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The Next Queen of Heaven

2.98 of 5 stars 2.98 · rating details · 976 ratings · 231 reviews

With the new millennium approaching, the eccentric town of Thebes grows even stranger. Mrs. Leontina Scales begins speaking in tongues after being clocked by a Catholic statuette. Her daughter, Tabitha, and her sons scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus—whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles hi...more

Published October 5th 2010 by HarperCollins (first published October 1st 2010)

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Oct 07, 2010 Irene Ziegler rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is an embarrassment, the equivalent of catching Gregory Maguire picking his nose at a stop light. Too harsh? Hey, he started it. On page 332: "Hogan picked his nose and flicked it at Kirk's bouffant, where it stuck and hung like a little worm." That's pretty much the juvenile tone throughout the book.

You know a book is going to be bad when the author apologizes for it in the Author's Note. "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and...more This novel is an embarrassment, the equivalent of catching Gregory Maguire picking his nose at a stop light. Too harsh? Hey, he started it. On page 332: "Hogan picked his nose and flicked it at Kirk's bouffant, where it stuck and hung like a little worm." That's pretty much the juvenile tone throughout the book.

You know a book is going to be bad when the author apologizes for it in the Author's Note. "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and the vernacular spoken by characters herein) may come as surprise. Forgive me my trespasses." A surprise? Try major disappointment. And it's almost as if everyone, including the publisher, knows it. It seems this book was first published and distributed FREE to 2500 people by a press that asked recipients to make a donation to a favorite charity in return. Apparently, $40,000 was given to charities, an average of $16 per donation, the cost of a trade paperback. They were lucky. Had the publisher asked each recipient to donate the value of his reading experience, it might have averaged 2 cents.

What's it about? The plot has to do with Y2K and religion and this crazy thing called love, but what's it ABOUT? As in what might be discussed in a book club? I haven't the foggiest. The characters are over-the-top, the situations loony, the conflicts juvenile. Sorry, you guys. I loved WICKED, too. But mostly, this book is just silly, often profane (not that there's anything wrong with that), and at times, gross. Once in a while, Maguire does something Tom Robbins-like with language, and I smiled in spite of myself. But those moments are few and do not save the day.

Next time, when donating to charity, I hope Maguire pulls from his wallet rather than his junior high school locker. Because if you give a publisher a book like this, apologize for it, then tell them they can distribute it for FREE, you're going to lose your reader's respect, and maybe their loyalty, too. Then no amount of blurbs with adjectives like "daring, eccentric, out-of-control, or once-in-a-lifetime" are going to get them back.(less)

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Jan 26, 2013 Ron Ratchford rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maguire creates a small world in upstate New York that has a list of people who live too close together and do not like the results. The family of two brothers and a sister have no sympathy for each other and their mother has an accident that suddenly makes everything a little less joyful.
The few months leading up to the Y2K are filled with mishaps and difficluties and there is no one there to take charge of the settling of the old world.
The Mother has three children by three husbands. She is a...more

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Feb 24, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think my 3-star rating of this book may be a bit generous as I sit down to write this review. I had to force myself to finish reading this story mostly out of curiosity as to how it would end. And, now that I am finished, admitedly, I find myself asking, "So what?"

A collection of wacky characters and their inter-related life stories are the backdrop of the storyline that includes a three-time divorced mother (Mrs. Leontina Scales) who is a member of the 'Cliffs of Zion Radical Radiant Pentecos...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Susan Emmet rated it 4 of 5 stars

So who is the next Queen of Heaven? Let's see. I don't know even minutes after finishing this 1999 novel of Gregory Maguire. I loved all his other books - the Wicked series, Lost, Mirror/Mirror, etc. - but this tome is a puzzle. I laughed often and hard, albeit at often crude/lewd/rude comments and characterizations. I loved the Catholics of Our Lady in (sort of) cahoots with members of the Pentecostal Radical Radiants, but my favorites were the 70+ yo nuns, led by Sister Mother Clare; Jeremy, t...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Rosa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Picked this up in my local Border’s going out of business sale, knowing nothing about author Gregory Maguire, and figuring the paperback would do as light-hearted entertainment on one of my upcoming plane trips across the Pacific. I was a little nostalgic for one of those pleasures Kindle has robbed me of: Finishing a paperback on a trip and being happy to leave it behind as a surprise for the next guest to inherit your hotel room ...or for the housekeeper, or the barista making my coffee each m...more Picked this up in my local Border’s going out of business sale, knowing nothing about author Gregory Maguire, and figuring the paperback would do as light-hearted entertainment on one of my upcoming plane trips across the Pacific. I was a little nostalgic for one of those pleasures Kindle has robbed me of: Finishing a paperback on a trip and being happy to leave it behind as a surprise for the next guest to inherit your hotel room ...or for the housekeeper, or the barista making my coffee each morning.

