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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
A riveting, reverent imagining of the hidden years of the child Jesus.
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Outstanding
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Library Journal Tamara Butler
In her attempt to breathe life into a historical religious figure, Rice's superb storytelling skills enable her to succeed where many other writers have failed. [1 Nov 2005, p. 70]
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
The childlike language can be simplistic, though as readers persevere they will discover the riches of the sparse prose Rice adopts.
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Favorable
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The Independent Victoria James
On one level, this is a coming-of-age tale about a child exploring the things left unsaid in family life, and on that level it succeeds.
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Julie Wittes Schlack
[Rice] relies on simple, declarative sentences and repetition to create a sense of innocence, but the effect is merely tedious. Despite that, the story she's chosen to tell is almost engaging enough to appeal as much to fans of vampire stories as to those of Bible tales. As literary feats go, that's a near-miracle.
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Favorable
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Salon Laura Miller
Readers more accustomed to and enamored of the broadly drawn lifestyles of the rich and undead in Rice's previous works may find all this a bit slow. However, the meticulous attention in "Out of Egypt" to the way faith and communal bonds permeate every aspect of Jesus' family life makes for a far more persuasive picture of spirituality than the operatic agonies of Lestat and his immortal friends.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
The restraint and prayerful beauty of "Christ the Lord" is apt to surprise her usual readers and attract new ones.
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Favorable
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Booklist Kristine Huntley
A decided and daring departure from her usual fare, Rice's latest should draw many curious readers. [1 Nov 2005, p. 5]
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Mixed
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Daily Telegraph Damian Thompson
However noble her intentions, Anne Rice must know that, if her work is embraced by the born-again Christians of America, then this clay sparrow will really fly.
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Mixed
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Daily Telegraph Matt Thorne
One hopes that in the subsequent volumes she can refrain from... supermarket horror novel tactics and instead concentrate on the compelling recreation of a period for which she clearly feels an enormous passion, and sees as her moral obligation to bring to life for Christian readers of all denominations.
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Mixed
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The Onion A.V. Club Noel Murray
There's some charm to imagining how people in ancient times fed themselves and entertained themselves and loved each other, but aside from some passages toward the end that deal with Jesus learning his origins and embracing his destiny, the book's exercise is too limited.
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Mixed
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USA Today Susan Kelly
Rice is not playing it safe. In ending her own exile from the faith in which she was raised, she is reinventing herself as an artist with the hope, but not the certainty, that readers will follow.
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Mixed
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The Guardian Jenny Diski
In Christ the Lord, Anne Rice has conscientiously taken all the drama, elegance and urgency of the Gospels and the Apocrypha, and flattened them into a tedious and mediocre potboiler. Which is a pity, because it's still a hell of a good idea for a novel.
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Mixed
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Los Angeles Times Bernadette Murphy
This novel, it seems, is [Rice's] answer to skeptics. And though the afterword makes for an interesting look into the author's motivation and meticulous research, it also reveals an agenda, which effectively robs the novel of some of its intrinsic joy. [31 Oct 2005]
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Unfavorable
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Entertainment Weekly Mark Harris
Christ reads like a bland young-adult novel, written in language that's supposed to be unadorned and poignantly simple but is instead as flat and leeched of poetry as the Good News Bible.
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Unfavorable
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Chicago Tribune Alan Cheuse
Ill-conceived, ill-wrought and, worst sin of all, quite boring. [13 Nov 2005, pg. 1]
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Terrible
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Washington Post Melvin Jules Bukiet
Rice has sucked the life out of the greatest story ever told.
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