Reviews with content warning for Infertility - The Red Tent

On one hand, it's a fascinating retelling of parts of Genesis.

On the other hand, I greatly disagree with some of the characterization/explanations/actions. It really felt like the author just wanted to take biblical people and smear them as much as possible because she can. "Look, your biblical figures were horrible people with no actual redeeming qualities." The female characters were lifted onto pedestals at the expense of the morality of the men.

idk, I think depicting Rebekah as a pagan priestess bothered me the most. My girl Rebekah was a righteous, chosen woman. It does her so dirty to have her act cruelly with family and despise her husband while she runs the moon temple. It's not empowering or feminist. It sucks. Obviously she wasn't a perfect person, but when you're righting a novel exploring characters, why would you choose to make her wicked?

Again, there were some really cool parts of this novel. Some perspectives were great, the relationship between Jacob's wives was actually delightful. But a lot of the book felt spiteful.

Reading statements from the author makes me feel better about things. Still not my favorite book tho.

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el_pacheco's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Men are bad and boorish and everything evil under the sun unless they can do their jobs as studs and pleasure women. Women are mystical beings whose biggest accomplishments are bleeding and birthing because that's the real meaning of Womahood™. A simplification of this wack ass retelling. I don't know anything of the author and I'm not a super expert on the Old Testament story (I did see José do Egito, a Brazilian biblical tv series/telenovela about Joseph's story lol) but I can tell there were choices made here that were just to shit on the tradition just bc she could but were kinda sus. That's within her artistic license sure but there was no profound commentary, just a very New Age, White Feminist take that hasn't aged well. There were a few good passages but overall it was a version of glorifying a type of Womanhood™ I really loathe. I only finished it bc it had the keyword in one of my reading challenges and was intrigued how she'd tackle some other points of the story but it was unbearable to say the least.

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laserdiscreader's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I'm vaguely confident this was a reread and, if it was, it was just as enjoyable the second time round. A wonderful piece of biblical fiction about a woman I never learned about in church yet recognized every part of her story because of who her family is. I loved the reimagining of why certain religious traditions were/are as they were/are and it was refreshing to read such a familiar story through the modern, feminist lense. My copy also had a Q&A with the author which was a fun post-read cool down to hear her own thoughts of how the book has been received by various groups.

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