bekahpaige 's review for:

Pearl In The Sand by Tessa Afshar

2.0

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I was intrigued by the premise of this book, hoping that it would be realistic historical fiction based on a little-known Bible character. I still maintain that such a premise is a brilliant idea. I wonder if authors are too afraid to boldly follow this idea, fearing Christian reprisals from close-minded people who would freak out at any attempt to make these stories and characters human and realistic, instead of "holy" and full of miracles. Regardless, this is not the book that I was hoping for. This reads very much like a Bible story, quite cheesy at times, full of miracles, and overly preachy. Not much different from reading my Children's Bible back in the day. Rahab being sold into prostitution by her family at 15 and the trauma of that is brushed over by an author that appears to want to avoid the nitty gritty details of trauma and focus on converting and healing people with PTSD solely through faith and God and of course, marrying a good man. I will say that it could have been much worse, and I was fearing as it progressed that it was going to become very patriarchal, but the author presented a fairly even-handed portrayal of the failings of both the male and female character and I liked that Rahab wasn't "saved" through her husband. There was some stuff that made me very squeamish though, such as him ordering her around and forcing her to talk about her trauma. Somehow I don't think that's how it works, dude. Overall, interesting premise and provided some insight into a long forgotten culture and to a barely mentioned female character in a religious book dominated by men, a fairly enjoyable read, but I wish it had gone deeper and braver into the subject matter.

P.S. Thanks Nicole for "lending" this to me!