Book Review- Firstborn

Where does a firstborn girl fit in a world dominated by men? When Tiadone was born, her parents had two choices: leave their daughter outside the community to die in the wilds, or raise her as male and force her to suppress all feminine traits. Now, as the first female living as male in her village, Tiadone must prove her father didn't make a mistake by letting her live. As her male initiation approaches, Tiadone knows every eye on the community is on her, and desperately wishes to belong and finally be accepted.---But at every step, traditional feminine gifts and traits emerge, and the bird she's been twined with is seen as a sign of the devil. Worse, as Tiadone completes her rites, she finds she is drawn to her male best friend in ways that are very much in line with the female gender. Confused and desperate, Tiadone tries to become what she must be while dealing with what she indeed has become: a young woman who may be able to stand up to her despotic rulers and uncover her real purpose in life.

As a firstborn daughter myself, it was with great expectation I read this novel. I was truly appalled at the fact that baby girls were left to die in the wilderness just because they were born first- the atrocity. Though the book is fictional the plight for baby girl's survival is very real. All around the world baby girls are looked upon as trash, burdens, and dispensable. 

I enjoyed Tiadone her struggles were real and emotions true. To the world she is supposed to be a male, but only she knows the truth. Despite what a great character she was, the author could have done so much with this subject, but sadly failed. A few complaints of mine would be: the time period, was this book past or futuristic? Why do these birds who take at least a decade to hatch seem unnaturally smart, why does the world seem to revolve around these birds? 

The greatest disappointment was that this was not a "christian" novel. The author mentioned a 'creator spirit' that had some of the same attributes as God, but was very far from the truth. Overall I was confused and felt uncomfortable with some of the things, mainly the whole bird and human relationship, the weird visions and talking through the visions, and just the lack of Biblical beliefs. 

However, Firstborn allowed me to be grateful to the Lord for allowing me to live as a firstborn female child!

I received a complimentary copy from BookSneeze in exchange for this independent and unbiased review.