I went into this book really wanting to love it and it ended up falling flat for me. This was my second experience with a Kingsolver novel, the first being The Bean Trees the summer before ninth grade. I have vivid memories of struggling through that one and had hoped that time would have made me a different reader. But I think I can conclude I am not a fan of Kingsolver's style.

The Poisonwood Bible alternates between the POVs of the female members of the Price family, who are all shipped off to a mission in the heart of the Congo so the patriarch of the family can minister to the people there. They all have their own reaction to being put into this remote, lonely, and sometimes dangerous situation and it was at first very interesting to read these different perspectives. Then it started to wear on me. Yes, we get it, Adah is different and talks (reads) in palindromes. Yes, Rachel is a spoiled brat. Yes, Ruth May is the baby of the family, and acts as such. Yes, Leah is the one who is going to fall in love with Africa. All four of the children play into these stereotypes and seem to hold onto these characterizations their whole lives. I wanted more change from all 4 of them, but that didn't seem to be their fate, and after awhile their personalities were grating.

I found the intermingling of the history of the Congo region with the story itself to be interesting, but a bit heavy-handed at times. Some sections, especially in Leah's later history, felt like they were just dumping all the history onto the reader and then left it there without much advancing of the plot.

All of this combined to explore Kingsolver's agenda through the whole book. I have nothing against her using this novel to explore the evils of colonialism in Africa; lots of (white) nations have come into that continent and done a lot of really awful things there. But I think her interest in portraying the different sides of colonialism and its consequences led to very stark, almost black and white (no pun intended) stereotypes of characters. I also felt as those it bogged down the plot, extending the story way longer than it needed to be (especially towards the end).

Overall, I think Kingsolver's work will appeal to a certain audience, but I've learned that her books are not for me. Her writing is beautiful, and normally that is enough to carry a book for me, but that wasn't the case here.

3-3.5 stars

TW: Murder; death of a child; poverty; racism; colonialism