Miriam's Song

 

"Miriam's Song"

(Daughters of the Promised Land)

by Jill Eileen Smith

I'm new to the Biblical Fiction genre and this is my third book. I've read Francine Rivers' "A Lineage of Grace" and Mesu Andrews' "Pearl in the Sand." These were great and got me excited to read more biblical fiction, however, Miriam's Song was a disappointment. 

As several other reviewers have noted, this book is more about Moses than Miriam. I feel like we get more from Moses' point of view than Miriam's and when we do get an insight into her POV, her thoughts are mostly on Moses. The characters are not well-developed and Miriam's character is extremely unlikeable and shallow. She comes across as prideful, jealous, and whinny. There isn't much character development either. The majority of the novel felt rushed and focused on events rather than on Miriam; her thoughts, her growth, her spiritual life, etc.  

I was looking forward to reading about Miriam since Scripture doesn't tell us much about her. I was expecting to read more detailed accounts of Miriam's life during the exodus, instead, two-thirds of the novel is spent in Eygpt. I was especially waiting for the account of Miriam's leprosy and her thoughts, and experience of said event however, we only get like 2 pages briefly touching upon the incident and the next thing we know, Miriam is on her deathbed, and a few pages later, the end. 

I could go on but it would require a much longer review than I feel like writing at the moment. The main problem with the book is that it covers too much time in 400 pages. The author squeezed in too many events and the main character really is Moses, not Miriam. 

I'm interested in reading Mesu Andrew's rendition of Miriam's story, I hear it's better. 

I received a copy of this book from Revell in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.