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cinnamonpuns's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
martydah's review against another edition
3.0
Since other readers have commented on the weirdness of this novel, I won't belabor the point. I gave this book three stars because it was an imaginative view on the question of faith and its relevance in the 21st century. It was also very well written and easy to get into, despite the seemingly bizarre characters.
mazza57's review against another edition
1.0
This has to be the weirdest book I have ever read. £ nuns live in a crumbling monastery cu off from the worl. the entrance hidden and overgrown. A pries is sent by the Bishop to assess the monastery for its saleablility to a conglomerate who want to build a paradise away from it all. Not surprisingly the 3 nuns are far from enamoured by the prospect. They begin to act like a triumvirate of Annie Wilkes In Stephen King's [b:Misery|10614|Misery|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554220401l/10614._SY75_.jpg|3230869].
Their attempts to stop the priest leaving descend into a level of increasing horror for the reading as the sisters encase both his legs in plaster and don't allow him even the decency of tending to his personal needs. AT this point i think the author to a dose of one of the sister's herbs and engages in symbolism and activities that are just nauseating and unnecessary as they drink their own blood and smear it around.
I felt it just went too far, it was a very uncomfortable read although the ending did bring a bit of lightness to the story. It is certainly not one i would recommend to anyone else and if it is indicative of the rest of the author's opus she is not one i would read again.
I am not sure how to rate it as i can see that some might think it quite clever but I am still washing the sour taste out of my mouth
Their attempts to stop the priest leaving descend into a level of increasing horror for the reading as the sisters encase both his legs in plaster and don't allow him even the decency of tending to his personal needs. AT this point i think the author to a dose of one of the sister's herbs and engages in symbolism and activities that are just nauseating and unnecessary as they drink their own blood and smear it around.
I felt it just went too far, it was a very uncomfortable read although the ending did bring a bit of lightness to the story. It is certainly not one i would recommend to anyone else and if it is indicative of the rest of the author's opus she is not one i would read again.
I am not sure how to rate it as i can see that some might think it quite clever but I am still washing the sour taste out of my mouth
triciasreadings's review against another edition
4.0
If you have 3 Nuns in an old run down monastery on a deserted island with sheep as company then of course there’s going to be knitting. When a priest turns up to value the buildings because he wants to turn it into a resort your going to have a mutiny- and this is Lambs of God.
Beautifully written and a great story. Amusing at times yet a little dramatic, but a fairly easygoing read.
I recommend this to anyone who is looking for light and fluffy. There is lots of worship - cause it is about Nuns- but they are some kickass survival nuns so it’s worth it.
Beautifully written and a great story. Amusing at times yet a little dramatic, but a fairly easygoing read.
I recommend this to anyone who is looking for light and fluffy. There is lots of worship - cause it is about Nuns- but they are some kickass survival nuns so it’s worth it.
lmwanak's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This was an interesting book. The first book SG recommended to me, and it did not disappoint. I wanted something that involved faith but also myths, slow and reflective and maybe funny. Lambs of God fell into many of these categories.Â
Three forgotten nuns on a remote island receive a visit from a priest, who is assessing the land for a high-class resort that would put money back into the church. For the nuns, this will not do. The crumbling monastery is their home, and the priest is anathema to everything they know. So, well, they prevent him from finishing the assessment.
The book wants to be funny. The nuns are uncivilized in the eyes of the priest and isolated from outside human contact, they are portrayed as almost as animalistic as the sheep they care for. Carla is the youngest (roughly around her upper 40s, I think) and the most eccentric and child-like, having spent all her life at the monastery. Margurite is the most suspicious, and rightly so, given what we learn from her past. Ipaphengia is the oldest and has the curious talent of having the keenest nose, able to smell anything from anywhere on the island. Their faith has evolved to a mixture of Catholicism and paganism, with a smattering of retold fairy tales thrown in (they love to tell stories -- my favorite scene is when Margurite retells Beauty and the Beast and the priest gets upset). And there's knitting. So much knitting, that it feels like a religion itself.
