This was a DNF for me. I didn't like the writing style, and couldn't connect with the story. I also didn't realize that this was a Christianized version of the story and not a Jewish retelling, which rubs me wrong since Lilith is definitively Jewish mythology. I love mythology retellings but this one did not work for me.

3.5/5

Religious/mythological retellings are my jam lately and Lilith seemed to be right up my alley. Added to that, I wasn’t entirely familiar with the Jewish story of Lilith. So I was really looking forward to this and I just wish this story was in a better book.

I am so excited for others to read this book. You might have heard of the stories of Lilith, but I guarantee you’ve never heard one like this. As someone who deconstructed from Christianity, I have been waiting, yearning, for retellings of vilified Biblical women.
I'm a religion major, feminist and lover of mythological retellings. This book is PERFECT.

"Lilith" follows the title character who, according to Hebrew mythology, was the first wife of Adam before Eve and cast out of the Garden of Eden for her disobedience. Compared to Madeline Miller's "Circe," I had high hopes for this feminist retelling. Unfortunately, I don't think this book ended up being for me, but seeing as there are many 4 and 5-star reviews on Goodreads, I'm confident others will like this one.

Marmery's writing style was a bit distant, which wasn't to my personal tastes. I had a hard time connecting with Lilith or any of the characters. I felt like I was dropped into a story with minimal context, and I didn't feel invested like I wanted to be. I think there were some lovely descriptions and word choices here, so readers who prefer lush prose might like this more than I did.

Additionally, several anachronisms in this book took me out of the story. A few examples from the first few chapters include "no way," "mumbo jumbo," and "clown." These words and phrases were not coined until centuries after the book's events, so it took me out of the scene.

Ultimately, I don't think this is a bad book, it just wasn't for me.

As an agnostic atheist I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book., I was intrigued since I read the description though. I have heard of Lilith's name before. She was Adam's first wife, but I have always heard of her in a witch/demonic way. This was actually a very unique portrayal of her. This felt subversive and feminist.

A note to prospective readers: Always ignore comparisons to other books—this is not a Madeline Miller-esque story told from a yet-unheard of perspective. This is explicitly a demonstration of how male supremacy and women’s systemic oppression has been cultivated by millennia of men’s religious authority <i> told through the yet-unheard of perspective of Lilith</i>. If you’re expecting a super in-depth character study on Lilith, change your expectations before reading.

In the beginning, I felt that this would be a good introduction to feminism for those who don’t much like non-fiction because I thought the book wouldn’t go further than the basic feminist sentiments many stop at (usually for fear of backlash), but I quickly realized Nikki Marmery went all in and mirrored modern radical feminist theory through the lens of our narrator, Lilith.

Throughout the story, we see examples of the harm done to women and girls and how men have used religion to justify this harm in a way that reflects our past and present realities. Marmery also shows several times the importance of sisterhood and community in educating and freeing women and how men will do whatever it takes to keep women separated and prevent the mass enlightening we see happen at different points of the story.

We live in a time where much progress has been made in the name of women’s liberation, but there is still a lot of work to do, and it is not coincidence that the most reviled form of feminism—radical feminism—is also the most practiced form of feminism globally, and the one most similar to Asherah, Lilith, and Maryam’s teachings.

A couple of complaints I’ve seen were that Lilith seemed a bit one-note, that the story could meander in parts, and that anachronistic terms were annoying, but I don’t really agree with them. Yes, Lilith’s entire story revolves around finding Asherah and spreading her work, but that doesn’t mean she’s a flat character, and it makes sense that the transitions between sections would be a little slow since they take place centuries—or even millennia—apart. Also, Lilith is remembering things that happened over a 6,000 year period, so her using more modern terminology isn’t surprising, and it’s pretty funny most of the time (especially in the beginning).

This book is definitely a great place to start if you don’t typically read non-fiction, but if you want to go more in-depth with the points made in the book, “The Creation of Patriarchy” by Gerda Lerner (I was really excited to see Marmery quote it in the author’s note), “Invisible Women” by Caroline Criado Perez, and “The War Against Women” by Marilyn French are great places to start (“Adam’s Curse” by Bryan Sykes and “The Darkening Age” by Catherine Nixey are pretty good, too)!

With the surge in retellings, I was really intrigued by this premise. Although now I realize it's not that new of an idea (I wasn't previously really aware of Lilith's myth). Readers who like retellings by authors such as Genevieve Gornichec, Claire North and Madeline Miller may like this work as it is similar in style. However, there are a few caveats to such a blanket recommendation.

First, the writing style seemed to flip-flop and at times was too modern and other times it felt very ancient. The consistency was enough to pull me from the story on several occasions.

