3 out of 4 stars
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Having grown up in church, going to Sunday school every week, I am fairly familiar with the stories of Creation and Adam and Eve. So this rendition of the story, albeit fictitious in nature, appealed to me. The author, Alice Langholt, did a phenomenal job bringing the characters of God, Adam, Eve, and their sons to life. Each chapter was sectioned into a different character’s perspective, with each section taking place at the same time as the others in the chapter.
The story opens on Adam waking up in the Garden of Eden, just after he was created. As Adam explores and names the creatures, he realizes that he has no “other,” no one like himself as the other creatures have. As a result of Adam’s loneliness, God creates Eve. As the two humans learn and grow together, Eve discovers the Tree of Knowledge. Adam tells Eve that that is the only plant they are not allowed to eat from. As most of us familiar with this story know, Eve did not listen to Adam; she wanted more than what was being provided in the Garden. She wanted more knowledge, more understanding, and more life. As a result of the two humans eating the forbidden food, God expels them from the Garden; they had matured beyond needing the easy life of the Garden. The two venture forth and find a place to live. They farm, and have their two sons, Cain and Abel. The reader is offered a more detailed view into the lives of the children. The entire family learns many valuable lessons.
I greatly enjoyed this book. It is very difficult to pinpoint one particular aspect of this story that I liked, but since I must, I will say that I enjoyed the general concept of the story the most. I enjoyed reading a Bible story I grew up with in more detail, even if it is fictional detail. Everything about the characters’ lives and personalities is completely plausible; nothing is so far out there in the realms of fiction that it does not have a possibility of being true.
The thing that I liked the most about how this book was written was how Eve is portrayed. She is portrayed as very strong willed, independent, and intelligent. She was not satisfied with what Adam thought she was ready to learn, so she took matters into her own hands and fixed it. Then she was so overcome with happiness at just knowing that she felt she should share it with her other, even though he was smothering her in a way.
The things I disliked the most about this story was Cain and how his parents handled him. There was very little character development and explanation for why he was so angry all the time. Adam and Eve tried their best to be good parents, but there were times where they should have sat Cain down and, instead of shoving God down his throat, just talked to him. Forcing your religion upon someone and ignoring the fact that being so forceful could be the problem is not very good parenting. That’s not how you raise an understanding, emotionally stable child. They tried, but their ways of parenting Cain could have been handled better.
I also did not like that the formatting for Kindle was inserting random numbers in places where numbers should not have been. I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. It was a very good, quick read, but the random numbers broke my concentration. This is a great book for those interested in exploring Biblical historical Fictions.
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First Family
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