So much for advance planning at the bargain bin: Started TNQOH at home instead, wanting to read something very different from other recent choices I’ve made, and wanting to read it quickly, as with chomping through a good meal when you know from where your hunger comes. Maguire delivered, but not as I expected, and I’ll have to try reading another one of his ‘normal’ novels, since this one apparently is a bit of a departure for him, or so he says... is he being honestly apologetic or blatantly mischievous in his Author’s Note?

This is one of those books where the back-jacket copy is utterly accurate, while simultaneously proving that truthfulness can be misleading without enough context to prepare you for likely deceptions. You do feel a little deceived at the end, but when you think about it, you realize it would be worse to admit you were such a clueless reader — far better to give the author credit for being a sneaky genius.

I felt almost completely ambivalent about the book nearly half-way through it, even wondering if I’d even bother to finish it, only to read a bit more and find it snuck up on me — couldn’t put it down the final third despite berating myself for reading instead of working (and fiction, really?) I think the hook sunk in for me when introduced to the ancient Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, for I did survive a full 9 years of Catholic School with them, and there are some things you can never escape relating to at some level. Let’s just say that no one can ever accuse us Catholics of not being interesting, at least not us wayward ones who still say “Holy Ghost” precisely because people think “Holy Spirit” has become more p.c. — we know that ship sailed away from us a long time ago.

There were a few unanswered questions for me with this book, but you know what? I am perfectly okay with them. Good job Gregory Maguire!(less)

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Apr 23, 2011 Ssbrandes rated it 5 of 5 stars

described on the back cover as 'an out of control carnival ride' and 'a once in a lifetime adventure' and i have to agree.

if you've read Maguire before in the form of Wicked, Son of a Witch, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister or the like, you know how entertaining this author can be. having been disappointed by Lost and A Lion Among Men, i was glad to get back the enjoyable entertainment Maguire can provide - and did in this book.

great kooky characters caught in silly situations as well as those...more

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Dec 19, 2010 Jasmyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, modern-fiction, religious

This book has one of the most diverse cast of characters I've ever seen. We start out with the rebellious teenage girl (Tabitha) and her super religious mother (Leontina - a Pentacostal). The two brothers of the family - one an attention starved young man that would do anything to please and the other surprisingly like Tabitha. Next we meet the Catholics (they share a parking lot with the mother's chuch). The way we meet them is rather interesting. Leontina sneaks into the Catholic church one mo...more

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Oct 28, 2010 Nely rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review

Gregory Maguire is known for his retelling of children's stories (i.e. The Wizard of Oz, The Little Match Girl, etc.) This is the first of his novels that I see that he has come up with a purely fictional story. I must confess that I did have some trouble with the amount of characters in this novel and I found myself more than once trying to get a grip on what was happening because I had one of the characters mistaken.

It did get a little easier to read after a while, especially once I got the c...more

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Oct 09, 2010 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The blurb on the back of this book leads you to believe it is a hysterically funny novel - and it is in many ways. You have Tabitha, the slut of Thebes, New York and long-suffering daughter of Leontina Scales. You have Jeremy Cobb, gay chorus leader who only wants out of Thebes and the sooner the better, except....You have Tabita's brothers - Hogan and Kirk - who have their own issues and lots of them. And then you have the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries who are doomed to extinction because...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: work-review-related-reading

This is very interesting book, and very different from his other books. This time there is no re-writing a fairy tale--it's straight up fiction. What IS the same is his deft, and often humorous, crafting of his characters and the situations they find themselves in. The story is kick started by Leotina Scales, single mother of 3 variously troubled teenagers, getting knocked out by a teetering statue of the Virgin Mary in the basement of a Catholic Church--in which she is NOT a member. When she wa...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Julie Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was fantastic and is now one of my favourites. I've even gone back to read certain sections again (something I rarely if ever do). It was a joy to read it. I loved the characters, the small town setting, the plots.

