Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At first it was a bit difficult to follow this book, as it is narrated by 5 different characters. But the characters each have a distinct voice and those five characters are very well developed. I loved that the story was deeper than just about the missionary family--it really made me think about issues of guilt and responsibility as well as about our culture and customs in relations to those in Africa. I enjoyed the book all the way to the end, but I did feel like it could just as easily have ended a lot sooner.
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
This book really hit me hard. It might be because I was a girl when my parents moved me to Andros Island in The Bahamas for us to be missionaries. Different time and different place, but I was still a part of the white supremacist push of colonialism and white evangelism. The mother in The Poisonwood Bible was likely in her mid-20s when the family first moved to The Congo. My mother was born in 1940, putting my mother and the fictional mother around the same age. The mother in The Poisonwood Bible is the closest representation to my mother that I've ever read in fiction. My mother was born in Texas and the mother in TPB was born in Georgia, if I remember correctly. So to see my mother so vividly in print was...a difficult experience. I listened to this book as an audiobook and the narrator was fantastic. I literally could not stop listening to this book. I cried on and off throughout the final chapters.
10/10 Highly Recommend
10/10 Highly Recommend
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm renaming this as The Book That Never Ends. I would have given it four stars because I was really enjoying it. I loved the different voices of the wife and four daughters of a Baptist preacher who are missionaries in the Congo in the 1960's. It was fascinating and tragic. But then, when most people would have ended the story, it kept going. Well, fine. I usually want a little more information on the characters and what happens next. But then it went some more. And more. FOR THIRTY YEARS. Seriously? It was too much. It became a book telling more about the history of the Congo in the mid to late 20th century than it was a book about these women. I had such a bad taste in my mouth after reading "Pigs in Heaven" by Barbara Kingsolver and it took me a while to want to read another one of her books. Everyone said this one was the one to read and I wouldn't regret it. And I didn't regret it... for the first half of the book. So, go ahead and read it if you want. Just know that like my rambling review, this book doesn't quit when it should.
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This novel is lengthy but the story pulls you along to places you’d rather not go. It’s not a comfortable read, but is an undeniably engaging one. A stubborn preacher packs his wife and four daughters away to the African Congo, where he is determined to convert every native he finds—not a wretched goal in and of itself, but one made without a speck of humility. What follows is a family doing the only things they know whilst trying to survive a lifetime of Africa’s trials. As the novel progresses, the mother and daughters confess the mistakes they made as well as how Africa changed them. The novel is comprised of tragedies galore, yet somehow maintains an overall sense of the hope that exists for us all.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
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:
Yes
i skipped doing my modern african history homework to read this for hours on my couch as a college senior. wholly absorbing.