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A review by valtimke
Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund
4.0
I am somewhat surprised to see this book rated so lowly on Goodreads. I think it has a lot to do with the author establishing first with "Ahab's Wife," a historical fiction novel, and this book is worlds apart from that. This read would be more like a 3.5 stat read for me, but I'll get into what I think was and wasn't working:
The main thing that caught my attention was the overall flatness of the main character, Lucy. I feel like we receive bits and pieces of her background that were created in a void just to give her life, such as her two childhood friends that were mentioned throughout the novel yet never seen. Adam was more visceral, and I also loved the characterization of Pierre and Arielle. These were the characters I latched onto. As for the concept of this story, it does lean more into the discovery of the biblical codex than of extraterrestrial life. Thankfully, I'm a fan of both premises (being a science fiction writer as well as a Religious Studies major). I think at times the book strayed from the codex and how the characters felt about it/how it would change the nature of religious thought if it were to be publicized, but I personally liked falling into these odd spaces of human prehistory. The cave scenes and ultimately the end of the novel were quite satisfactory.
Honestly, I picked this book up without checking the ratings (though I checked them after). I wouldn't have bought it had I seen that it had a 2.8, so I'm letting this be a lesson to me that I don't have to agree with others' opinions. I'm glad I didn't go with the masses on this one. I even chose to read it now as a "what not to do" when writing about topical matters considering that it didn't seem to resonate with people as is, but it seems that mission has failed since I ended up enjoying this book.
The main thing that caught my attention was the overall flatness of the main character, Lucy. I feel like we receive bits and pieces of her background that were created in a void just to give her life, such as her two childhood friends that were mentioned throughout the novel yet never seen. Adam was more visceral, and I also loved the characterization of Pierre and Arielle. These were the characters I latched onto. As for the concept of this story, it does lean more into the discovery of the biblical codex than of extraterrestrial life. Thankfully, I'm a fan of both premises (being a science fiction writer as well as a Religious Studies major). I think at times the book strayed from the codex and how the characters felt about it/how it would change the nature of religious thought if it were to be publicized, but I personally liked falling into these odd spaces of human prehistory. The cave scenes and ultimately the end of the novel were quite satisfactory.
Honestly, I picked this book up without checking the ratings (though I checked them after). I wouldn't have bought it had I seen that it had a 2.8, so I'm letting this be a lesson to me that I don't have to agree with others' opinions. I'm glad I didn't go with the masses on this one. I even chose to read it now as a "what not to do" when writing about topical matters considering that it didn't seem to resonate with people as is, but it seems that mission has failed since I ended up enjoying this book.