Initially, I was disappointed with the characters, especially Miriam. She seems very focused on herself and her relationship with El Shaddai – but then I realized that Andrews is actually doing a brilliant job of portraying Miriam like the Miriam in the Bible. From the little we read about Miriam in the Bible, she had her own self-interest at heart as well (which is why she was struck with leprosy). Instead of creating likable characters, Andrews presents them realistically – whether we like them or not.
Andrews included a Bible verse to introduce each chapter, which I really appreciated. Unfortunately, Andrews quickly lost my attention. It was a struggle to read about a character that didn’t seem to grow very much. Miriam was self-absorbed throughout the book, concerned with the loss of El Shaddai’s presence. Everything else was an afterthought.
“Can you imagine losing your ability to see colors or taste the sweetness of honey? That’s a shadowy glimpse at the loss I feel at El Shaddai’s silence.” -pg 72
In the very last pages, Miriam finally learns that there are other ways to sense El Shaddai – Yahweh – but by that time I was so thoroughly annoyed with her that it didn’t matter too much.
Miriam was more on the historical side than the fiction side, which is probably why I didn’t like it more. If you are really into history, you would probably enjoy it much more than I did.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
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