For much of the book, I struggled to sympathize with Lilith. I get the basic plight that women just want to exist in our own right and lead a fulfilling life on our terms. I'm sympathetic to the experience of men impressing their own expectations/desires/needs/etc on women, which makes us feel like objects and property, rather than equals. Marmery brought up this idea of men naming something and thinking that's the same as creation, whereas women actually create things to which she wove in the idea that Ashera (God's wife) actually created humans, leaving God to twist the truth to say he did because he wants the credit.

That leads me to my second issue: it seemed like every male in this book was presented in a negative way, like none had any regard for a woman unless she served him. I also didn't care for the portrayal of God as distant and aloof. Yet, I recognize this is largely founded in my own interpretation of the Bible and a relationship with God that I don't view to be the cold, arrogant-type male that many might argue He is. But, that being said, since such a large portion of this book clashed with my understanding of the events in the Garden of Eden and my relationship to Scripture, I couldn't really enjoy it. So, if you view God as sympathetic and a friend, and you believe men and women were created to compliment each other (balancing strengths and weaknesses so that they work in unison, and that neither should lord over the other), this may not be the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lilith by Nikki Marmery is a captivating tale that weaves different mythology together to bring a new light to an long slighted figure. I very much enjoyed myself reading this book, more than similar books like Madeline Miller’s Circe. Although, I’m not sure if that was because I’m not thoroughly familiar with the biblical narrative stories as I am with Greco-Roman mythology. While I did enjoy the first half more than the later, I still feel that this was an intriguing tale that left me wanting to learn more. I would love for Marmery to write a non-fiction piece with all her sources on Lilith cited.

Side note, I am beyond convinced that Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power was the soundtrack to this novel. Only the author can say otherwise and even then I’ll believe it so.

I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. This novel has an interesting premise, but overall I found it difficult to follow and be engaged with the story. I found Lilith to be both too modern and too ancient-feeling for us to benefit from her perspective as a modern reader, and although there's a great deal of patriarchal criticism I also don't see how exactly the characters plan to do anything about it. Hopefully other readers will enjoy it more than I did, but I feel this novel would be best suited to a very particular reader.

This is such a difficult review for me to write. I would love to rate it higher, simply because of the potential within the story, and knowing that certain groups of people might be angered by this book's very existence. That said, I struggled to focus and finish this book, and the only reason I did so at all was because I felt obligated to write a review.

Lilith was the "First Wife/Woman" before Eve. She fell from grace after refusing to act as Adam's inferior at his demands. She tastes of the forbidden fruit and makes it her life's mission to remind women that they were made to be man's equal by the Goddess Asherah, the true Creator of all life, partner to Yahweh. Her path to attempting to overthrow the patriarchal systems set forth by men is a long and meandering one, taking her through thousands upon thousands of years, and all over areas near and around the nation of Israel.

When I say this book meandered, I mean it. The writing was inconsistent, at times lyrical and at other modern, and sometimes both within the same sentence. It felt Biblical in form in that Lilith does this and see this and goes from here to there, with little elaboration or description. There is a lot of telling with little showing, and it becomes monotonous and tedious to read. I struggled to stay focused and skimmed, a lot.

As I said, I can see why this book should be better than it is, sadly the execution just wasn't it for me and I honestly can't see recommending this book to others.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

The author did a good job with this book considering that she was trying to write a historical novel based on mythological figures with modern day topics and sensibilities built in. Now a job for the faint hearted when retelling biblical tales is always going to upset someone. Personally, I read it straight as a novel ( not getting too tied up in my own Catholic beliefs) and absolutely loved it. The character of Lilith was complex and relatable within a modern context.

I hardly have words for how incredibly inspired this book was. An ambitious novel, indeed!!
Lilith is a character I've always wanted to know more about, to read more about, to hear mentioned more in stories. I think this book does an amazing job of bringing her to life, and positioning her in such a way that reflects the soul of humanity as she lives through all the ages of mankind. Lilith's compassion, passion, fearlessness, and ferocity are on display in this thought-provoking and anger-inducing novel. I spent my entire reading experience simultaneously in awe of Lilith and infuriated at the portrayal of humanity - because it's not wrong! The subjugation and domination of women, the domino effects of so many seemingly insignificant yet pivotal moments are brought forth in this novel, and I can't applaud Nikki Marmery enough for her expert writing. I love the ending of this book, and can only hope that one day we won't need books such as these ones, even though they're beautiful.

In medieval Jewish text, Lilith is described as Adam’s first wife who asserted equality with her husband and disobeying god. This would be the start of her biblical portrayal as a demon, a child killer, a whore.

Nikki Marmery’s new novel, named after the “demon” Lilith herself, begins at the start of time and follows the misunderstood so-called she-demon until the modern day. Throughout the story, Lilith encounters many other misunderstood biblical female figures, including Eve, Jezebel, Noah’s wife Naamah, and Mary Magdalene. In her interactions with these women, the narrator Lilith retells the stories traditionally rooted in patriarchal values and gives nuance, depth, and breadth to those narratives. Marmery’s retelling of these religious texts emphasizes the deep-rooted misogyny of the Old and New Testaments, criticizing ways in which women have been blamed and subjugated since the earliest periods in history.

