I bought this book, and it was so good I couldn’t resist reviewing.
In the beginning of the world, Lilith is the happy partner of Adam. They live in Eden, the garden built by Yahweh (God) and his consort, Asherah (Goddess), and are supposed to create a new, improved humanity. Asherah encourages Lilith to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, because Wisdom is Her gift to human women. After a long, happy period of loving marriage and a contented life, Lilith notices she hasn’t seen her Goddess in the Garden for some time, and things feel differently within her relationship with Adam. Slowly but surely, the power Adam has to name things in the Garden, establishing his dominance, extends to his wife. And, as we all know, he demands she submit to him completely, and she essentially tells him exactly where he can stuff that demand. God, who has been encouraging Adam to dominate Lilith, is pissed at her for denying Adam and for continuing to ask about Asherah. Lilith and Adam part ways, and out of Eden she goes. She is determined to find her missing Goddess, and thus her quest through time, other cultures, and history begins.
Nikki Marmery expertly weaves Hebrew myths and legends with other ancient civilizations’ mythology and creates a rich tapestry of history as Lilith moves through time. Sometimes an active participant, sometimes an observer, Lilith lives, loves, and always searches for her Goddess, lamenting the fall of female divinity and power under the grindstone of the rising patriarchy.
I adore this book. Lilith’s story is fascinating and gives the reader relatable anger, frustration, and sadness as she watches the changes in the world after she leaves Eden. As a woman who loves Ancient History and mythology, Marmery addresses all the things that have always infuriated me about Biblical and Biblical-adjacent cultures’ stories and the erasure of the Hebrew Goddess. The writing is lyrical and evocative, and offers a compelling argument that Lilith’s demonization for defying Adam (and by extension, God) in favor of wisdom and the Goddess was essentially a smear campaign.
Lilith is an excellent, engaging, emotionally charged read that uses many myths from ancient societies as the backdrop to fill in the hidden women’s stories. I loved it, can’t recommend it enough, and I’d read anything Nikki Marmery writes.
No Pithy Phrase 