Okay But Not Great Book About Esther
Esther
Other than reading The Bible or watching the movie One Night With The King, I was never really able to find a great biblical historical fiction book about Esther from her point of view. Esther is one of my favorite women from the Bible and reading Angela Hunts, Bathsheba book I was excited about reading her version of Esther. There were things about the book I enjoyed but sadly it didn’t grab me like I was hoping it would.
Pros
It had some great ideas I liked seeing Esther interact with the Kings other children and her describing her romance with the king. Angela Hunt’s writing is very descriptive and you feel as though you’re back in ancient times. However that was about it.
Cons
I felt like a huge chunk of the story focused on just Esther’s communication with the king and his children alone. It had way too much unnecessary fluff and details. One example is why did Mordichai have a wife in this version? I understand he might have been married at some point but I feel that his wife didn’t add anything to the plot. Another thing that made me raise an eyebrow was Vashti wasn’t banished like the Bible said, and she was reduced to a concubine. I’m thinking she had to have been either banished or killed or the author could have put that on Vashtis way back to her original home the king hired someone to kill her. I also felt like we could have heard from either Mordichais point of view or maybe Haggai, Xerxes or even Hamans point of view when we weren’t hearing from Esther. Harbonah was okay but he was just there another character that didn’t add to the plot.
Overall
All in all it wasn’t the worst book I read but it wasn’t the best either. The story could took out unnecessary fluff. Esther probably could have been longer and seeing her interactions with how dangerous Haman is and condenses a chunk of unnecessary fluff in order to move the plot along. If you love Esther or any type of biblical fiction it’s worth picking up from the library at least once, or if you want to buy it the price on Amazon is worth it. It’s a quick read if you want something to fill the time.