I feel like I wasn't bright enough to understand what's going on here... totally over my head. I'm certain it has its audience!

I really wanted to like this book and was intrigued by the premise but in the end, it just wasn't for me. I found the characters unlikeable, the plot a bit boring, and just wanted it to be done. I would recommend this to certain friends of mine, though.

Lydia Millet's "A Children's Bible" was a different type of dystopian thriller. Imagine a world of adults that have never grown up and on vacation all they want to do is get drunk, do drugs, and have illicit sex with people who are not their spouse. In Millet's dystopian dream it is the "responsible" teenagers who take care of their parents when the world is ending.

Millet does an excellent job developing characters and creating this alternate reality of the future. But I am not sure who the target audience is. Is it trying to shame adults about their callous attitude towards climate change or is it trying to empower kids to step up to save the world? I think the story falls flat on both fronts.

Millet's book might have been more of a cautionary tale, allegory of the ongoing climate crisis, but as plausible story that you can actually believe and stick with throughout it is a reach. I thought her idea of mature teenagers that step up when their parents cower in fear seems particularly problematic.

This book is an overly ambitious leap that is well written, has nicely developed characters, but ultimately, it wasn't something I could really follow down that rabbit hole.

I received this eBook free of charge from W.W. Norton & Company via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

this was a really good read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed reading this. There were so many emotions in the page that I really enjoyed.

I struggled to decide if The Children’s Bible was actually set in the future or if Millet exaggerated the devastating affects of a hurricane to highlight our lacklustre attitude toward climate change and more importantly the way in which we interact as humans in the present day.

Our narrator was Evie, one of a mixed age group of children holidaying in a mansion house with their respective parents., and this is where it got extremely interesting. The children were a disparate bunch, from the highly sexualised, deaf, disinterested in those around them, to Jack, Evie’s younger brother, both sensitive, quiet and thoughtful. They somehow got along, united in there disregard for their parents who thy vocally and physically disowned, reluctant to even name who their parents were.

The parents were unbelievably selfish, hedonistic, wrapped up in a world of drink, drugs, sex and each other. What Millet did so cleverly was to reverse the roles, the adults became the children, the children the adults, as Millet showed their disdain for their behaviour, their ability to look after themselves, whilst they assumed control, took decisions and generally got on with surviving.

As you turned the pages, Millet widened the the gulf between them, the pressure built as the storm roared in, as its devastating after effects finally forced them apart and the children escaped with homeless Burl to guide them.

Their arrival at a deserted cottage, the appearance of three strangers, the angels, and Jacks gift of a children’s bible began to make you feel that perhaps you weren’t in the real world. It felt surreal, ethereal, almost apocalyptic, events matched those in Jack’s bible, Millet’s modern interpretation at times shocking, but somehow skilfully used to make statements, to highlight the plight they found themselves in.

You wondered where Millet would take us, the fate of both the adults and the children as violence slowly pervaded the narrative, as she blindsided us with other worldly episodes that didn’t seem out of place, that perfectly suited the tone and complexity of the storyline.

Did I expect the ending? I’m not quite sure, in some ways, yes, in other ways it wasn’t exactly what i imagined but then I don’t think Millet’s aim was to surprise.

To me, her aim was to provoke thought, to look at the state of the world we live in through the eyes of a group of children. She posed questions about this generation of adults, parents. Have they or are they in the process of destroying the social, moral and environmental well being of today’s world? Will our children, the next generation, be the ones that grasp control, take over and pull us back from the brink.

Whatever Millet’s aim, whatever the moral and ethical dilemmas she posed, you had to admire her superb narrative skill, her ability to tell a story that was both chilling, and to me, utterly engrossing. Her characters were real, and fascinating.

The Children’s Bible, was a novel to remember, its author one to admire, to applaud.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

To a deer, people were probably monsters. Certain people anyway. At times, when a deer saw a man walking in the forest, he might prick up his ears and stand still as a statue. Waiting. Wary. Meaning no harm.
What are you? asked his ears. And oh. What am I? Sometimes the answer was, You're dead.
And the deer crumpled to his knees.-2


A lovely blend of nature and magic.

You know, I finished A Children’s Bible book and was like what a weird fucking trip. I wasn’t really sure what I had read. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t enjoy it. After looking at some other reviews, I realized that the absence of enjoyment came from my lack of understanding. Once I had my fellow Goodreads readers explain the symbolism, it expanded the story for me. With a little hand holding, I was able to get the underlying messages. Which oddly, I found rather valuable once it actually came full circle.

This isn’t going to be for everyone. But I think the literary and intellectual will quite enjoy its nature.

