Book Review: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Isabela Chieffi
Sep 20
2 min read

Information

Blue book cover with silhouetted foliage and moon. Text: "Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible," "Pulitzer Prize Finalist," and a review quote.

Book Title: The Poisonwood Bible

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Publish Date: 1998

Genres: Historical, literary

Moods: challenging, emotional, reflective

Pace: Slow

Synopsis

The Poisonwood Bible is about an American missionary family who moves to the Congo in 1959. Their time spent there is told through the voices of the wife and daughters. While they try to adapt to life in this foreign country, each of them struggles with culture, identity, and the consequences of their father’s beliefs.

Personal Thoughts

What a long book. I get why it needed to be long, but it just felt like so much. At times, I literally hated this book. But that could also be because I have to read it for my AP Literature class. The beginning was really hard to get through, and it felt like Kingsolver was repeating the same message over and over again, which made it kind of boring. But once the climax hit, the story picked up and became way more engaging.

The development of each of the daughters (and Orleanna too) was really well done. Maybe that was one of the upsides of the longer book format. I liked how through the chapters, my feelings toward each of the daughters shifted, especially with Leah and Adah. For example, I didn't really like Leah that much, then I began to feel sorry for her, and then she became my favorite, and then she started to piss me off again, and then in the end I was happy for her. Adah’s growth was probably my favorite part of the entire book. Her dynamic with Leah felt like a yin-yang situation that I loved. Their lives were opposite and parallel at the same time.

Even though I said all these bad things about the book, I still was able to enjoy some of it. I loved Ruth May's section and Adah's lyrical writing, Leah's relatability, and Orleanna's strive to be a good mother. Moreover, I liked how Kingsolver handled Nathan and illustrated the hypocrisy of his actions. Another thing that I thought she did extremely well was how she incorporated side characters. She didn't make them seem like side characters at all, but rather people who had a past, present, and future. She made everyone in the story feel real.

Book Rating

★★★☆☆ (3.5/5) stars

I gave this book 3.5. Mostly because it was long. I mean, like, I can read long books; in fact, I have read a handful in my reading journey. But if a book is ridiculously long, it's got to be good enough to be long. Because I felt that the beginning dragged on and was a bit boring, this made the length of the book not worth it. Not only that, but the ending did not make up for that mountain that I had to climb for the first half of the book.