I enjoyed so much of this book, which challenged me to do additional research about some of the biblical stories and figures I hadn’t heard of before. While I did find certain passages a bit long (and maybe overly descriptive at times), Marmery’s prose are beautifully crafted and her dialogue is punchy and deliver many laugh out loud moments. On a personal note I tend to dislike when authors include mention of specific contemporary services (like TikTok, Instagram etc), but the mention of them here was so brief it didn’t completely take me out of the story.

Overall, I’d recommend Lilith for fans of feminist retellings of classics, historical fiction, or anyone fancying to question the values our world is built on thanks to religion (and the men that control it).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

An interesting take on one of the most demonized (and also somehow forgotten) characters from Christian creation myths. Fans of other mythological retellings will find a lot of interest here.

I struggled to make it through this one.

When I think of Lilith, I see a strong, passionate, feminist. But I just didn’t get that from the simplistic writing structure. I wanted more.

I ended up dnfing this book at around 20%, I had a lot of high hopes for it as it sounded right up my alley as a mythological retelling of one of the most fascinating and underrated characters of Judaic/mesopotamian mythology, Lilith. But alas the book although starting strong weakened in both plot and prose as the book went on. Relying too much on modern buzzwordy feminism to ever be meaningful enough on its commentary, and not well crafted enough in its research and writing to appeal to a more general audience.

Overall I think it was a good premise that got diluted as the writer tried to be inclusive of many beliefs existing all at once within the story, thus not making the world building concrete enough. And by making it almost like a Lucifer ( the TV show) fanfic but instead of Lucifer being Lilith’s romantic interest it was Samael ? Anyway it kind of became a heist story losing all the existential nature it started with, than it was a hero's journey, and then the writing started to feel rushed and unmotivated. Overall it did not envelope me, and I believe I also had really high expectations which I believe caused me to be a bit more critical when starting out.

Lilith is a mythology retelling of the notorious female figure who was the first wife of Adam in the Bible. Except, in this version Lilith is portrayed differently as a symbolic loss of feminine power and the ultimate birth of the patriarchy.

The book considers the female counterpart to God, Asherah, who was believed in ancient times to be the wife of God. Asherah’s character and downfall depicts the loss of “Wisdom”, which ties into the missing divine feminine energy from the Bible stories. The story disputes the classic biblical teachings that Lilith and Eve are villains coupled with the dispute that woman are at a lower status to man vs being equal to man.

After reading text of the Dead Sea Scrolls / Essence Gospel of Peace, I became aware of the love and devotion that Jesus had for the “Divine Mother”, and it made me wonder why that part was missing from the Bible stories / teachings.

The religious teachings I grew up with, in relation to these female characters, were all about “sin” and the blame of woman for the downfall of God’s creation. But what of the Divine Mother of creation? IMO, the loss of the divine feminine has created a long history of turmoil and disrespect for our environment.

Given that, I can respect the premise of Lilith, the novel. It serves as an alternative story in a time where we need that missing / growing divine feminine energy to balance things out and take us to the next level of ascension.

But ultimately this book took me a couple of weeks to get through, which is longer than most I read. I didn’t fully flow with the story / writing nor connect with the characters, and honestly found myself dozing off on more than one occasion.

In the end, I appreciated the premise, but not as much the delivery of this one. My favorite part was actually the author’s notes at the end, making me wonder if I would have enjoyed this more as nonfiction?

Many thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Lilith drops 10/17/23.

I love this genre of feminist retellings explaining a more detailed back story for historical figures everyone thinks they know, but really it's just one side of the story.

I just wish this story felt more interactive for the reader. We're getting a third person, birds eye view of Lilith's story but I felt disconnected from her. I'd have rather been shown and not told this story and there was a lot of explanations throughout instead of actually experiencing the journey with the character

Cue gothic organ music.... No but in all seriousness I loved this story. I thought that it was a brilliant retelling the swept you away in this world that felt very similar to the struggles of an average female but yet with fantastical elements also. I definitely think that this is a book that you read for the first time and you are like, but the more you read it the more you discover the hidden gems within the pages. I overall throughly enjoyed this story and think Nikki Marmery wrote something that many people, especially lovers of retellings will absolutely love.

This really had a strong start! I was roped in by Lilith immediately when she questioned Adam's opinions and what Yahweh was telling both of them to be correct. After she left the garden of Eden, the story lost me. I am familiar with bible stories, but I did not connect with Lilith's character at all. Her character development lacked depth and I didn't really feel any urgency behind her motives throughout the book.