"The Prophetess" is an in-depth fictional depiction of chapters 4 and 5 from the book of Judges in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Jill Eileen Smith had her work cut out for her to stretch these two chapters into a 300-plus page novel depicting the life and time of Deborah, a prophetess and judge of the Israelite people. There are characters that were actually real: Deborah, Lappidoth, Barak, Sisera, Jael. All mentioned in the story from Judges. However, Smith adds sons, daughters, daughter's in law, and friends to these real-life people to flesh them out even though they've been gone from us for centuries. True some "poetic license" occurs, but the main core to the biblical account is fairly solid.
The story line seemed a bit slow for me at first. But the middle half of the book moved well. I felt the ending was a bit slow as well.
Smith weaves suspense and some romance to the story line, which made me want to keep reading to see how things shook out between Talya and Barak. I already knew how the main story ended because of reading the biblical account. I guess part of me too wanted to see just how Smith was going to accomplish it all.
The names of some of the characters were a bit of a mouth full, but didn't detract from the overall story line.
I felt that Smith did her homework and definitely achieved making Deborah and her family and Israel's struggle real. If anything, I have a face in my mind's eye of who Deborah was. I don't think that what Smith accomplishes in this work was by any means easy. I applaud her efforts.
Overall, it wasn't my usual fare in books. Some of the wording felt a bit stilted and was sparse on description, but overall a good read. 4 out of 5 stars.
(I was given this book for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
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