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A review by mafryc
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
4.0
In 8th grade this book scarred me.
In 11th through college, friends loved it.
Even later, I learned of friends who decidedly did not.
And now I've found out there's a movie coming out.
As an undeniable sucker for period piece romances, on top of a petition to see which side of the fence I fell on now I is all growed up, I begrudgingly sat down to read it again and relive childhood fears.
Turned out I'm a hecka fan.
Here's the thing. I think this book is the embodiment of the concept it's portraying: a pure, whole truth, but flawed in human hands. There were things I was not about. Like, SO not about. Every time Sarah / Angel / Amanda / Tirzah / Mara / whatever was called another name, I had to block it out of my mind. It was simply so irritating. And even though Michael grew on me and Francine Rivers tried to make him have faults, he was still too good. Too perfect. Unruffled. Righteous. Loving. I hate perfectly flawed characters. (And when your wife says she's slept with a gazillion men, you don't have the right to immediately say, "And I've murdered...In my head. But it's the same." Like...no. This is her moment, her past, and they're most definitely not the same. *Note to self to take that up with Jesus.*) And then the whole Paul / Angel dynamic was also resolved far too easily, and a lot of Sunday School simplicity shone through there. Yeah, no. That subplot was far too heavy to be tied up with a bow. I will also be OK if I never hear the word beloved again.
HOWEVER, and this is what got me, the greater, overwhelming, unending love that Francine Rivers did her human best to convey was what really gave me the feels - feels I 1000% did not expect. (And feels that were impossible for me to have understood in 8th grade - it's no wonder that the book went over my head at that young, impressionable age. All I took away from it then were extremely uncomfortable and wildly misunderstood scenes of intimacy.)
Honestly, there were truths that startled me with their relevance to myself, and even though this book is a romance, I reached the end knowing the romance was just the mode. (If I was rating Redeeming Love like one of my YA fantasy romances, it would be a far cry.) Instead, I walked away from this book contemplative, grateful, with renewed purpose, and feeling more deeply wholesome than with any other romance, and it was mostly not because of the romance.
So does this book have it's issues? Um, that's a huge yes. But is Truth bound by how humans package it? That's a relieved no.
4.5*
In 11th through college, friends loved it.
Even later, I learned of friends who decidedly did not.
And now I've found out there's a movie coming out.
As an undeniable sucker for period piece romances, on top of a petition to see which side of the fence I fell on now I is all growed up, I begrudgingly sat down to read it again and relive childhood fears.
Turned out I'm a hecka fan.
Here's the thing. I think this book is the embodiment of the concept it's portraying: a pure, whole truth, but flawed in human hands. There were things I was not about. Like, SO not about. Every time Sarah / Angel / Amanda / Tirzah / Mara / whatever was called another name, I had to block it out of my mind. It was simply so irritating. And even though Michael grew on me and Francine Rivers tried to make him have faults, he was still too good. Too perfect. Unruffled. Righteous. Loving. I hate perfectly flawed characters. (And when your wife says she's slept with a gazillion men, you don't have the right to immediately say, "And I've murdered...In my head. But it's the same." Like...no. This is her moment, her past, and they're most definitely not the same. *Note to self to take that up with Jesus.*) And then the whole Paul / Angel dynamic was also resolved far too easily, and a lot of Sunday School simplicity shone through there. Yeah, no. That subplot was far too heavy to be tied up with a bow. I will also be OK if I never hear the word beloved again.
HOWEVER, and this is what got me, the greater, overwhelming, unending love that Francine Rivers did her human best to convey was what really gave me the feels - feels I 1000% did not expect. (And feels that were impossible for me to have understood in 8th grade - it's no wonder that the book went over my head at that young, impressionable age. All I took away from it then were extremely uncomfortable and wildly misunderstood scenes of intimacy.)
Honestly, there were truths that startled me with their relevance to myself, and even though this book is a romance, I reached the end knowing the romance was just the mode. (If I was rating Redeeming Love like one of my YA fantasy romances, it would be a far cry.) Instead, I walked away from this book contemplative, grateful, with renewed purpose, and feeling more deeply wholesome than with any other romance, and it was mostly not because of the romance.
So does this book have it's issues? Um, that's a huge yes. But is Truth bound by how humans package it? That's a relieved no.
4.5*