Great read. Surprising, interesting, very well written. A wonderful piece to dissect with a book club as well.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* different for sure, good read and kinda creepy too, would reread

Though the premise of this book was interesting- climate change leading to global disaster- I did not enjoy the story at all. I found all the characters to be annoying and unsympathetic. My book club was reading A Children's Bible, so I begrudgingly finished it. I was glad to put it down and I could not recommend it to anyone.

#netgalley #achildren'sbible

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this one. It's my first experience with the author. And the beginning especially drew me in with a group of early teens taking over the summer coastal rental under the very lackadaisical supervision of their parents. I enjoyed the game that they played to deny who's parent was who's to see who would be the last to be outed. The adolescent disdain for the parents and adults in general is easy to recall and certainly rings true - though the adult side will be rather horrified at the outright neglect of the children and the flow of booze and drugs.

The book shifts from this in a rather abrupt way into a totally different sort of book. And I think if the characters had more depth to them, it would have better supported this genre shift. Still, as it stands, I am sure that this title will incite lively discussions amongst its readers (or listeners as in my case). I did appreciate the way the titular children's Bible is used.

I have been a longstanding fan of the audio performer and, as usual, she does a lovely job with this one. The book is pretty brief, but because I never felt connected to any of the characters, it almost felt long to me. I just didn't love it the way that I wanted to. But, I certainly did not expect any of the plot's turns and it kept my attention throughout.

With all that’s going on, you may have forgotten that tonight the winners of the National Book Awards 2020 are announced, and that tomorrow The Booker Prize is awarded. I have never been good at predicting the winners, but I should be, since I’ve read—or listened to— most of the books on the both fiction shortlists, and I study judges’ proclivities.

Both lists may seem underwhelming with debut novels, more obscure writers, a few small presses—yeah!—and minor key topics. For the NBA, I liked Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind, and, evidently, Hollywood does too as Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts have signed on; others I have talked to are not as impressed, but I enjoyed the balancing act of characters either being paranoid the world is ending or not.

Having watched the gentrification struggles with L.A.’s Chinatown of late, I was thrilled that the committee looked beyond Charles Yu’s screenplay-designed gimmick to find a very touching father-son story. Also, Yu tackles the stereotypes Asian actors confront with crackling low-minded humor.

My favorite, however, is Lydia Millet’s eco-thriller, A Children’s Bible, (thanks #netgalley,) which has the best older sister-younger brother relationship I’ve ever read: together they survive both a massive East Coast flood and the marauding vigilantes who descend after the flood. Before the eco-disaster, the young boy Jack, whose parents are atheists, finds a children’s bible, becomes mesmerized with the stories and starts collecting animals, Noah-like. The dialogue is sublime, at times satiric, simple, modern, and other times antediluvian.

The Scottish poverty-porn Shuggie Bain has been nominated for both awards, the first time since 2015’s A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara. While Douglas Stuart’s debut novel also features a gay protagonist and is well written, I doubt it will have the cross-over success A Little Life had.

(from Instagram--160 likes)

Lydia Millet is the perfect writer for this type of story. Not only does she boast an extensive list of similar titles, but she works for the Center for Biological Diversity outside of Tucson, so it's no wonder that she writes about the intersection between man and nature. Before diving into the plot, Millet's writing is lyrical, shamanistic, and timeless. A strange alchemy of Rachel Carson and Isabel Allende. 'A Children's Bible' is my first introduction to her work if this book .is any indication of her writing as a whole, it has made me a devoted fan.

Set against the East Coast a group of elite children are spending the season together in a large house their upper crust parents have rented. While the parents are spending most of their time drinking and engaging in trysts, the children must fend for themselves. Our narrator, Eve, guides us through this sordid and spoiled world of Bovarism and pretension. Along with her younger brother, Jack, we catch glimpses of a weird and privileged world. When a devastating storm sweeps through, Eve, Jack, and the other children must band together to survive in a world turned upside down.

Acting not exactly as a totems for this narrative, are the stories that Jack has been reading from a children's Bible given to him earlier in the season. The archetypes of Paradise, the Garden, Exile, Cain and Abel, and so on - while reworked in grim detail - do not carry the same symbolic weight that readers might expect. Instead, these stories are allowed to flourish within the narrative as interpreted by Jack and the other children.

'A Children's Bible' is an engaging, poignant, thoroughly curious, critical, and reflective story that captivated me.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
Narrated by: Xe Sands
Publication Date: May 12, 2020 - Available Now!
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Description rom NetGalley...
“An indelible novel of teenage alienation and adult complacency in an unraveling world...follows a group of twelve eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their parents, who pass their days in a stupor of liquor, drugs, and sex, the children feel neglected and suffocated at the same time.