This book was very real, with real-life difficulties, which made the characters crystal clear and believable. They also had very believable flaws--which made them human. Painfully so. Yet their perspectives are told with their each unique brand of humor, that what would be a...more This book was fantastic and is now one of my favourites. I've even gone back to read certain sections again (something I rarely if ever do). It was a joy to read it. I loved the characters, the small town setting, the plots.

This book was very real, with real-life difficulties, which made the characters crystal clear and believable. They also had very believable flaws--which made them human. Painfully so. Yet their perspectives are told with their each unique brand of humor, that what would be a sad book is transformed into something poignant instead.

And also something very, very funny. This book has many laugh-out loud moments. It's the best sort of comedy--its embedded and real life & has bite.

This is a book of deep feeling and introspection. It's not a 'church' book but it is about people's relationship to the spiritual. It does take a critical look at people's hypocrisies. Beneath the rather 'mundane' look at 'ordinary lives' it's philosophical. This is perhaps the greatest comparison I can make between this and the other book I've read by this author (Wicked). Both have this questioning, philosophical base. But this book is 'wickedly funny' and modern, while Wicked was more serious (though no less fabulous) and fantasy based.

It's very character driven. I absolutely adored the character Jeremy. He's got to be the best gay character in straight fiction since Jules Cassidy (Suzanne Brockman's Force of Nature). I loved him and I loved the choice he made at the end.

You know you've read a great book when you think about the characters long after, and wonder what happens to them after the book ends, as if they were real people.

PS. I just read over some of the other reviews and I'm quite baffled at the level of dislike in some of them. I'm usually a pretty good judge of bad writing and bad books. Am I so off the mark here? Or is it because I don't really 'know' his other works so this is something fairly fresh to me and I don't have a lot of comparison? I didn't go into it with a lot of expectation. I don't know. But it is strange at how many people found it tedious or not-funny. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it. Personally, I thought it was great!(less)

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Jan 09, 2011 Nicole rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: do-you-believe-in-magic

After reading this book, I can see the correlations between it and the back cover synopsis, but can't help feeling that the back cover was misleading. For example, Mrs. Scales does not at any point in the book speak in tongues. Also, "Christmas pageant" is the wrong term for the Christmas Eve mass debacle it depicts (there are no people, just chipped old creche statues, and I've always thought a pageant involved real people acting out something...but maybe I'm wrong. I could live with that.)

Wher...more After reading this book, I can see the correlations between it and the back cover synopsis, but can't help feeling that the back cover was misleading. For example, Mrs. Scales does not at any point in the book speak in tongues. Also, "Christmas pageant" is the wrong term for the Christmas Eve mass debacle it depicts (there are no people, just chipped old creche statues, and I've always thought a pageant involved real people acting out something...but maybe I'm wrong. I could live with that.)

Where to start? I'm disappointed. Clearly. Why? Because this had the potential to be a really great blend of funny and spiritual and touching. It tries really hard for the funny (want an example? Here's one, which doubles as an example of unfortunate dialogue: “’I’ll do the praying. You be the good example. Don’t forget your Inner Breathing. Also your pocketbook, it’s there by the plant.'” I know I'm supposed to laugh at the end of this. It's the intention of the speaker, if not the author, but seriously? Could the effort be any more obvious?), and, for the most part, ignores the others entirely. So many wasted opportunities for a character (any character) to respond with something other than defensive sarcasm. Never happens.

I think what follows counts as spoilers. Most of them vague, and no major plot point reveals, but if you'd rather read the book without knowing anything about it ahead of time, you may want to stop reading this now and go do that instead.

