Friday, August 31, 2012

Summer Book Review - Love Amid the Ashes

One of my summer reads was The Red Tent about Dinah. I like it so much (minus the one offensive scene) that someone recommended this book. A few days later I found it on display in my church library.

Book: Love Amid the Ashes (story of Dinah and Job)
Author: Mesu Andrews
Published by: Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

What I learned: How NOT to write a book.

What I liked: 
1. The book cover. 

2. The character of Job (he was the most believable and stable of all the characters). 

3. Message of God's love and forgiveness. The love that Job had for God even with the terrible misfortunes and his witness to those around him. 

4. The use of scripture at opening of every chapter.

What I didn't like: 
1. Overuse of cliches and description (facial expressions and body language) to the point that I wanted to scream. Ex. “Jacob raised his chin once again, as though grief and remorse would slide off his hard exterior like water off a bird’s wings.” I could handle one or two of these, but not one or two per page!

2. Unbelievable character actions. Ex. Esau and Jacob at 100 years old had temper tantrums like 2 year olds. 

3. Sub plot with Job's wife, Sitis, and her evil admirer Sayyid was a ridiculous way to bring extra conflict into the story. He was so obsessed with Sitis that all his servants looked just like her. Really? Gag. And later, he was easily killed off.

4. I also found this Review. I agree with it 100%. If you have a minute, it's a good read.

Recommend? No. This is the first book I've read all summer that I would not recommend. This is a debut novel, so I would expect some newbie writing mistakes, but the cliches are so bad that I can hardly finish reading.




2 comments:

  1. That stinks - I don't like when authors over-write the story and it's annoying. I've always liked the story of Job, but I'll pass on this book.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I like the story of Job too and I liked his character in the book, but that was about it. I did end of finishing the book, but it was painful.

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