The Book of Eve

Another challenging book for me to review. There are some things about it which are extremely well done. I can fully appreciate the quality of the prose which flows nicely and is very easy to read whilst at the same time being expressive and poetic in places. There is a clever sense of ambiguity about the setting. We are in a convent. The time period and place is never fully defined. There is a strong undertone of magical realism flowing through the text. The implicit criticism of patriarchy within religion was mostly well crafted. At the same time, I found myself struggling to connect with it.

I really want to like the more feminist takes on fantasy which are cropping up more and more (the GSFF book subscription which I received this through is doing a good job of highlighting them), but they are consistently fallen down on the caricature like presentation of men, losing any subtlety and ending up trying to bludgen the reader with pretty much all male characters being one note evil. This is taking the bechdel test and flipping it to its opposite extreme and honestly it ends up feeling just as unrealistic. I want books where there is a balance on these things!

I also got a sense that this book doesn't know where it is being marketed - I received it through a fantasy and Sci-fi subscription box, but honestly it felt more like historical fiction even if it isn't exactly placed in time or place. The fantastical elements are mostly present through a sense of magical realism which was only very minor.

Mostly, I feel this book just wasn't for me. I can respect the ambitions of the author even if I ended up a bit underwhelmed during the reading