Lilith

A book of telling, not showing. For a feminist retelling, the lead character spends the first half of the book completely passive: never adancing the plot by her own actions, frequently being rescued by the men around her, and generally failing to even notice the actions put in motion by the male characters until they stop and take the time to explain to her after the fact what they had done. Meanwhile, she spends her time following along in the wake of other actors and monologuing about the importance of gender equality. It also takes an extremely limited and antiquated view of gender, with depictions of womanhood being reduced to mostly childbirth and nurturing despite claims to more.

I had been excited going in for a subversive and heretical retelling of perhaps the most classic story, but the complete lack of any nuance, combined with language that rapidly shifts between modern and a biblical style leaves the story falling far flat of hopes.

Gorgeous language, fascinating little historical tidbits - I genuinely had no idea Asherah was part of early Judaism, for example. I'm feeling a new special interest coming on.