Queenmaker: A Novel of King David's Queen Book

My husband spotted this book on the library shelf and handed it to me. When I read the inside cover, I was really intrigued - a novel that shows King David's life from the perspective of Michal, his first wife. That should be interesting!

Well... I didn't like the narrating style. This tells the story of Michal and also of David's rise to power but it was narrated from the perspective of Michal's final days of life, as if she was looking back on her life. Therefore, there was a lot of "I thought I was being wise but I would come to find out later that I was still very naive." That really annoyed me.

There was very little outside of the Bible story. I was surprised that a 350 page novel didn't really make me feel as if I had learned anything new. I also didn't really feel like I was made aware of the setting of the story. Sure, most of it took place in a palace, but there was very little description that placed the story in a specific time period. It could have happened anywhere in the world at any point in time prior to 1900.

The worst part of the novel is it's Biblical inaccuracy. David is made out to be a conniving, manipulative, selfish, and cold hearted man who only wants to be approved of by man. There was no sense that David was ever listening to God or even considered where God was leading. This is odd, considering the Bible calls David "a man after God's own heart." Nathan (God's prophet after Samuel) was portrayed as weak, giving unfulfilled prophecy, and blind to what David was really like. Seriously?

I know my review is harsh, but the only thing that kept me from giving it a 1 star is that I wanted to see how it ended. I was hoping that Michal would learn that David was unselfish, listening to God, and that she had misunderstood him. Nope! In this story, David died a selfish cold man who didn't care about God.

If you care about novels portraying Biblical figures correctly, don't bother with this novel.