When a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, the group’s ringleaders―including Eve, who narrates the story―decide to run away, leading the younger ones on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside.

As the scenes of devastation begin to mimic events in the dog-eared picture Bible carried around by her beloved little brother, Eve devotes herself to keeping him safe from harm.
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Thank you to @NetGalley @dreamescape_media for the audiobook ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
I really,really liked this book. I may even 🤎 it. I thought the narrator’s take on this book was perfect. She sounded like a totally laid back teenager at the start, to a teenager who starts to mature and care more. She was so melodic. I appreciated how the narration flowed from Eve’s point of view, and describing the others and their circumstances well. It was not a religious story that you may expect from the title. There was a parallel to the Bible stories. Some may even say prophetic, that could teach us about the end times. The story had raw emotions in some parts, that opened the themes of generational divide, who was parenting whom, and a disturbing vision of being disappointed by those who were supposed to protect us. This book is probably not for everyone. It’s a cross between The Lord of the Flies and Contagion (I know, but those two are what came to mind). Keep an open mind if you decide to pick up this book because it was a mixed cautionary tale of pandemic, environmental changes, diseases and the book of Revelation.

Ugh, I figured a National Book Award nominee with teenage protagonists in a doomsday scenario would be right up my alley, but this was painful. A biblical allegory combined with jaded, hypocritical teens, precocious children, and parents who have fallen straight into Sodom and Gomorrah. The book tackles issues of climate change, family disconnectedness, and wealth, but mostly presents adulthood as a sickness, a morally bankrupt condition. These teens swear they'll never be like their parents, but also want access to pot, cell phones, and swanky guest houses. The narrator's voice is so infuriatingly blase as the main character Eve that it's almost impossible to get into the book--I can't believe I listened to the whole thing.

This was a trip of an audiobook.

First of all, the quality was subpar. That could be attributed to the book being an advanced copy, but listening at any speed above 1.2x resulted in a tiny, metallic echo of the narrator's voice - which for me did NOT fly. I like to listen to books at least at 2x speed, which was just simply impossible due to the lackluster audio quality in this case.

Apart from that, I feel like the story fell pretty short for me. There seemed to be too many characters to keep track of, and in such a short amount of time, I didn't have the opportunity to connect to any of them. Even the main character, who narrates the events of the story, seemed far away. It felt like her inner dialogue didn't match her outer dialogue, especially when she was talking to her little brother.

I'm sure there are people out there who will really enjoy what this book has to offer, it just was not for me.

And now for this year's version of "book critics love the weirdest stuff". This book is a finalist for the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for Fiction. Are critics only reading "weird literary fiction" and not reading all the great books I've read this year? I guess because this book is whack-a-do. I've read some great literary fiction (and all types of books) this year that are worlds better and more enjoyable.

There's the worst group of parents ever who ignore their kids and drink and do drugs and have open orgies and leave their group of kids to fend for themselves. And then a big storm hits (think apocalypse) and the kids then REALLY have to fend for themselves. It's like Lord of the Flies and a little Station Eleven (not to insult S11, which I love.) There's some sort of biblical events tie in's that I didn't really get (floods, plagues, saving animals, cut off from the rest of the world.) The parents remain TERRIBLE and the kids have to help them survive. Forever. There's a little action, but not much and no real resolution. At least it was short.

I listened to it on audio and the narrator was dry and I could tell she wanted to explain this book to me so badly, but even she could not save it (or maybe I'm just not a real literary book critic. I'm ok with that. At least I don't have to read books like this all the time and try to explain what they mean.)

Thank you (?) to NetGalley for giving me the chance to review this audiobook. 1.5 stars- to the kids who were doing it for themselves.

Weird, eerie, highly symbolic and unique science fiction novel - perfect for these odd times we're in.

I'm not usually one to read science fiction, but lately with the pandemic and the spooky Halloween season it's all I've been craving A Children's Bible immediately spoke to me with its outrageous plot: twelve children decide to run away from their immature, neglecting parents during a lakeside vacation... during an apocalyptic storm. This get even weirder when the conditions outside look just like the events from the Bible, which one of the kids carries around.

The story follows the children through the narrative of Eve, basically a leader of the group. This was mind-blowing to me because we know that Eve is just a child, thus making for an interesting/unreliable narrator of such a dangerous and serious expedition. But what's more, she uses a plural pronoun "we", reminiscent of the Bible and the cult-like group victim to their horrible parents, giving me such spooky vibes I couldn't shake it off.

