Saturday, April 23, 2005

REVIEW: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Date Started: Sunday, April 17, 2005

Date Finished: Friday, April 22, 2005

My BookCrossing Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

Comments:
Wow, this was a fantastic book! I went into it not knowing what to expect. Despite the good reviews I’d heard about it, I thought it would have a strong pro-Christian slant, and thus wouldn’t be the right book for me. However, the premise of the story strongly disputed the entire basis of modern Christianity—which meshed quite nicely with my own way of thinking. As a Goddess worshiper, I already knew and understood a lot of the stuff about the Goddess that was discussed, and the stuff that was newer to me was how it tied in to Christianity. Most likely, I was coming from the opposite side of the coin as so many other readers, to whom the Goddess-aspect is the newer concept rather than the more familiar. Nevertheless, I can honestly say that even from the standpoint of a practicing Pagan and Wiccan, the story held my interest right up until the very end, and I had no qualms with the way the author handled the feminine divinity at all.

The entire book, with the exception of the epilogue, takes place within the course of a single day. Thinking back on that, I found it amazing that I didn’t find the story to lag in any way, and that the author could spread an entire 24 hour period over 454 pages. Unlike a previous reviewer who claimed that the short chapters made it harder to read, I found just the opposite to be the case. I was continually saying to myself, “I can get in just one more short chapter before bed.” Which in turn made it impossible to put down. :) And the flashbacks to past memories… I didn’t find too excessive at all. Perhaps that opinion is tempered somewhat by the book I read right before this one, Minion by L. A. Banks, in which the excessive rambling of the characters’ long thought processes was driving me crazy. But I digress…

I told my partner that he simply MUST read this book, so I’ve put it on reserve at our local library for him. He usually doesn’t read all that much, but with all the hype surrounding this book because of the film and all, and the fact that I’m sure the book was better than the movie as is usually the case, I’m hoping I can get him to read it within the allotted time once it’s available to us. It’s the kind of book I want everyone I know to read. If they haven’t already… I’m interested in hearing what some of my other Pagan friends have to say about it too, particularly with regards to the Goddess aspect.

See the BookCrossing journal entry for this book for a more information, reviews, and related links.

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