Thank you NetGalley and W.W. Norton Company for approving a copy of this novel.

Lydia Millet's A Children's Bible is a small book that seemed to potentially pack a powerful punch, but unfortunately, I was never able to connect with this novel of a multi-family vacation gone wrong in a world headed towards the apocalypse. Right from the start, readers are introduced to a litany of characters with very few identifying characteristics. With nothing to connect readers with these characters or make them memorable, readers are left to plod through this vague novel, attempting to remember who is important and why. Furthermore, Millet keeps readers on the periphery, looking in on this literary melee without a true understanding of what is going on. This made for a rather confusing and non-invested reading experience.

A family is spending the summer in a huge house with lots of other families. The parents spend the days hedonistically and the children are left to roam by themselves. Narrated by one of the kids, Evie, who is solely responsible for her younger brother, Jack. Jack is a reader and when one of the mothers (he cannot remember which one) gives him a children’s book of bible stories he treasures it like he does his beloved Frog and Toad Treasury. When a storm floods the big house, Jack gathers up as many animals as he can, and they pile into a car looking for a safe place. They end up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania…. I bet you get where this story is going but you going to find the biblical allusions have a different meaning here than we’re used to. And with that I end this sermon. Go forth and read the book and expect the unexpected.

A Children’s Bible might best be described as an odd little book, but don’t let that put you off. It’s one of my favorite books this year. What makes it odd? Well, to begin with the genre is hard to nail down. It’s a bit dystopian, a bit fantasy, a bit political. But, what stands out the most is that Lydia Millet ingeniously wove her story around events in the Bible, not in any sort of traditional religious way, but as plot points to move her own very clever story.

A Children’s Bible tells the story of twelve children on a summer-long vacation with their parents. They’re all staying at a huge home somewhere near the sea. The kids are mostly teenagers, but a few are younger. Similarly to Kevin Wilsons’s Nothing to See Here, the parents are worthless. They’re Philistines, willing to let their teens supervise the younger children doing as they please, just as long as their own days and nights of partying go on uninterrupted. The children, united in disgust by their parents’ hedonistic ways, revel in their own summer fun.

“They liked to drink: it was their hobby, or – said one of us – maybe a form of worship.”

“Had they had goals once? A simple sense of self-respect? They shamed us. They were a cautionary tale.”

All seems fine until a huge hurricane comes out of nowhere bringing with it flooding rains that the children survive in a series of treehouses, one called “The Ark.” From there the story truly takes off. The children realize the disaster has only made their parents more worthless, and the home they were staying in unsafe for many reasons. They decided to flee in search of safety. As you read their unlikely story, biblical analogies pop up over and over. I thought that might be off-putting, but it in no way was. The voice of the narrator, Eve, is so strong that she makes even the most outrageous turn seem plausible.

The more I read, the more I loved this book. Yes, you have to just roll with parts of the story, but that’s also what makes it so great. Kudos to Millet for braving to write such an original tale. Her clever working of Bible stories into a modern-day imagining of an apocalypse wowed me. At a slim 224 pages, A Children’s Bible is one of those books you’ll be able to read in just a day or two, and if you’re like me, you’ll be sad to have finished so quickly. A month after finishing, I’m still thinking about this one! Grade: A

Note: I received a copy of this book from W.W. Norton Company in exchange for my honest review.

An odd novel that feels particularly strange to read in 'these times' even though it's more about climate crisis than a pandemic.

A lot happens in this novel. At the beginning Millet creates such a specific little world and slowly but surely this gets opened up.

While I do wish the characters had been slightly more realised and we'd been a bit more swept up in the action the somewhat detached narration from a smart and jaded teen is spot on.

Let's hope things don't come to this, but really are we just kidding ourselves now to think that they won't? Not exactly cheerful reading but there was quite a bit of humour woven in to this text despite this still not being a funny book.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review. A lot to mull over in this one.

I've been teaching Lydia Millet's short stories in a Fiction class for several years, so I was, of course, excited for the appearance of this one. I forgot, however, how difficult Millet can be to read. She keeps you at a distance and makes you stop and think. The narrator, Evie, is, with her beloved brother Jack and a group of friends, spending the summer at a beach house where the parents are lost to booze and the children run feral. It isn't quite Lord of the Flies - but it is interesting to see how the children have a better grasp of the world their parents have royally messed up and are leaving to them than the adults do. I won't spoil what the kids get up to - but their confrontation of climate change is worth your time.

Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton for an ARC of this title.

