Reviews

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

sarahamymcneil's review against another edition

3.0

sort of an "i'm not like the other girls" bible fanfiction, in which the indisputably significant historical figure of jesus is effectively reduced to Cute Boy With Nice Eyes ft. Blatant Historical Inaccuracies. as much as i am HERE for exposing the church's systematic erasure of womanhood and context, i'm...not sure this was the way to go?

jencunn2024's review against another edition

5.0

This will most likely rank up there with one of my best reads of 2020. I loved this so much! It took me a few chapters before I really started getting into it, mainly because of tons of character names and the huge leap in time. But once I was hooked by the protagonist and her story, I was all in. She’s Judas Iscariot’s sister and the wife of Jesus. The author, Susan Monk Kidd, creates an alternate narrative focused on Jesus’s humanness. She interweaves Ana’s story into the New Testament narratives with which we are already familiar, and with actual Roman, Jewish, and Egyptian history. At the same time, it’s an interesting alternative narrative and somehow a more modern story for women of that time.

It would be a good club read.
Lots to discuss!

kim_j_dare's review against another edition

4.0

A compelling story that invites readers to put aside their certainty that Jesus never married. Ana’s narration allows us to understand just how much women’s voices were silenced in the first century, and to realize that the meticulously researched story that Kidd gives us is not so improbable. The reverence with which Kidd treats her subjects is lovely.

sambam_42's review against another edition

4.0

Review to come.

dabrandt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

creadsreviews's review against another edition

4.0

I was nervous about the premise of this book, but found the author did a good job of handling a delicate topic with beautiful writing. This was much more Ana’s story than anything else. Ending was a bit rushed which docked a star from me along with some minor historical inaccuracies but, it is historical fiction for a reason.

julie_h's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

bkmckown's review against another edition

4.5

I loved the uniqueness of this fictional history of Anna and Jesus. It was such a neat take on the story and I loved the authors note about the research she did for this book. Ana was the MC and Jesus was just a backstory but seeing from another POC was very interesting. 

funteamjen's review against another edition

3.0

While I typically enjoy this author's books and this one was well written, I found the story to be far too implausible to give it any higher than 3 stars. With historical fiction, you need to believe that it could actually happen and this just stretched the fiction aspect way too far. I also found it to be quite slow-moving and a bit anti-climactic.

carlymforrest's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5