Review: First Family - Alice Langholt

 

 

Review: First Family - Alice Langholt - August 2015

If you have grown up with the church or with a family that discussed the bible, you will know who Adam and Eve is and their story from creation, to the being exiled from the Garden of Eden. What I loved about First Family was that it was written in modern language and reading it , it felt like I wasn't reading a historical biblical story but a modern contemporary family saga. The book starts in the Garden of Eden with Adam's aka "Him" POV , where he is wandering around the Garden of Eden naming different creatures with the words that the "Voice" aka God has told him. He then feels lonely, and we read God's POV aka The Voice, where he creates Eve aka "Her". The pair get on well, but Eve asks more questions and wants to know everything - this part I found a little annoying as it's like stop asking questions Eve. Eve then gets waylaid by the Snake aka "Satan" and we read his POV as he talks about how he will manipulate Eve into taking the fruit and feeding Adam and how he thinks after this action God will welcome him back . After the fruit eating, they are cast out into the world. Now this next part, was new as it talked about Eve's monthly bleeding and how she likened Adam's penis to a snake and thought it was God playing with her guilt and conscience. Eve then falls pregnant and they have Cain , during this time Cain grows older and when Cain is two years old - Eve has Abel. During this time, Eve has dreams about Cain hurting Abel and as they get older - the sibling rivalry and hatred that Cain has for Abel becomes more evident . As the story nears the end , Cain kills Abel and then Eve falls pregnant again. I loved this last part and enjoyed the twists throughout the story and play on the familiar chilldhood biblical story. Also the author joined the different POV's beautifully as they flowed from one point to the next point which often not many authors can do if they have more than 2 POV's as First Family has 6 Characters POV.

This is the perfect read for those who love Christian fiction and want a new updated twist/language contemporary feel of a traditional biblical story.