Spoiler Free Review:
God Is A Woman by Michael TavonMy rating: ❤❤❤
Readers will shocked by the utter honesty and raw emotions that play such a large role in, God is a Woman by Michael Tavon. Price Jones has led a life of tragedy. Growing up abused in the home of an addict, has scared him, and left him doubting his self worth. Now, he uses sex and drugs to cope with his perceived failure as an author, a brother, a son, and a person. When an former love walks back into his life, old emotions are rekindled, as well as old heartbreak. Will Price be able to rebuild his life and mend his broken heart, or will he give in to his inner daemons? I think calling this book a romance novel is very misleading. While romance plays a large role in the story, Price's journey for self-discovery is what really takes center stage. I am not really sure how much I enjoyed reading this novel. My usual pick of young adult, romance, fantasy, and around 800 pages, is pretty much the opposite of this book. Regardless of my enjoyment, no one can argue that this book isn't good. The characters show such a parallel to the misery and hardship of our world, and while the plot is uneventful, it accurately portrays the monotony and agony of every day existence. This book is definitely an adult novel and not for all readers. My reading experience suffered as I was not able to relate to the characters on any personal level, but for people who can relate to the characters, then this book could have a huge emotional effect on you and I would highly, highly recommend that you read it! *Disclaimer I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review and this did not affect my review as my opinions and writing are 100% my own*
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Recommended Mindset For Reading
As I said before, this book is for a certain kind of reader. For those of you who feel you would enjoy this book, then I would recommend reading it all in one sitting. It's very short and it won't take you long to finish, but the writing is very powerful, so, prepare yourself to sit back for a second, and say "Whoa, what did I just read?". Believe me, you will need some time to decompress. If you do end up reading this book, please comment and share your feelings, as I am interested to see how others felt after finishing it.
Full Review:
Initial Reaction
My initial reaction to this book was kind of weird because I love books that either are total cliff hangers, or wrap up perfectly, and this book did neither. Also this book was not happy, and usually the closest I venture to unhappy books is anything written by Colleen Hoover. I honestly still don't fully understand my feelings towards this book, and it is probably because I loved the literary techniques, and references to our world, more than the actual story line. Overall this book feels unfinished to me. I think if the author had spent a bit more time developing a plot arc, then the story would have been more interesting.On the other hand, I also understand that the author is making commentary on how life doesn't have a distinct plot arc, and how it can be boring sometimes. I am kind of at war with myself, about whether or not the impressive commentary in this book wins out against the fact that story line isn't events, just interactions between characters.
Character Analysis
The characters in this book are all terrible people. They have reasons for being terrible people (not excuses, but reasons, there is a big difference) and we don't really see a change of heart in any of the characters. This is because (At least I hope the author was trying to say this) people don't change. The only character in the book that has a change of heart is Thomas, the abusive father to Price. Thomas is a character that I do not agree with how the author dealt with. Thomas mentally, physically, and sexually abused Price, yet he chooses to forgive him, and puts up no fight to his siblings moving in with him. In some ways, this shows how easily Price gives up, as right after this happens, Price attempts to commit suicide. My personal opinion, is that Price letting his siblings go live with Thomas, does not show the kind of growth the author was hinting at. Another character that I initially felt was dealt with poorly was Benu, but I later came to understand her part in the story. Benu shows up at the beginning as what we think is the love interest, and then just leaves. This was initially very confusing, but then I realized that this plays into the idea of how people don't change. In real life, love is hard, especially if you are not a particularly great person like our protagonist. Benu serves to show how Price deals with a relationship, outside of his one night stands, and his relationship with Iris. Speaking of Iris, I very much disliked her as a character, which I am pretty sure the author meant to happen. Iris, like all the other characters in this book, is self sabotaging. She is engaged to another man, yet she still peruses a relationship with Price. They get together, they break up, they get together, they break up, they get together again. It is a never ending cycle of a short period of happiness, until someone gets paranoid or jealous. Iris gets jealous that Price hooks up with someone else, when they are not together, and at the same time she, is cheating on her fiance with Price. Again, they are all terrible people. Also they obviously never payed attention in Sex Ed, because Price never uses protection when he has sex, and he has a lot of sex. Of course he has to deal with the consequences when he not only contracts an STD, but also gets Mariana pregnant. The only time we see change in Price, is when they move to LA and he has to take care of his daughter. But we don't know if he has really changed, because the book just kind of ends, ergo the unsatisfying ending. I guess the author leaves it up to us to decide if the characters have changed.
Race
Race seems to play a larger role in this book than I at first thought it would. While Price only mentions how race plays a role in his life twice, it pops up in minors ways through out the book. Price states that it was hard to be the only African American in his family, as well as, when he calls an ambulance for his mother, he mentions that she is white, in hopes of making it come faster. One thing I thought was interesting, was that the women that Price dates were all a women of minorities. Price seeks out other people of minorities because it makes him feel accepted and not the odd man out. I loved how the author did this! It shows the reader so much about Price's personality, while only being a small detail in the book. Price is so insecure, and the women who he dates play a large part in that. This detail is so interesting because many times in the book, the women in Price's life make him more insecure, but this is a way that they make him more secure.Religion
One might expect that with the word god in the title, this book would be very religious. But, religion plays only a very small role in this novel. Besides Price coming to the conclusion that god is a woman, he also uses god to continue to doubt his self worth. On several occasions, Price mentions that "not even god could save me", which gives the reader the impression that he does not think very highly of himself. Religion is mainly used as a tool in this novel to convey Price's insecurities. Towards the end of the book, when Price has supposedly changed, religion is not mentioned. This is a subtle way the author is telling the reader that Price's views on himself are changing.Women
As a feminist, I want so badly to say this book is sexist. The main character uses women, and at the same time puts them up on a pedestal, thinking they should act one way or another. But as a feminist, I also have to recognize that this book reflects reality, and in reality not all people are great, and this includes women. There is one scene in this book, where a group of women are discussing how terrible men are, and Price explains that women do all of the same things. That scene was a great way of showing how unbalanced the views of one gender to another are. One thing that was not fully explained in the book, was why Price says god is a woman. He in one sentence says, that god is unforgiving, and basically says that his experiences with god, are the same as with women. The issue is not followed through, and seeing as that it is the title, it is kind of a big deal. Also, one thing I did not like, was when Price is happy that his brother, who is pansexual, looses his virginity to a woman. This felt unneeded and completely clashes with the idea that Price is open to his brother's sexuality.Plot
I have a lot of issues with the plot in this novel. Mainly consisting of the fact that there isn't one. The major events of the book are thrown together with no build up. In trying to reflect reality, the plot is perfect, as the events of our lives are pretty sporadic and chaotic. In trying to create a novel that people want to read, you have to be careful with the amount of reality in your work. Plot is one area where I feel we can take liberties with reality. It is too difficult in a modern, realistic fiction book, too just portray the events of a short period of a persons life, as they actually happen, especially because the characters do not really exist. In this novel, the issue was build up. When Price comes home to find his mother has overdosed, the buildup is perfect. We have spent enough time not at Price's home, to make it interesting when he finds his mother. When he goes to visit his mother in the hospital, and then she is suddenly dead, there is no buildup at all. We needed to see Price visit his mother, or at least spend more than a sentence reflecting on it, before she dies. Otherwise, we can not fully understand how important the event is in Price's life. In essence, either a character has to do more interesting things, or the character needs to reflect more on the things in their life, no matter how interesting the events are. For this book, we just needed more reflection.
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