Seth is a healer, but with every person healed, he himself is getting closer to death. Knowing what healing in the long run entitles, he decides to break free before it's too late. "Not so fast, brother!" says handsome black man Zed with his James Earl Jones's voice, and makes Seth stay, rending him unable to leave the circus revival.

Abaddon is a soul collector. The Hell he lives in, tho I am sure hellishly horrible, sounds pretty amusing and sometimes funny. He is buried in paperwork and is under pressure to collect souls.

MCs meet, they fall in love, they suffer, they cry, they offer all kinds of sacrifices to save the other and, I don't believe this is much of a spoiler, they live to be together. All the usual works. 

Now, angels, hippy revivals, devils, soul collectors don't entice me in any way. I read this book for a challenge in which I needed a book with a devil, and only because it's Marie Sexton so I knew it would be as good as I could get. On the whole, it was 3 star-ish for me. Once again, it's me, not the book.

BUT! Just like Abaddon found a bright soul in Bible Belt, I found a bright couple of lines in this not-my-fav-trope book.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick did if for me. I am bumping my rating up to 4. 'Cause PATS! 'Cause BRADY! =) This wasn't just bright, this was brilliant! :D And funny :)

I know a little about the Brides of Christ, so when I heard there was a fictionalization of their story, I knew I had to get my hands on it.

In 1903, a preacher who calls himself Joshua moves to Corvallis, Oregon and sets up a new church. At first, everything goes well, but when Joshua’s preaching strays too far from what’s in the Bible, the men in Corvallis chase him into the wilderness. But, he doesn’t go alone. A few women from his congregation go with him. After that, things get weird.

This is a hard book to review because it’s based on a true story, and the author is working within the confines of history. The book is short, fast-paced, and written for a young adult audience, so I was able to finish it in a few hours. The story hooked me immediately. I couldn’t put it down, even though I already knew the basics of the plot.

The story takes place over several years and is narrated by Eva, the youngest of the women who refuse to give up on Joshua. Eva is confused because everyone in her life is telling her something different. Her mother, brother, and sister love Joshua; her father hates him; some of her friends disown her for following him; and others encourage her not to give up on him because he’s trying to help people. It’s easy for the reader to understand Eva’s confusion and feel bad for her. Everyone in her life is pressuring her to do something different.

The most interesting part of this book is that it shows the culture of rural Oregon in 1903. Back then, religious freedom and women’s rights weren’t really things. When Joshua’s church becomes a public nuisance, the police look the other way while the townspeople try to murder Joshua and harass his congregation. Men have no trouble getting their wives and daughters sent to mental institutions for refusing to abandon their religion. And, when Eva is raped, she becomes a “ruined” woman. Very few people care about her body or mind, but everybody cares about her virginity and marriage potential. I guess 1903 was a terrible time to be a woman with a non-mainstream religion.

Eva’s father is a product of his time, but I still have a lot of respect for him. He knows that Joshua is dangerous, and he refuses to lose his family to the preacher’s abuse. Even though Eva argues, and runs away, and behaves like a teenage tyrant, her father refuses to let Joshua have her. He loves Eva, even when she makes really bad decisions.

I wish the characters had been better developed. I know they’re real people, and we probably don’t have many details about their lives, but they didn’t have much personality. Some of the characters’ actions also felt forced to me. The author tries very hard to help the reader understand why these women follow Joshua into the woods, but since Joshua’s character is underdeveloped, I didn’t see the appeal of him. If I had seen more of his personality, maybe the characters’ choices would have been easier to accept.

Also, I don’t usually say this, but the plot moves too fast for me. This is a very short book that covers several huge moments in Eva’s life. It probably moves quickly because we don’t know much about the real Eva’s life, but I wish the story had been slower and more detailed.

Despite a few issues, I really liked Brides of Eden. This is one of those stories that need to be told. Brides of Eden might be a perfect book for anyone who wants to read a fast-paced story that’s stranger than fiction.

~ Charles Nodier

This is a rather beautiful book that is details, on a basic level, the London of literature.  It isn't a history of the city or a detailed guide, but more about the connection between the real place and the London of Literature.  Quindlen's love for the city comes across quite well, and her prose is  pleasure to read.  I can't say that I learned anything, but it does make a good companion or follow up to Peter Ackroyd's biography of the city.

This would have been far more interesting if there had been more about the animals as opposed to digression after digression showing me how well read and travelled the author was.

Some of it is interesting and some of it is, oh no, here we go again.