Reading CANON by Paige Lewis
From the publisher’s site:
”A scorchingly brilliant, wildly funny, and deeply moving epic.” —John Green, #1 globally bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!
Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.
Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.
As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.
This was a weird book that for some reason I could not put down. The prose was quite smooth, and for a literary fiction novel, pacing was fantastic.
At several points, I was wondering whether I was gripped because of the monomyth structure, which the book so obviously takes from. (There are some familiar echoes of scenes—modernized for Gen Z sensibilities—from the Odyssey, the Bible, and other myths that use the hero’s journey.)
But it was also in large part because of Paige Lewis’s writing. I was intrigued. And if I didn’t fall in love with Yara or Adrena at the start, I did care for them the longer I spent time with them. And I cared about the other characters as well. (A hat tip to HOWBIG!) Because they felt very human.
And I suppose what I liked the most was that the writing didn’t feel pretentious. It was telling me a strange, compelling, modern myth that was true. So true that I understood the choices, including the one Yara finally made, because in that situation, I would have chosen the same, too.