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A review by mminkc
Among the Gods by Lynn Austin
2.0
I really wanted to love this book/these books. And while there were some great elements to the plots, some thoughtful & inspiring pictures of faith, and some of the characters (in the series as a whole; I did read all 5) had some wonderful dimension and complexity, the portrayal of some of the female characters was incredibly disappointing.
I won’t put any spoilers in, but suffice it to say that the picture of a woman who will sacrifice her sense of self and self-respect, without comment or complaint, for the love of a man is idealized in multiple places, and reaches its pinnacle as the story arc closes, resulting in a picture of a disrespected woman whose primary value is in service to a man remaining as a supposedly inspiring heroine. I kept waiting for the series to shift or reframe its messages to women, but was most disappointed along these lines by the final book.
We all deserve better portrayals of women than those old & damaging Christian tropes that vilify a woman’s sense of self and having appropriate personal boundaries. The take-away for women about how to be women praises & makes virtuous a distorted and demeaning version of “dying to self” (true for the women only, of course). There’s a big difference between accurate portrayal of an male-centered society and characters who demonstrate and idealize the worst of modern Christianity’s harmful messages to women about their roles as people and (in particular) as wives.
To have these implicit message tied into Biblically-inspired stories about the triumph of faith & God’s love made it that much worse for me. I did find some value in some aspects of reading these books, but I can’t recommend them.
I won’t put any spoilers in, but suffice it to say that the picture of a woman who will sacrifice her sense of self and self-respect, without comment or complaint, for the love of a man is idealized in multiple places, and reaches its pinnacle as the story arc closes, resulting in a picture of a disrespected woman whose primary value is in service to a man remaining as a supposedly inspiring heroine. I kept waiting for the series to shift or reframe its messages to women, but was most disappointed along these lines by the final book.
We all deserve better portrayals of women than those old & damaging Christian tropes that vilify a woman’s sense of self and having appropriate personal boundaries. The take-away for women about how to be women praises & makes virtuous a distorted and demeaning version of “dying to self” (true for the women only, of course). There’s a big difference between accurate portrayal of an male-centered society and characters who demonstrate and idealize the worst of modern Christianity’s harmful messages to women about their roles as people and (in particular) as wives.
To have these implicit message tied into Biblically-inspired stories about the triumph of faith & God’s love made it that much worse for me. I did find some value in some aspects of reading these books, but I can’t recommend them.