The rant: we're in some tiny fictional town in upstate NY that seems to have not one single normal person in it. We have a surprisingly large community of gay men (but no lesbians? Do the nuns count?) who stereotypically break out into multi-part harmonies at random in public (one of whom is suffering from AIDS, and is ill enough for complete strangers to recognize that he's in a bad way, yet his family--who he still lives with--are oblivious to him being sick. Or gay, for that matter), a lecherous pastor, an abundance of misbehaving teens (with no average or “good” ones to balance them out, with the exception of Kirk, whose fastidious and effeminate qualities are expounded on to the point of ridiculousness. He’s gay, whether he knows it yet or not. We get it. Why is this bigger news to everyone than the fact that his older sister is borderline illiterate, possibly knocked up, and visits the same jail cell so frequently she’s putting her favorite posters on the walls so it’s homey for her when she—inevitably—returns?), a crazy single mother who has a newfound speech impediment/mental scramble of some kind, thanks to getting clocked on the head with a Virgin Mary statuette (that makes her drop the first letter of the first word of her sentences, but somehow the people around her either can’t figure this out or figure it out and then forget they’ve figured it out and can’t understand her again), a beauty salon owner-slash-town gossip, and a group of feisty aging nuns. There are vague outlines of other families in the background, but these potentially ordinary people never fully materialize, so what we have is an entire small town populated by larger than life caricatures of people. It gets crowded quickly.
There were times when I started to settle into this book, I swear. But then Tabitha would be plotting to jog her mother back to "normal" with a wrench--no, an industrial stapler--no, now it's a wrench again, or Sean would be not very Irish--heavily accented Irish--only Irish when speaking to his Mam. And I'd get irritated all over again.

Here's what I did like: Tabitha. I hated her on the first page. Too obviously crass, begging for attention with all the cussing and sleeping around and whatever. I wrote her off early on as part of both the "unnecessarily larger than life" and "trying too hard" categories. Shortly after her mom is released from the hospital, though, she starts shrinking down to a manageable size. By the end of the book, I actually feel for her a little--she's in a screwy situation (hysterical or not), and she doesn't ramp up the drama or cause a scene. And she recognizes something (that she doesn't want her mother's life? that she can't stay here and watch Caleb's life play out without her? that she has to escape the crazy before she becomes the crazy? her revelation happens somewhere off the page) that makes her want to be a different person somewhere other than Thebes. Whatever led her to it, the Tabitha in the passenger seat at the end of the book is a completely different character than the one in the passenger seat at the beginning of the book, and one that's approximately life-sized. I can't say that I like her, but I can say that I like her better, which is pretty cool.

(less)

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Dec 28, 2011 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Years ago I read "Wicked" by this author and thought I'd give this one a try when I stumbled across it at the library. It was a pleasant surprise that much of this book takes place during Christmas, as that wasn't mentioned on the back cover. While it does take place during the holiday season, it isn't a part of the story itself and only serves as more of a background for certain events, such as Midnight Mass in a Catholic church.

This book was lighthearted, easy to read, and sometimes so goofy a...more

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May 13, 2011 Danny rated it 5 of 5 stars

What an unexpectedly delightful little romp!

Maguire's latest book is notable because it doesn't follow any of the patterns from his other works - and yet the playful wit and unassuming insight that characterizes his other novels still cuts right through. The Next Queen of Heaven is set in a decidedly less austere world than every other book he has written for adults. I was initially a little taken aback by the silliness that is loaded throughout the book and is particularly rampant in the first...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book surprised me. I wasn't anticipating a story based on the beliefs and bias the Catholic church has toward homosexuality. The authors writing felt angry; particulary in reference to Sean; a struggling 30-something who has HIV-AIDS. In addition, the characters isolation and secrecy in dealing with their struggles definitely felt 'small-town'. Maguire developed his characters in unique ways; for example, Leontina Scales starts speaking in tongues once she is hit on the head with a statue i...more

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Dec 30, 2009 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a neat read at Christmas for several reasons. First, it begins with a protestant parishioner who gets knocked on the head accidentally with a Catholic statuette of Mary and begins speaking in tongues right around Christmas time. (Ha! I just love this plot device.) Second, this book is free through Concord Free Press; all they ask is that you donate to a charity of your choice. This is also a beautiful representation of the Christmas spirit, and I applaud their efforts.

