"The Next Queen of Heaven" Review

The Next Queen of Heaven

by Gregory Maguire

8/10

My Synopsis:

When the mother of Tabitha Scales gets bonked on the head with a religious statue, she turns into more than a handful. With a mother who has gone off the deep end, two misfit brothers, and a cheating boyfriend, how is Tabitha supposed to cope?

Jeremy Carr is the musical director at the local Catholic church who also happens to be gay.  While holding on to a lost love, preparing for his big break, and helping out a dear friend, can Jeremy keep his sanity?

The town of Thebes, New York is small – very small.  There aren’t many secrets but there are more than you would imagine.  As for Tabitha and Jeremy both, where will the future take them and will Thebes stand in their way?

My Opinion:

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Gregory Maguire writing about everyday people and not a fantasy, fairy-tale land as he has many times before (Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister), but I liked The Next Queen of Heaven quite a bit.  It started off well and held my interest throughout.  The characters are lively and unique.  Jeremy is a character that I liked right off the bat while Tabitha is a character I had to learn to like.  There are people to love in this book and people to hate, although my favorite characters have to be the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries.  Their presence in the book brings both comic relief as well as deep reflection.  The plot progresses at a steady pace taking the reader through the story with ease.  There are points where Maguire has even created a farce in my opinion.  There are two big twists that I totally didn’t see coming.  Both were pivotal moments in the story and in the lives of the main characters.  The ending left a bit to be desired.  There are a lot of books that I love right up until the ending and this was one of them.  It just seemed to fizzle out.  I felt it was lacking in closure.  It wasn’t one that I would have ended differently as I often think.  It just . . . well . . . ended.  A very entertaining and interesting book but too open-ended for me. 10 out of 10 for the main portion.  4 out of 10 for the ending.  So, 8 out of 10 overall.