Finally, I would highly recommend the audiobook version of this novel. The narrator does a really good job pronouncing all the emotions and keeping up with the spooky vibe of this book, making it a special experience for me.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

A group of college friends rent a huge old mansion for the summer. Their 12 children play a game of hiding their parents’ identity from each other and demonstrate great distain for their parents. These are parents unrivaled in all of literature, except perhaps by those in The Glass Castle. A storm of apocalyptic force informs the action and it’s the kids who take charge, fleeing to safety. There’s so much in this book. It’s a quick unputdownable novel that reads like Lord of the Flies.

I was very intrigued by this story and it certainly was interesting. It is a sort of dystopian, apocalyptic story. A group of parents and children are vacationing together and the parents are the worst and basically neglect there kids. And then all sorts of strange things happen that seem to be somewhat connect to a children's Bible one of the characters is carrying around. It is a really critical look at the parents and the kids are all quite impressive. The symbolism runs deep in the story. I listened to the audio version and I am not sure if I really cared for the narrator. The voice sounded so detached from all that was happen. Not my favorite narration, but the story was certainly interesting.

I’m not sure how I feel about A Children’s Bible. The story wasn’t my favorite, but the writing was beautiful. I did enjoy the narrator a great deal and thought she added so much to the story. I just don’t think this one is for me. It’s a dystopian novel that does seem to be examining our current culture but it just fell short for me. I think some would love it, so I would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook.

While this got very good reviews and is on the National Book Award longlist, I was not a fan. There was no real plot that I could figure out and for a short book, it moved very slowly. There were parts that reminded me of “Lost”, which I always thought was aptly named because I always was🤷‍♀️As a Christian, I found the Bible parallels rather blasphemous (fortunately there’s weren’t many), although in the children’s defense (this was a story after all), they had no teaching so it was their interpretation. In all, I didn’t understand exactly what Millet wanted me to takeaway from this story. Xe Sands has never been a favorite narrator of mine, but I do have to say I liked her better in this book than any other I have heard her narrate. With the language and adult themes (even though it’s written about children), I would not recommend this book for young adults.

This book came to my attention through The National Book Award. It seemed unusual or unique and I am drawn to books like that so I thought it might be a good fit for me. Unfortunately it wasn't a good match. I think the writing was lovely at times. Beautiful and haunting - but it also had a halting element to it that was really emphasized by the audio narrators style. The narration was overall fine but it did exaggerate this halting quality to the prose that I mentioned and I didn't enjoy that. I think this is a rare situation where the audio didn't work well for me. As far as the story is concerned, I thought it was an inventive and clever approach to addressing the challenges of the generation gap, however the combination of teenage angst and the selfish, neglectful parents, made reading this book a bit like being in a bad dream that you can't wake from. I also thought the parable quality to the story was creative but once again, it just didn't work for me. I really couldn't connect to this book at all. I could see the merit, and it seems that many other people considered it a special book, based on Goodreads comments, but it didn't affect me in any way. It left no imprint on me at all. It is clearly just an issue of personal taste. A Children's Bible wasn't written for me.

I loved this audiobook. An intriguing and thought provoking story and beautifully written would highly recommend.

I can’t decide if releasing a speculative fiction novel about a pandemic during a pandemic is the best marketing ever or the worst.

Personally, I didn’t particularly care for it. And do I need to add a pandemic trigger warning to this? I long for the days of 6 months ago when no such question would have even occurred to me.

But pandemic or not, the review must go on.

The Children’s Bible has its moments. The humor is quite good for the most part, as are many of the wry observations made by our child protagonists about their parents and adults in general.

Mostly though, the book tries to be too many things. It’s a pandemic novel! It’s a climate change cautionary tale! It’s a really weird spin on Lord of the Flies! It’s a biblical parallel!

The Lord of the Flies thing kind of worked. The biblical parallel didn’t. The pandemic stuff is unfortunately just too on the nose at the moment (no blame placed on the author for that one though. I doubt she saw COVID-19 coming when she wrote this).

There’s some cleverness to the book’s bent on climate change, but mostly it’s nothing new and it gets lost in the sea of other subjects the book tries to address.

This is a better book than Sweet Lamb of Heaven (hey, at least she used a real disease this time!), but ultimately the ambition of it far exceeds the execution.

The narrator for the audiobook turned out to be a pleasant surprise. She has a pleasant, almost understated melodic sound, which I worried wouldn’t hold my attention, but once settled in I found I quite liked her, and felt that her lack of sharpness in tone suited the book very well.

I was excited for this one after seeing it on the National Book Award longlist. But I may have realized the books that the critics love aren't my thing. Like Leave the World behind, it was beautifully written, but not much happened. And because it reminded me of that book so much, and I didn't love that one, I chose to DNF this one 60% through. I'm sure others will love it, it's just not for me.