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A review by rayarriz
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
1.0
Lately it seems all I can give are one and two stars. Sigh. This book = major disappointment.
First of all let me just say I am so tired of these books written by a certain demographic of woman who self inserts into her fiction. I'm literally a rad fem, so obviously I love to see women winning in fiction and in real life: but...it's very white feminist to write a story about women in very different cultures and settings and circumstances and try to impose your own slogan-on-a-mug and tshirt shallow feminism on to them. I'm so over it. And there's just a flood of historical novels like this now. And they're all so embarrassing. These female main characters written by this type of woman are always the most 2019 American woman you've ever met. Elaborating would take another review itself so I'm going to just leave it at that.
As for the book.
I despised Ana. Not once did I connect to her. She was unrealistic as a fourteen year old, whiny, ridiculous, unrealistic (again) and she never grew as she aged. Huge missed opportunity since so much time passed. There was nothing ever dynamic about her character. She lived in a society where she would be expected to behave in very specific ways, and the fact that she always at every single opportunity behaved differently was just, no. You mean to tell me you're the only girl in all of Judea who wishes to read, begs to read, absolutely dreads doing any kind of weaving, never sings or dances, but you love to read and do the work of a scribe? Oh and you publicly protested your betrothal to a powerful man of your community, and you SLAPPED the king?
He says: oh I like them with a fight in them
(No. No. No. Do you really think you could hit a powerful man (or any man really, bffr) and he would say he liked it? And the reason was that you hit him while standing up for yourself? Has the author met men in real life lol? Even the "nicest" ones can be controlling. Men don't even like when women politely set boundaries, they get very vicious at women, let alone you trying to physically strike out at them. So no. Be realistic.)
And she did it all whilst under the age of fifteen? A child with no one on her side?
Lol lol what young girl acts like this? I understand the need to have her be an active protagonist, but I just don't think these reactions are appropriate. It would've felt more real to me if she tried to obey but find loopholes for herself etc. Or maybe had different circumstances. Anything but this storyline. But I don't even know anyway, it's the author's job to make the plot and make it appropriate and make it make SENSE *waves hand with a snort
As if that isn't enough, Ana just doesn't grow. She just never thinks of consequences, she's just stubborn and boring. She's the very typical not like other girls female main character. She looks down on the women of her community, you get this sense. Everyone has to bend to her, and she just stomps over them all. She never once tries to participate like the average person would do.
Actually nobody was quite likable. Jesus as a character was a piece of cardboard. He just, didn't shine. And how do you have the character of Jesus in a story and not make this iconic figure interesting lol? Also we don't get to hear or see much of what He does. And I think the story had room to do that.
Leading me to my next point. I think that the premise is great. I picked up this book just because of the description. And from a technical pov, Ana's story is great. There were some plot points and passages that definitely were pretty cool story-wise. I think Ana's story still could have been centered while making Jesus come to life in a really magnificent way. (No, I'm not religious, I just love the stories). I was definitely a little disappointed that there were no miracles. Come on, really?
Okay now about the dialogue. So stiff. Nobody had a real voice. I ended up skimming so much. I couldn't feel anything.
Setting was good. Nice descriptions.
Very, very boring exposition and general writing. I read The Secret Life of Bees and loved it. What happened here? Did my standards rise higher? But it was just so hard to read, so dull and plain.
There were some pretty sentences about longings and bowls and magic and secrets but I wasn't connecting with these characters. I think it was just such a letdown because I had high expectations from an author and period I really enjoy? flop.
(ps. check out my booktok I just started https://www.tiktok.com/@rachelreading001 )
First of all let me just say I am so tired of these books written by a certain demographic of woman who self inserts into her fiction. I'm literally a rad fem, so obviously I love to see women winning in fiction and in real life: but...it's very white feminist to write a story about women in very different cultures and settings and circumstances and try to impose your own slogan-on-a-mug and tshirt shallow feminism on to them. I'm so over it. And there's just a flood of historical novels like this now. And they're all so embarrassing. These female main characters written by this type of woman are always the most 2019 American woman you've ever met. Elaborating would take another review itself so I'm going to just leave it at that.
As for the book.
I despised Ana. Not once did I connect to her. She was unrealistic as a fourteen year old, whiny, ridiculous, unrealistic (again) and she never grew as she aged. Huge missed opportunity since so much time passed. There was nothing ever dynamic about her character. She lived in a society where she would be expected to behave in very specific ways, and the fact that she always at every single opportunity behaved differently was just, no. You mean to tell me you're the only girl in all of Judea who wishes to read, begs to read, absolutely dreads doing any kind of weaving, never sings or dances, but you love to read and do the work of a scribe? Oh and you publicly protested your betrothal to a powerful man of your community, and you SLAPPED the king?
He says: oh I like them with a fight in them
(No. No. No. Do you really think you could hit a powerful man (or any man really, bffr) and he would say he liked it? And the reason was that you hit him while standing up for yourself? Has the author met men in real life lol? Even the "nicest" ones can be controlling. Men don't even like when women politely set boundaries, they get very vicious at women, let alone you trying to physically strike out at them. So no. Be realistic.)
And she did it all whilst under the age of fifteen? A child with no one on her side?
Lol lol what young girl acts like this? I understand the need to have her be an active protagonist, but I just don't think these reactions are appropriate. It would've felt more real to me if she tried to obey but find loopholes for herself etc. Or maybe had different circumstances. Anything but this storyline. But I don't even know anyway, it's the author's job to make the plot and make it appropriate and make it make SENSE *waves hand with a snort
As if that isn't enough, Ana just doesn't grow. She just never thinks of consequences, she's just stubborn and boring. She's the very typical not like other girls female main character. She looks down on the women of her community, you get this sense. Everyone has to bend to her, and she just stomps over them all. She never once tries to participate like the average person would do.
Actually nobody was quite likable. Jesus as a character was a piece of cardboard. He just, didn't shine. And how do you have the character of Jesus in a story and not make this iconic figure interesting lol? Also we don't get to hear or see much of what He does. And I think the story had room to do that.
Leading me to my next point. I think that the premise is great. I picked up this book just because of the description. And from a technical pov, Ana's story is great. There were some plot points and passages that definitely were pretty cool story-wise. I think Ana's story still could have been centered while making Jesus come to life in a really magnificent way. (No, I'm not religious, I just love the stories). I was definitely a little disappointed that there were no miracles. Come on, really?
Okay now about the dialogue. So stiff. Nobody had a real voice. I ended up skimming so much. I couldn't feel anything.
Setting was good. Nice descriptions.
Very, very boring exposition and general writing. I read The Secret Life of Bees and loved it. What happened here? Did my standards rise higher? But it was just so hard to read, so dull and plain.
There were some pretty sentences about longings and bowls and magic and secrets but I wasn't connecting with these characters. I think it was just such a letdown because I had high expectations from an author and period I really enjoy? flop.
(ps. check out my booktok I just started https://www.tiktok.com/@rachelreading001 )