When I sat down to read Asenath by Anna Patricio, I had high anticipation. My favorite genre to read is Biblical Fiction; furthermore, my favorite story in the Bible is that of Joseph. When I saw this book, I was excited and looked forward to looking at the often unmentioned woman that was Joseph’s wife. I’ve read other novels about Joseph and her impact on the story varies, but she’s a side character and usually not explored in too great of depth. I really hoped in reading this book that I would have questions answered as well as enjoy a believable story and account. Unfortunately, this did not happen, while I enjoyed facets of the story, others were unbelievable, odd, or just plain confusing to follow.
Patricio starts Asenath off by introducing us to Kiya a young fisherwoman’s girl. I had no clue who this would be at first, in fact, it made me wonder if they’d give a little bit of this story and set Kiya up as Asenath’s mother. While I will not say one way or the other on what happened, suffice to say I was thoroughly surprised. It seemed as if this story really diverged from what I would have expected. With the lack of biblical information on Asenath though, perhaps that is to be expected, either way, it left me feeling a bit ‘off.’ The story seemed to jump around a lot, we’d be in one area and then we would jump to another. There also did not seem to be much editing of this story.
Either way, while the basic story was entertaining, it’s not one I would care to read again. There are far better books out there about Joseph and Asenath, even if the book is not primarily about Asenath you can find out plenty in other books. Feel free to check my reviews for a book I’ve read about Joseph that I found had a plausible background for Asenath. I give this book 2.5/5 stars, however for purposes of Amazon, I will round up to 3.
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