3⭐️

I owe Thanks to NetGalley, Alcove Press and Nikki Marmery for a Digital ARC in return for my honest review.

In Lilith by Nikki Marmery we follow Lilith from the beginning. It starts in the garden of eden, where Lilith and Adam are created by their gods Asherah and Yahweh (4004BC). From the beginning Lilith is set to an almost impossible mission to spread her wisdom and avenge Asherah. We read of her journey of this mission.

The writing is poetic. There are more scriptures in this than I had wished to read (knowing the context of the book, I did expect a few). I really couldn’t stand any man that was brought into the book, except for Samael.

Tragedy, disappointment, fury, and sometimes love and short lived happiness is all covered in the story of Lilith.

My sincerest thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! From the moment I came across this book I was deeply interested in the biblical and mythological elements that would be interwoven throughout the text. I love the idea of a reimagining of Lilith, Adam’s first partner before Eve, and creating a more empathetic version of her as opposed to what is usually portrayed.

Lilith’s character is depicted wonderfully, standing firmly grounded in her beliefs with a clear voice, strong heart, and conscience drawn toward the wrongdoings and injustices committed by the men around her as well as others.

Despite my enthusiasm about this story’s potential, I did struggled to get through many parts as I felt the plot was too drawn out or the dialogue did not feel fluid at times. I also felt that the overall voice of the novel jumped between feeling a bit too antiquated while also being stuck too deeply in modernity from one moment to the next. This was the source of my deepest issue in terms of resonating with the text since, although I felt impassioned by the underlying message of the story, the language, moments of introspection, and the dialogue were elements I struggled to empathize with or connect to on a deeper level. There was a certain level of monotony that overtook the text at one point fairly early on and lingered, making it difficult to focus on the text and truly feel drawn in enough to feel excited through to the end.

I feel that this text had tons of potential but ultimately fell a bit short for me in the end. The overarching message was an extremely valuable and important one to share, but lacked in its voice and emotional resonance. I feel compelled enough to give it another chance in the future but for now am left feeling a bit stranded between like and dislike.

DNF. The cover caught my curiosity, unfortunately the prose did not hold it. Lilith is a ferocious goddess who deserves to have her epic story told, unfortunately, this particular rendition felt shallow and fell flat for me.

Thank you for letting me read this Galley
I really enjoyed it. I love religious retelling.
The was a berry good read it did take a little bit for me to get fully into very much enjoyed the journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for giving me this ARC in return for an honest review.

As a huge fan of Greek mythology retellings, this book was such a treat! It felt very similar to a Greek mythology retelling in the vein of Circe, but introduced me into the world of Hebrew mythology. I adored the main character Lilith and her struggle to empower women was awe inspiring. The theme of feminism was strong without being patronizing or falling prey to corporate or girl boss energy. I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come.

Thank you NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Nikki Marmery for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I enjoyed this book and it’s one of the most unique ones I’ve read. It follows Lilith, who I learned a little bit about as a child, but from a different perspective. It features a lot of people that I’ve heard about and spans a large period of time. I liked that it was split into sections and that helped to keep my interest throughout. I think people who like feminist retellings, books about Biblical women, and more will like this one. It did remind me of Madeline Miller’s Circe, although I hate saying that because some reviews have mentioned how many people compare it to that book, haha. If you like Circe, though, there is a large chance you will like this one. 3.5 stars!

Well I quit at 60%. I skimmed to the end to see what I would miss and I wasn't super excited as it continued.

This book should've done everything for me - a mythological figure I am fascinated by, and wanted to learn more, the rage of women throughout the millennia... but the writing style couldn't hold me, the story was frustrating, and the entire time it told instead of shown. Which, considering the amount of ground it had to cover, was a lot!!! But still. Super disappointing.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for a chance to read and review.

I enjoyed Nikki Marmery's LILITH (and such a gorgeous cover!). It's a subversive and feminist retelling of a historically vilified woman. The character's voice is incredibly strong and I was sucked into the story right from the first chapter. That being said, while I hoped to love the rest of the novel, I just liked it. Lilith's voice is strong, but it does sound quite modern, which took me out of the story at times. I was hoping for more of a consistently ancient-sounding voice, like Madeline Miller's CIRCE. The writing, while entertaining, could also be stronger.

