I enjoyed it and I would recommend reading it.

This book was interesting. It does not mesh with my idea of Isaac and Rebekah. Would I read it again? No, I really don't think I would.

When reading the account in Genesis, I was curious to dive more into what the life and story of Rebekah may have been like leading me to this book. It adequately filled in some gaps with possibilities in a truly remarkable history. I think it lost a star for me, only because Isaac and Rebekah became a bit redundant.

Does anyone else find it interesting that Orson Scott Card wrote these three books about the women of Genesis after writing so many successful sci-fi novels? That was primarily the reason I picked this book up.

I loved this interpretation of Rebekah, mostly because she is always so sure of herself and her convictions. She calls her parents out on things when they get it wrong, pointing to the ideals of their faith in the God of Abraham. She is filled with zeal,sure that everyone else must see it exactly the same way she does, and if they don't, it is just a matter of time before she can convince them.

And then - lo and behold - Rebekah herself fails...and learns that she, too, is prone to the same struggles as her parents, of trying to do the right thing and getting it wrong.

I've always wondered a little, why the people of Genesis weren't more perfect - after all, God spoke directly to them! And yet Abraham doubted and ended up trying to get an heir the practical way instead of the way God had told him, and Sarah laughed when God told her she would have a baby, and Rebekah achieved Jacob's reception of the birthright through trickery. I have wondered why, if Jacob really was the right person to receive the birthright, Rebekah had to deceive her husband in order to do God's will. That doesn't seem like the story I would have picked out to show God's ways...

And yet, Card shows that while these people were led by God, they were also incredibly woven into their natures and habits too. The Abrahahm in his story was cranky and headstrong, and Isaac doubted himself to the point of often being blind to how God wanted to work in him. Rebekah, while courageous and faithful, was filled with religious pride too. What I loved was seeing how, even in their faults, God was able to write a story that would point to Himself, and His faithulness, which I think Card showed well.

I am especially glad I read the forward to the book, where the author explained that, now that he himself had grown children, he had come to recognize the ways that he had often done the wrong things even when he thought he was doing right, and how this theme greatly played into his envisioning of Rebekah. I thought he was incredibly humble to share this insight, which has probably been a comfort to many parents who have read the book.

I ended up reading this book my Junior year of high school after a very long hiatus of not reading any books at all. I've always been deeply fascinated by the women of the Bible, and I picked this book up wanting to gather a more intimate view of what women's lives would have been in Biblical times, seeing as how the Bible doesn't always provide much information of its women.

I must say, that I couldn't have picked better. This book made me fall back in love with reading, and truthfully, even made me consider naming my future daughter Rebekah. If you love historical fiction, romance, and aren't afraid to see your views of Biblical women change (for the better) this is the book for you.

I've never read any of Genesis, so I didn't have much to compare it to, but I loved this book and I've placed it on my favorites list. This adaptation is entertaining, well-paced, and well-written. My one complaint is that Rebekah didn't make a great hero for most of the book. She can be intolerable - not so much to the reader, but definitely to other characters. However, I did feel that in the last chapters Rebekah redeemed herself as the hero.

For most of the book, Rebekah can be vain and overly concerned with her social status - most of these vices seem to be inherently tied to what she considers her nearly perfect worship of her god. Because of her tendency to argue, it seems like she looks down on anyone who doesn't worship the God of Abraham as earnestly as she believes she herself does. She only once or twice even mentions the possibility that she could be incorrect on her views, believing herself to have the most true relationship with god, second only perhaps to Isaac or to Abraham himself. Both she and the author are aware that she is fallible, however. She knows when she makes mistakes, and the author notes this as well - she is human. However, when she hurts others, she usually still comforts herself in the knowledge that she was acting as God intended for her to in that moment. I think this is a nuance of how she has been written by Orson Scott Card, but of course I have no direct comparison since I haven't read the source material. These issues seem tied to Rebekah herself, and the author seems aware that this is just who the very young Rebekah is as a character. Characters serving as her foils are well developed and given good credibility.

For the most part, this is a book about people being quarrelsome, often mean, or even violent towards each other in the name of their gods. It is written such that whose who go against the worship of any particular god are suggested to deserve the human-inflicted punishment that they receive. It is frustrating to see Rebekah do so well for herself, to be rewarded again and again, for being mean or condescending, thus reaffirming her belief that she does well in life by treating others in a certain way in the name of her god. This structure makes it so that there is little compassion given for those who do not think the same way as the main character, except towards the end of the book. Inevitably, most of the heroes worship the God of Abraham, the way it is written. All the good events which occur are thanks to the god that they worship, and all the punishment others receive, even if doled out by another human, are supposedly because they do not worship the true god. Of course it is dangerous to think this way and hard to side with the main characters when this occurs, and exhausting to see it happen over and over again. All arguments boil down to who believes they are more correctly following the will of their god.

In spite of these things, it’s a great story about people. The plot twists are exciting, and the characters have fantastic dialogue.

Too many words, but I am glad I read them. This fleshes out a few of the important personalities of the Genesis characters, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and Laban, as well as Rebecca.

I loved everything about this story. The style of writing was romantic and whimsical (my two favorite things). It kept me engaged. I wanted to read more, not in a "can't put it down" way, just a "goodness this is very interesting" way. You see, the story is so ancient. There's a part about creating a system of writing, and that part was incredible. It was simply magic. I liked Rebekah's character too. She was a bit too perfect at times, but still lovable. The story felt fairly simple and raw. That was nice too. I'd give it four stars.

Connects the characters and brings the Old Testament to life

Weber County Library

Great fictional story around the life of Rebekah. Orson Scott Card did a great job and I couldn't put it down.

I enjoyed this read. At times it was a it slow paced, but he chose to cover a long period of time - from her childhood to her old age - so that is understandable. He made believable choices for the characters and they were all rounded, with plenty of both good and bad characteristics.