Some combo of the title, plot description, and eerie cover art made me request this title - I'm not familiar with Lydia Millet's previous work. Set from the perspective of a bunch of eerily grown-up children (more grown-up than their parents, anyways) on a group vacation in a rented house, a massive storm hits the house and sets the rest of the plot in motion. This was eerily funny throughout, and mostly nails its larger metaphors about generational struggles re: climate change, though there's a few bits that are really hammering the point home more than needed. There's some powerful images in the book, and the whole thing is a brisk, page-turning read.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

I didn't know what to expected but while the blurb really intrigued me, this book fell flat for me. A quick and easy read but I felt the book was lacking in atmosphere. I feel that maybe I didn't get it. For me there were tenuous links to the titular Children's bible, environmental issues and morality but unfortunately I don't know what the message or point I was meant to get from this.

Not for me for.

When a group of people who went to college together rent a house for the summer, all the kids are relegated to bunk in the attic. As they watch their parents behave very badly, they decide to band together and to refuse all parental involvement for the summer. Evie is fifteen and she keeps an eye on her little brother, her parents being all too willing to ignore the children in favor of drinking and being with their old friends. When disaster in the form of a hurricane strikes, the children discover that they are better off relying on each other and set off for safety.

A Children's Bible is another fantastic and unusual novel by Lydia Millet. It's so well conceived and executed that after finishing, I had to sit back and just think about it for awhile. There's not a word or scene that isn't necessary to the story she's telling and despite the themes being clear, nothing is over-emphasized. If you're already a fan of this under-rated author, you'll love A Children's Bible, if you've never read anything by her, this is a fine place to start.

Narrated by Eve, a teen who has nothing but disdain for her parents (and the parents of her friends), this is, well, interesting. It might be a love it or hate it situation for many, in part because it's one giant metaphor but, that said, it's also well done. Eve and Jack's parents, along with a group of other adults, have been engaging in bad behavior when a cat-4 hurricane hits. The kids take off to take care of themselves on a nearby property. Jack has a Children's Bible, which is important because just about all the negative things that happen in the Bible happen to the kids. Climate change, responsibility for self and others, and kindness (and lack thereof) are themes. Great writing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For Millet fans and fans of literary fiction.

A beautifully flowing and wonderful book about a group of teens, thrown together by their parents during a group family vacation, who band together against the drunken and irresponsible adults around them. It begins as a story about how kids view their parents and flows into a complex story about how the young people survive and take charge of an apocalyptic world. Eve’s little brother has a children’s bible, and the world around them mimics the things he reads about, including Noah and the flood, a group of “angels” that help them, and the end times of Revelations. First of Lydia Millet's books but certainly won't be the last!

A lovely, rich story that stayed with me for days after reading. I've already recommended several times.

I'm honestly between 3 and 4 stars on this one. I was definitely pulled along by the story and finished it quickly. I really liked that the story was told from the perspective of a group of kids, who are observing their world fall apart for whatever reasons, and observing their parents fail them in keeping them safe, prepared, proactively doing anything, really. The kids take it upon themselves to get their own situations under control, they hate that their parents just seem disinterested, lackadaisical, depressed and avoidant about the world and the current environmental disaster, and decide to just leave them.

What I didn't love about this book, is that it does get a bit preachy and on-the-nose about the message, which is definitely "YOU ADULTS RUINED THE WORLD". I get this to some extent - the prior generations did not do enough to protect the environment and now we are on a collision course for the end of the world, whenever that might be. But, I also get the parental perspective to some extent, that, what could they do as people living their lives to enact change or get the higher ups/lawmakers to literally do anything? At some point, existing is all some people can manage, and I don't think everyone has to hate people who are existing. Also, ultimately, the kids couldn't manage without adults b/c other crazy adults come and attack with guns, etc.

There were also some big plot holes - I do not understand the "Owner" of the farm ... was she magic? a dream? Mother Nature? Also, how do these kids have some kind of meta-understanding about how to engineer a hydroponic vegetable garden, mushroom "cave" and whatever else crazy technology they finagle without their parent's help when they decide they need to stop relying on ordering from the outside to get set up?

I think the message is that it's up to the youngins to get it together and save themselves, maybe? And the older folks who have become complacent and depressed about the direction of the world, well, "who cares, see you later, you did this, ef off?" Not my favorite message.

But the book was good, kept me engaged, kept me reading, and thinking. I just hate it when the messages that are supposed to be veiled and conveyed through telling a tale suddenly pop from behind the words like neon blinking sign.

Fast-paced and gripping throughout. A Children's Bible is compelling from start to finish as we follow Eve and her friends trying to survive when their parents just want to get drunk and take drugs in a world ravaged by devastation.