The Next Queen of Heaven: A Novel Audiobook

" Maguire takes a big departure from his usual modern fairy tale genre and instead paints a portrait of a small town in upstate New York, complete with a cast of wacky characters, congregation rivalries, coming-of-age moments, parent issues, and a flying Baby Jesus. The plot teeters on the edge of absurdity, particularly surrounding Leontina Scales, who seems to suffer a mental breakdown after being hit on the head by a statue of Mary, and her three out-of-control children. I'd give it three stars for being an entertaining read, definitely suitable for the beach. "

" Stick to fairy tales and Oz, Gregory. This thing is a poorly written, boring mess. "

" I really wanted to like this book more, but it was sometimes difficult to stay engaged in the storyline "

" After reading the back cover of the book I thought it would be hysterical. Not so much. It was a real downer. It had the potential to be really funny. Mostly it was a "highbrow intellectual" type of book. I really had high hopes. By page 114/chapter 14 I still wasn't engaged. I enjoyed Good Omens and The Stupidet Angel (religious farces). Don't waste your time. Two thumbs down. "

" I made it to page 64 before I put this book down for good. Maybe that was too early to abandon it, but the only reason I made it that far was that I was stuck on a bus on my commute home and had nothing better to do with my time. I just couldn't get into this book and didn't care at all for the characters. I was really looking forward to reading this, as I'm a fan of the author, and am experiencing a bit of guilt at this abandonment, but I just can't fathom reading through the next +250 pages. "

" In his first foray outside of the fantasy novel, Maguire succeeds for the most part, however he is let down by a handful of one dimensional characters, some cringingly clunky dialogue and a slightly rushed ending. I felt Maguire was trying to tell me something with this book but try as I might I couldn't figure it out, this was due more to the fact, I think, that Maguire was unsure himself of his own message. All this aside I found it an enjoyable seasonal read and it had quite a few laugh out loud moments and enough likeable characters to excuse it's various faults. "

" I like books set in Upstate New York (the real upstate, not the suburbs of NYC). "

" Bizarre. Really. That's all. I don't know why I read the whole thing. "

" This is not one of Maguire's Oz books and I actually enjoyed it the most of his works. It's contemporary, hysterical and sacrilegious; right up my alley. "

" I loved this book. The ending was sad but heartwarming. I honestly didn't want it to end. "

" I am reading like a drug addict, think I need an intervention... waiting for the post to bring me Jonathan Coe.. so far this novel is odd. "

" I liked the story- disfunctional families appeal to me. I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish with it though. It seemed like he took an arbitrary list of different characters and threw them together to see how it would turn out. "

" This was definitely much different than his other stories. It was well written but just had a strange underlying tone to it. I definitely don't think it's one of his best stories, but he's one of my favorite authors so I tried it... "

" It's a fantastically hilarious Christmas novel centered around a dysfunctional family and two rival churches. "

" Definitely not Wicked. Too much jumping around in the storyline. "

" Worth reading if for nothing else than the nuns. "

" Entertaining, true to life. "

" This grew on me. I had a little trouble with the structure - generally the humorous chapters alternated with the serious, touching ones. But the characters were believable and Maguire brought up several serious issues. "

" meh. just not much there "

" This book was a big disappointment, especially after the huge disappointment of <strong>A Lion Among Men</strong> which I couldn't finish. I almost didn't finish this but since it was so short and just engaging enough, I managed to plow through. "

" it was ok. a bit too all over the place. chapter 34-35 were hysterical. i couldn't stop laughing. if the whole book would have been as good as the 5-7 pages, i would have given it more stars. "

" I felt like this book was kind of a waste of time....there wasn't a lot of development in the characters....the story was a bit weak to be honest...a fast read, but definitely NOT worth the time.... "

" Strange book, not what I expected from Gregory Maguire. It had a lot of religious over tones and I didn't really like any of the characters. I would not recommend this book at all. "

" I loved this book. The ending was sad but heartwarming. I honestly didn't want it to end. "

" I kept wanting to stop reading because I hated it, but kept on with the expectation that it would get better - it didn't. "

" I really enjoy Gregory Maguire's writing. He has a dry sense of humor and his characters, quirky as they are, use this humor to make absurd situations quite funny. Well done. "

" Wasn't horrible, just didn't hold my attention. "

" some funny parts and some pretty sad parts but overall I was not sure what this book was supposed to be about. Not what I expected of Gregory Maquire. "