Additionally, it needs to be noted that Lilith belongs to Jewish mythology, and this novel felt like it was told through a Christian lens. As much as I enjoyed the story, it did feel a little like appropriation, and perhaps would have been even more interesting had the novel been told through a Jewish lens. That is a story I would definitely read. Ultimately, LILITH feels like an introduction to Jewish mythology--but perhaps not the best.

Fans of Claire North will enjoy this one, I think. That's the most comparable author and storytelling/retelling style I can think of.

I’ve always wanted to read more about Lilith and why she’s been vilified. Very good read and I highly suggest it!

This was a DNF for me. I didn't like the writing style, and couldn't connect with the story. I also didn't realize that this was a Christianized version of the story and not a Jewish retelling, which rubs me wrong since Lilith is definitively Jewish mythology. I love mythology retellings but this one did not work for me.

3.5/5

Religious/mythological retellings are my jam lately and Lilith seemed to be right up my alley. Added to that, I wasn’t entirely familiar with the Jewish story of Lilith. So I was really looking forward to this and I just wish this story was in a better book.

I am so excited for others to read this book. You might have heard of the stories of Lilith, but I guarantee you’ve never heard one like this. As someone who deconstructed from Christianity, I have been waiting, yearning, for retellings of vilified Biblical women.
I'm a religion major, feminist and lover of mythological retellings. This book is PERFECT.

"Lilith" follows the title character who, according to Hebrew mythology, was the first wife of Adam before Eve and cast out of the Garden of Eden for her disobedience. Compared to Madeline Miller's "Circe," I had high hopes for this feminist retelling. Unfortunately, I don't think this book ended up being for me, but seeing as there are many 4 and 5-star reviews on Goodreads, I'm confident others will like this one.

Marmery's writing style was a bit distant, which wasn't to my personal tastes. I had a hard time connecting with Lilith or any of the characters. I felt like I was dropped into a story with minimal context, and I didn't feel invested like I wanted to be. I think there were some lovely descriptions and word choices here, so readers who prefer lush prose might like this more than I did.

Additionally, several anachronisms in this book took me out of the story. A few examples from the first few chapters include "no way," "mumbo jumbo," and "clown." These words and phrases were not coined until centuries after the book's events, so it took me out of the scene.

Ultimately, I don't think this is a bad book, it just wasn't for me.

As an agnostic atheist I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book., I was intrigued since I read the description though. I have heard of Lilith's name before. She was Adam's first wife, but I have always heard of her in a witch/demonic way. This was actually a very unique portrayal of her. This felt subversive and feminist.

A note to prospective readers: Always ignore comparisons to other books—this is not a Madeline Miller-esque story told from a yet-unheard of perspective. This is explicitly a demonstration of how male supremacy and women’s systemic oppression has been cultivated by millennia of men’s religious authority <i> told through the yet-unheard of perspective of Lilith</i>. If you’re expecting a super in-depth character study on Lilith, change your expectations before reading.

In the beginning, I felt that this would be a good introduction to feminism for those who don’t much like non-fiction because I thought the book wouldn’t go further than the basic feminist sentiments many stop at (usually for fear of backlash), but I quickly realized Nikki Marmery went all in and mirrored modern radical feminist theory through the lens of our narrator, Lilith.

Throughout the story, we see examples of the harm done to women and girls and how men have used religion to justify this harm in a way that reflects our past and present realities. Marmery also shows several times the importance of sisterhood and community in educating and freeing women and how men will do whatever it takes to keep women separated and prevent the mass enlightening we see happen at different points of the story.

We live in a time where much progress has been made in the name of women’s liberation, but there is still a lot of work to do, and it is not coincidence that the most reviled form of feminism—radical feminism—is also the most practiced form of feminism globally, and the one most similar to Asherah, Lilith, and Maryam’s teachings.

A couple of complaints I’ve seen were that Lilith seemed a bit one-note, that the story could meander in parts, and that anachronistic terms were annoying, but I don’t really agree with them. Yes, Lilith’s entire story revolves around finding Asherah and spreading her work, but that doesn’t mean she’s a flat character, and it makes sense that the transitions between sections would be a little slow since they take place centuries—or even millennia—apart. Also, Lilith is remembering things that happened over a 6,000 year period, so her using more modern terminology isn’t surprising, and it’s pretty funny most of the time (especially in the beginning).

