More reviews! You readers are rackin’ ’em up and I appreciate every single one, believe me. Lessee, from the latest three, at Amazon:
1. LINK
Oddly enough, I see a lot of talk of it being specifically Mormon, and though I found that lent an interesting thread of morality you don’t see every day, it’s also ALL about the sex. Surely, this didn’t come from the same ideology as those fanatics who spent a fortune trying to manhandle CA politics or force feed us the Osmonds as paragons of virtue. . . The religious undertones didn’t even strike me as odd until I stepped away from the story and realized how much the rest of it doesn’t fit with the stereotype. I’m still not sure how to integrate the two…
[...] What most of us identify as “Mormon” just doesn’t really factor into the story. It’s more of an interesting little sidebar and to focus on that aspect ignores the fact that in general, it’s just a damned good story.
2. LINK
…it is one of few books I’ve read where religion and politics mingle, and it was quite a ride. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, I did have stereotypes in mind when I opened this book, and it made the characters all the more human to me, because even though I am not a fan of politics, nor a member of the Morman church, I could still relate.
Moriah Jovan has a gift with words, and a wonderful ability to make her characters so vivid. The heroes, the heroines, and everyone else that crossed their paths throughout the course of the story.
3. LINK
The quixotic mixture of murder, revenge, sex, and religion is really what caught my attention about this book in the first place, especially in the context of the Mormon religion. Wallace Stegner once wrote that “it is almost impossible to write fiction about the Mormons, for the reasons that Mormon institutions and Mormon society are so peculiar that they call for constant explanation.”
Jovan has achieved a remarkable degree of success in this regard, allowing non-Mormons fascinating glimpses in a natural manner without bombarding us with definitions and explanations. There is a refreshing honesty and lack of rationalization when it comes to questions of morality and faith in a modern world.
[...] The characters are strongly delineated and fascinating. They are the most vivid and striking people I’ve had the pleasure of “meeting” via the printed page in a long time. They may be a bit larger than life, so to speak, but never over the top. I don’t always agree with them or like them, but I will always remember them.
Bold is mine. ’Cause it’s my favorite part of the whole review.
Overall, 4.25/5 stars for 8 reviews on Amazon.
February 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Awesome, MoJo!
I especially relate to review numbah 3.
February 6th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Thanks, Kel. We have a weird culture and it’s not easy to explain. I thought the best (read: easiest) way was to have the characters talk as though the reader knew the lingo and syntax patterns, and draw from context.
February 6th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
And believe me, I appreciated that. There’s nothing worse than having a charcter or narrator stop the action just to give the reader a, “You may not know this about [insert 'weird LDS culture' thing here], but…” type of lesson. I like it when an author assumes I have more than half a brain and can gather stuff from context and tone.