Naamah:
- A raw and deeply human story about unnamed and unconsidered Biblical women (Naamah herself, but also her sons’ wives)
- The logistics of keeping eight people and probably thousands of animals alive and sane on a boat for nearly a year
- The emotions that come with being on a boat with a bunch of animals for nearly a year and basically being the only survivors of an intentional apocalypse
- Naamah herself, a woman who meets the living God face-to-face and still tells him to fuck off
As for what I didn’t like quite so much:
Now, I am no stranger to weird books. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I generally enjoy weird books. But this book is so weird in so many directions that I’m not at all sure what I’m supposed to make of it. It’s practically plotless, held together by sex scenes and extensive dream sequences, and for something that’s ostensibly some kind of Biblical reimagining contains a whole bunch of nonsense that doesn’t seem to fit anything.
We should probably talk about Abraham’s wife Sarai showing up as a time-traveling god-like figure. Or the sentient bird that can only talk when he’s sharing Naamah’s dreams. Or the angel living underwater with a bunch of dead children. Or that scene where Sarai takes Naamah to the present day and she watches Law & Order: SVU. We should probably talk about it, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to make of any of this.
Naamah has a unique problem where if you cut out the sex scenes, the dream sequences, and the weird stuff that feels discordant with the rest of the book, there isn’t a book. It’s part slice-of-life on the Ark and part magical mystical unreality I-don’t-even-know-what. I appreciate the sacrilege and the symbolism of Noah’s wife questioning the atrocity of the flood. But I’m unsure of the plot, point, purpose, moral, or any reason for this book to exist, and I’m unsure if there is one to find.
Is Naamah a good book? I’m not even sure how you judge a book like this. When I finished it, I found myself scrambling for meaning because there must surely be a point or idea or theme or something here, right? I was left with an overwhelming sense of what-in-the-world-did-I-just-read befuddlement. I legitimately have no idea what I’m supposed to take away from this story. Naamah has me well and truly stumped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual content
Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Excrement, Pregnancy
Minor: Incest
Romantic partner death, childbirth, unreality
I would describe this book as an amazing technicolor dream about the woman who save the Earth during the Great Flood.
It's poetic, imaginative and enthralling. A book you cannot put down once you're involved.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Riverhead Books and Edelweiss for this ARC
It's poetic, imaginative and enthralling. A book you cannot put down once you're involved.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Riverhead Books and Edelweiss for this ARC
This was very interesting premise but I flipped between very engrossed and then not quite getting it.
NAAMAH by Sarah Blake is a re-imagining of the Great Flood narrative (traditionally a male-drive narrative about Noah and his Ark) from the perspective of Naamah, Noah’s wife.
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All those details that I didn’t really think about as a child learning about this Bible story—what happens when the animals run out of food, are there more than two of each species, what if one animal dies... what if the animals eat each other
.
All those details that I didn’t really think about as a child learning about this Bible story—what happens when the animals run out of food, are there more than two of each species, what if one animal dies... what if the animals eat each other
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book reminds me a lot of Book of Longings, which I also loved. I’m not religious, but since Christianity still shapes the world I live in, these stories are deeply interesting to me. The way Naamah dives into overlooked women, their frustrations, loves and angers, is just so compelling. Would recommend to anyone.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was incredible. Blake takes a biblical figure, a woman no less, and breathes endless life into her, shapes her into a being that is more than the story her husband revolves around. Naamah is not the pious and fragile woman that I perceived all biblical women to be: she is restless, fiercely independent, motherly beyond belief, and an irrevocably sexual being. She is not afraid to question her husband's journey, her family's decisions, and certainly not god. She goes through life with an intense empathy, and all her strongest emotions (lust, anger, fear and curiosity) cranked at 11.
An entirely new take on a biblical figure, Naamah is not just known as Noah's wife, she's a doting albeit stubborn mother of three boys and an in-law to there three unique wives. She is a woman who loved another woman, who LOVES women, a woman who carried just as much responsibility upon the ark if not more than Noah. A woman who questions why any so-called forgiving and loving god would flood a world of a kind he created, why that god had to reach out to her husband, and why her family was chosen above others.
Naamah is the jewel of the story, obviously, but every character voice is distinct and charming in a way that makes you feel aboard the ark yourself. And every aspect that is added to this novel is done so beautifully--from the family's visceral fear of the flood, their new life, to the animals that go restless in their rooms, some to the point of destruction and death, it all reads like poetry. Everything about the novel is so. . . intoxicating and new. The strong sexual and feminine longing, the fear/hate relationship with god, and the relationships Naamah makes aboard the ark, the ones before the flood, etc. Loved it. Have not been moved by a novel like this in a long time. Audiobook is incredible too, btw!
An entirely new take on a biblical figure, Naamah is not just known as Noah's wife, she's a doting albeit stubborn mother of three boys and an in-law to there three unique wives. She is a woman who loved another woman, who LOVES women, a woman who carried just as much responsibility upon the ark if not more than Noah. A woman who questions why any so-called forgiving and loving god would flood a world of a kind he created, why that god had to reach out to her husband, and why her family was chosen above others.
Naamah is the jewel of the story, obviously, but every character voice is distinct and charming in a way that makes you feel aboard the ark yourself. And every aspect that is added to this novel is done so beautifully--from the family's visceral fear of the flood, their new life, to the animals that go restless in their rooms, some to the point of destruction and death, it all reads like poetry. Everything about the novel is so. . . intoxicating and new. The strong sexual and feminine longing, the fear/hate relationship with god, and the relationships Naamah makes aboard the ark, the ones before the flood, etc. Loved it. Have not been moved by a novel like this in a long time. Audiobook is incredible too, btw!
This book tells the story of Noah and the ark through the eyes of Noah's wife, Naamah. As God only speaks to Noah and not her, she struggles with her role on the ark, feeling overwhelmingly important but at the same time overwhelmingly forgotten. The story follows the family before the flood, Naamah having to leave behind a lover, and the year on the flood as each family member deals with loss and Naamah finds comfort in the form of an angel and a bird she meets in a dream. I loved the prose as the authors background in poetry shone through, and I felt each question Naamah asked was justified. It was an unusual portrayal of religion, and the first time I had read a religious story of that length from the point of view of a woman. I thought the way her gender related to her religion allowed her to ask interesting questions about God and faith that I had not considered before. At times, I found the story to be a little strange, but overall it was a beautiful story.