Among this idyllic life, however when the nuns learn of the priest's plan, they drug him and hold him captive by plastering his legs together so he can't run off. I think this is supposed to be humorous, but I found it horrifying. Pompous and arrogant as the priest is, it was very uncomfortable seeing him held captive and at the mercy of the sisters. There's also an action done by Carla that is very non-consensual (it isn't made clear, but the implications are enough). It's all very weird and uncomfortable and definitely took some enjoyment out of the book for me.
Writing-wise, I enjoyed the slow, rambling nature of the book. There's a lot of 3rd person POV mixing and muddling, but I think it works in this in that it gives a clear picture of what everyone is thinking (and it's been a long, long time since I've read an Omni-pov book. I kind of miss it.) Some of the revelations in the book did leave me wanting a bit more. I wanted to know why Ipaphengia chose the monastic life when we're given reasons about the other two. What was life like when there were more sisters in the monastery? What will happen to the sisters now? The ending seems happy, but it still gave me a sense of bleakness.
Three forgotten nuns on a remote island receive a visit from a priest, who is assessing the land for a high-class resort that would put money back into the church. For the nuns, this will not do. The crumbling monastery is their home, and the priest is anathema to everything they know. So, well, they prevent him from finishing the assessment.
The book wants to be funny. The nuns are uncivilized in the eyes of the priest and isolated from outside human contact, they are portrayed as almost as animalistic as the sheep they care for. Carla is the youngest (roughly around her upper 40s, I think) and the most eccentric and child-like, having spent all her life at the monastery. Margurite is the most suspicious, and rightly so, given what we learn from her past. Ipaphengia is the oldest and has the curious talent of having the keenest nose, able to smell anything from anywhere on the island. Their faith has evolved to a mixture of Catholicism and paganism, with a smattering of retold fairy tales thrown in (they love to tell stories -- my favorite scene is when Margurite retells Beauty and the Beast and the priest gets upset). And there's knitting. So much knitting, that it feels like a religion itself.
Among this idyllic life, however
Writing-wise, I enjoyed the slow, rambling nature of the book. There's a lot of 3rd person POV mixing and muddling, but I think it works in this in that it gives a clear picture of what everyone is thinking (and it's been a long, long time since I've read an Omni-pov book. I kind of miss it.) Some of the revelations in the book did leave me wanting a bit more. I wanted to know why Ipaphengia chose the monastic life when we're given reasons about the other two. What was life like when there were more sisters in the monastery? What will happen to the sisters now? The ending seems happy, but it still gave me a sense of bleakness.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Misogyny
sarah1984's review against another edition
3.0
Slightly wacky book about a trio of nuns and their determination to keep their convent, even under the pressure of a priest's dreams of rising in the church's hierarchy and how he plans to achieve that. Not sure if this book would encourage me to read other Marele Day books - it was decent, but not the highlight of my year (or anywhere near it). The TV adaptation was equally wacky, but did follow the book, mostly.
missalwayswrite715's review against another edition
4.0
I very much enjoyed this book! The lush imagery and deeply evocative characters lent an otherworldly and spiritual mist throughout the entire novel. It was thought provoking and humorous and poignant. I was especially in love with the character of Sister Carla whose innocence and child like wonder were so well developed and integral to the story and its overall symbolic themes.
Is the book an odd one? Oh yes! However, Marele Day is a superb storyteller and brings forth such a page turning , bittersweet, and in depth tale of faith, mysticism, and the struggle of wills and divine intervention.
Is the book an odd one? Oh yes! However, Marele Day is a superb storyteller and brings forth such a page turning , bittersweet, and in depth tale of faith, mysticism, and the struggle of wills and divine intervention.
jennifer60656's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
stefhyena's review
5.0
This strange and unsettling book is full of destabilising events. We begin in an abbey, where there are only three sisters left and their religious observances have taken on a peculiar flavour all of their own. They weave fairy tales and ancient myths as well as pagan beliefs through their understanding and observance of Christian monastic life and they have begun to connect with the environment in ways that are represented by dirt, by the wool they spin and wear and the sheep they have a symbiotic relationship with (and know they have begun to resemble). There are three nuns of differing ages, but they manage not to take on quite the stereotypes you would expect from them (although Carla comes close) nor do they quite fit the old cliche of maiden, mother, crone.
