This book was DEFINITELY not for me. As a spiritual person, I found this book to be too off-putting for my personal sensibilities. It may appeal to people with an interest in mythology or retelling, but I unfortunately do not fall into the camp that enjoys this sort of narrative. It's a pass from me.

Thank you to Monster Books and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of XII by Robin Bennett.

This book is a fresh, modern version of some of the key stories spanning from the Old and New Testament of the Bible. The book is targeted towards young adults and is an easy read.

Personally, I did not enjoy the book, however this is not to detract from the stories that are well written and can be enjoyable for someone who likes this type of genre.

A re-telling of several Bible stories from the Old and New Testament. The tone is modern and engaging, rather than serious and prescriptive, which I found much more enjoyable to read. My main gripe is with the structure, I would have preferred the volume to focus solely on one Testament. The writing is so good, that the jump to the New Testament didn't make sense and spoilt the book for me. I would argue there is an audience, like me, of adults who would be interested in reading modern versions of Biblical stories; structured differently, but told in the same manner as this book.

Strong book! Kinda slow, definitely worth reading though, not entirely sure why I requested it, not my type.

I didn't really like this retelling of Bible stories at all. If you want Bible stories, read the Bible.

I'm not really sure what the point of this book is. It starts off with talking about aliens finding a shuttle with a Bible and human DNA and a couple other things in it. Then it starts explaining popular stories from the Bible. It seemed like it was a dumb down version of these stories. I'm not sure if it's for kids or teens or people that know nothing about the Bible. I'm not very religious but I have read these stories before and I found myself feeling more insulted then anything else. Like the author's goal was to make people feel unintelligent and unable to understand stories from the Bible.

I always enjoyed reading Bible stories as a child and reading them to my children, but wonder if that habit has gone out of fashion.

This is A great retelling of stories from the Bible in a way aimed at a younger, more modern audience.

Some of the most known stories of The bible rewritten in a incredible way of storytelling. I liked a lot the narrative and the easy and clear structure of the text to makes us be involved with the story.

There is a lot to commend this book as the story is well-told and draws the reader in. However, I think it should be aimed at a younger audience partly because my daughter would not have been interested in the stories by the time she was ten.

First of all, thank you to Monster Books, Robin Bennett and NetGalley for this ARC and the opportunity to review this book.

Whilst I can appreciate what Robin has attempted to do here, I found this book difficult to follow, jumpy and far too conversational. The aim of this book seems to be to bring biblical stories to life and make them more modern for young adults. What it actually does is make them longer than they are in the bible, and ad-lib some details to make it book length.

A good effort, but not for me. I would rather stick to the bible itself.

I grew up with the stories from the Bible. Not so much as strict rules I had to follow or as warnings for severe punishments when straying from the designed path, but more because the lessons in these stories are actually quite beautiful. Mostly the stories speak of kindness and forgiveness and being humble. When I saw this book on Netgalley I was therefore quite curious to see how this would turn out and how these stories would sound in a young adult voice.

This collection of twelve stories, where a few stories are actually different parts of one longer story, didn't present me with something new. These stories are the well known stories, the stories I grew up with and knew by heart when I was a child. Although I think that there are lesser known stories deserving more recognition and although I do think one of the core stories is missing (Cain and Abel) I do believe this book is a great introduction to the Bible if you're not familiar with it.

In no way is the story trying to convince you to believe in God. In no way is it trying to make you follow the set of rules some Christians follow. This book is telling the important stories from the Bible and they can be read however you want. If you want to read them like you read fairytales that's totally possible, but if you are looking for the deeper meaning it's there too. In that way it's accessible for people who don't believe in God while not being disrespectful to people who do.

However, what makes reading these stories worth it, even if you already know them quite well, is the heart and soul Bennett adds. Mary, Jesus, Noach, Japheth, Adam, Eve, they all really come to life in these stories. And while they are all still very special people, they also come across as human and real. They have doubts, they have fears, they cry and they laugh, they make mistakes and they learn and grow and most of all they allow us to really live the story through their eyes.