This book is definitely a great place to start if you don’t typically read non-fiction, but if you want to go more in-depth with the points made in the book, “The Creation of Patriarchy” by Gerda Lerner (I was really excited to see Marmery quote it in the author’s note), “Invisible Women” by Caroline Criado Perez, and “The War Against Women” by Marilyn French are great places to start (“Adam’s Curse” by Bryan Sykes and “The Darkening Age” by Catherine Nixey are pretty good, too)!

With the surge in retellings, I was really intrigued by this premise. Although now I realize it's not that new of an idea (I wasn't previously really aware of Lilith's myth). Readers who like retellings by authors such as Genevieve Gornichec, Claire North and Madeline Miller may like this work as it is similar in style. However, there are a few caveats to such a blanket recommendation.

First, the writing style seemed to flip-flop and at times was too modern and other times it felt very ancient. The consistency was enough to pull me from the story on several occasions.

For much of the book, I struggled to sympathize with Lilith. I get the basic plight that women just want to exist in our own right and lead a fulfilling life on our terms. I'm sympathetic to the experience of men impressing their own expectations/desires/needs/etc on women, which makes us feel like objects and property, rather than equals. Marmery brought up this idea of men naming something and thinking that's the same as creation, whereas women actually create things to which she wove in the idea that Ashera (God's wife) actually created humans, leaving God to twist the truth to say he did because he wants the credit.

That leads me to my second issue: it seemed like every male in this book was presented in a negative way, like none had any regard for a woman unless she served him. I also didn't care for the portrayal of God as distant and aloof. Yet, I recognize this is largely founded in my own interpretation of the Bible and a relationship with God that I don't view to be the cold, arrogant-type male that many might argue He is. But, that being said, since such a large portion of this book clashed with my understanding of the events in the Garden of Eden and my relationship to Scripture, I couldn't really enjoy it. So, if you view God as sympathetic and a friend, and you believe men and women were created to compliment each other (balancing strengths and weaknesses so that they work in unison, and that neither should lord over the other), this may not be the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lilith by Nikki Marmery is a captivating tale that weaves different mythology together to bring a new light to an long slighted figure. I very much enjoyed myself reading this book, more than similar books like Madeline Miller’s Circe. Although, I’m not sure if that was because I’m not thoroughly familiar with the biblical narrative stories as I am with Greco-Roman mythology. While I did enjoy the first half more than the later, I still feel that this was an intriguing tale that left me wanting to learn more. I would love for Marmery to write a non-fiction piece with all her sources on Lilith cited.

Side note, I am beyond convinced that Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power was the soundtrack to this novel. Only the author can say otherwise and even then I’ll believe it so.

I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. This novel has an interesting premise, but overall I found it difficult to follow and be engaged with the story. I found Lilith to be both too modern and too ancient-feeling for us to benefit from her perspective as a modern reader, and although there's a great deal of patriarchal criticism I also don't see how exactly the characters plan to do anything about it. Hopefully other readers will enjoy it more than I did, but I feel this novel would be best suited to a very particular reader.

This is such a difficult review for me to write. I would love to rate it higher, simply because of the potential within the story, and knowing that certain groups of people might be angered by this book's very existence. That said, I struggled to focus and finish this book, and the only reason I did so at all was because I felt obligated to write a review.

Lilith was the "First Wife/Woman" before Eve. She fell from grace after refusing to act as Adam's inferior at his demands. She tastes of the forbidden fruit and makes it her life's mission to remind women that they were made to be man's equal by the Goddess Asherah, the true Creator of all life, partner to Yahweh. Her path to attempting to overthrow the patriarchal systems set forth by men is a long and meandering one, taking her through thousands upon thousands of years, and all over areas near and around the nation of Israel.

When I say this book meandered, I mean it. The writing was inconsistent, at times lyrical and at other modern, and sometimes both within the same sentence. It felt Biblical in form in that Lilith does this and see this and goes from here to there, with little elaboration or description. There is a lot of telling with little showing, and it becomes monotonous and tedious to read. I struggled to stay focused and skimmed, a lot.

As I said, I can see why this book should be better than it is, sadly the execution just wasn't it for me and I honestly can't see recommending this book to others.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

The author did a good job with this book considering that she was trying to write a historical novel based on mythological figures with modern day topics and sensibilities built in. Now a job for the faint hearted when retelling biblical tales is always going to upset someone. Personally, I read it straight as a novel ( not getting too tied up in my own Catholic beliefs) and absolutely loved it. The character of Lilith was complex and relatable within a modern context.