Their life is enclosed, they do not even see the seals, nor the causeway that is as shifting as the plot and relationships of the book and comes and goes to connect their "island" to the mainland, but at low-tide when there is a causeway a young and ambitious priest comes across to look at what he thinks is an abandoned monastery and to get it ready for selling or developing.
This is where it gets weird, with Ignatius as sort of a colonist coming into what he has already decided is "terra nullius" and all too ready to see the inhabitants as savages, especially given the lack of separation between themselves and their environment. Things like cutlery and dependence on technology are presented as evidence of being "civilised" while the sisters are portrayed as animalistic, instinct driven, rarely even speaking and kind of disgusting actually. At the same time throughout the book this view of them is undermined from time to time, both by Ignatius' occasional sexual attraction to one of them and by the many instances of culture by these "savages" their greater ability to weave myths and daily life together in complex ways as well as the technology of carding, spinning and knitting...human hair added to the mix. This is about gender- gendered power, culture and technology as the conflict of interests between Ignatius and the community becomes a potentially deadly game of wits.
Ignatius underestimates the three women by a long way and the reader is almost led to do the same (though there are hints all along). The "happy ending" almost seems too contrived and simple, it is achieved through the author unravelling the ideas of enclosure and in some ways self-defeating because the sisters can only win through by using power from the world they have abandoned (and a male is pivotal in this). In this story ONLY the master's tools can destroy the master's house but along the way we get some cynical views of church, culture, male power and ownership. Place and personhood are explored (often uncomfortably) and "knowing" is made complex as the irrational triumphs again and again. Surprising amounts of tolerance and forgiveness strew the emotional landscape but abuse and suffering can also lead to violence and death, while all sorts of unpleasant odors are constantly present along with dirt and degradation.
There's a disappointingly conventional and heteronormative view of sexuality, although the exploration of celibacies was sort of interesting, it wasn't quite as cynically treated as I expected (as you often find). At the end the author, reader and characters in effect have their cake (honey biscuits) and eat it too, the story weakens to allow resolution and to bring back a sense of taking the spirituality in the text more-or-less seriously (I had mixed feelings about this).
It's well worth a read and very thought provoking.
Their life is enclosed, they do not even see the seals, nor the causeway that is as shifting as the plot and relationships of the book and comes and goes to connect their "island" to the mainland, but at low-tide when there is a causeway a young and ambitious priest comes across to look at what he thinks is an abandoned monastery and to get it ready for selling or developing.
This is where it gets weird, with Ignatius as sort of a colonist coming into what he has already decided is "terra nullius" and all too ready to see the inhabitants as savages, especially given the lack of separation between themselves and their environment. Things like cutlery and dependence on technology are presented as evidence of being "civilised" while the sisters are portrayed as animalistic, instinct driven, rarely even speaking and kind of disgusting actually. At the same time throughout the book this view of them is undermined from time to time, both by Ignatius' occasional sexual attraction to one of them and by the many instances of culture by these "savages" their greater ability to weave myths and daily life together in complex ways as well as the technology of carding, spinning and knitting...human hair added to the mix. This is about gender- gendered power, culture and technology as the conflict of interests between Ignatius and the community becomes a potentially deadly game of wits.
Ignatius underestimates the three women by a long way and the reader is almost led to do the same (though there are hints all along). The "happy ending" almost seems too contrived and simple, it is achieved through the author unravelling the ideas of enclosure and in some ways self-defeating because the sisters can only win through by using power from the world they have abandoned (and a male is pivotal in this). In this story ONLY the master's tools can destroy the master's house but along the way we get some cynical views of church, culture, male power and ownership. Place and personhood are explored (often uncomfortably) and "knowing" is made complex as the irrational triumphs again and again. Surprising amounts of tolerance and forgiveness strew the emotional landscape but abuse and suffering can also lead to violence and death, while all sorts of unpleasant odors are constantly present along with dirt and degradation.
There's a disappointingly conventional and heteronormative view of sexuality, although the exploration of celibacies was sort of interesting, it wasn't quite as cynically treated as I expected (as you often find). At the end the author, reader and characters in effect have their cake (honey biscuits) and eat it too, the story weakens to allow resolution and to bring back a sense of taking the spirituality in the text more-or-less seriously (I had mixed feelings about this).
It's well worth a read and very thought provoking.