I do think the ma...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Alison added it

I am a big fan of Gregory Maguire's other works (the Wicked series, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, etc.), but I found this one to be rather disappointing. I had high hopes for the book within the first chapters, due to the raw, offensive humor of primary character Tabitha; however, as the book progressed, I felt that Tabitha lost her spirit. Her care for her mother, her pregnancy, and the controversy with Pastor Huyck were presented in what I thought was a very un-Tabitha-like manner.

The se...more

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Dec 03, 2009 melydia rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I was reading this, I was really enjoying it, but now that I look back, I can't quite figure out what it was trying to do. There's a lot of humor and a fair bit of tragedy, but not a whole lot of story. A woman goes mad when she gets clonked on the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary. A trio of gay men befriend a gaggle of elderly nuns. A teenage girl is self-righteously angry but also rather hilariously dumb. A man with HIV gets ill. People mistreat each other. A man is hopelessly obsesse...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Shuffy2 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is 1999 and Y2K is just around the corner, is all hell breaking loose?[return][return]Mrs. Leontina Scales, a weekly church-goer, gets hit over the head and is no longer the same person. Jeremy Carr, church choir director, has a lot on his plate especially in his personal life. The lives of Leontina's children are also in tormoil- daughter Tabitha, is having man problems while her son Kirk, has conflicting feelings.[return][return]For the most part it is a story about everyday life, something...more

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Nov 15, 2010 Connie Marshall rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: most anyone

Recommended to Connie by: found it online cnn maybe

this book was free online with the stipulation that you donate to a charity of your choice and log the donation amountand the charity's name on their website for tracking purposes and then pass the book on to someone after reading it and recording your name in the back of the book. It was different than any of his other books I've read but was perfect for the chilly damp weekend.

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Sep 11, 2011 Kristen Kolb rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not an epic page turner by any means, but noteworthy on a few points:

- Raised as a Missionary Baptist and as a current non-practicing Panentheist, the Catholic dogma has always been a mystery to me. Several of the main characters are practicing Catholics, and their viewpoints revealed the intricacies of that mindset.

- One of the main characters, Catholic, is also a homosexual man. In a tasteful and human way, Maguire reveals the struggle of love and faith from a viewpoint few of us will ever exp...more

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Oct 22, 2010 Zoë (In The Next Room) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review-copy

I really want to enjoy every book I read; that's the whole reason I pick them up in the first place, because they sound interesting. However every once in awhile you hit a dud, and The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire is one book that just never got my attention, let alone kept it. The book is the story of the town Thebes, full of eccentric characters including Mrs. Scales who becomes a little crazy after being knocked on the head by a Catholic statue, her daughter Tabitha who rebels agai...more I really want to enjoy every book I read; that's the whole reason I pick them up in the first place, because they sound interesting. However every once in awhile you hit a dud, and The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire is one book that just never got my attention, let alone kept it. The book is the story of the town Thebes, full of eccentric characters including Mrs. Scales who becomes a little crazy after being knocked on the head by a Catholic statue, her daughter Tabitha who rebels against her mother's religion and just about everything else and her two sons- all the result of three different marriages. There's also the gay choir director Jeremy who happens to live fairly nearby to his ex-lover, (now married with children) is also practicing for a New York musical contest with two gay buddies, one of whom is sick with AIDs. There's also half a dozen other characters with their own storylines, including a Pastor who has an attraction to Tabitha, Tabitha's boyfriend Caleb who is ignoring her following their magical Halloween together and a whole bunch of nuns. And yes- this is all in one book.

My first mistake was thinking it would be anything like the only other Maguire book I've read, Wicked, but even though it is not fantasy I still expected the wit that was present in his most popular book. In the Author's note Maguire writes, "For readers who know me primarily as a writer of fantasy, the setting and subject matter (and the vernacular spoken by characters herein) may come as surprise. Forgive me my trespasses." Well Maguire, I don't forgive you for wasting so many hours of my life as I trudged through The Next Queen of Heaven's constant attempt to be clever and quirky. For one example, Maguire describes Tabitha as a child that "At the age of seven she had spent three-quarters of a year with a clothespin on her nose, trying to keep witchcraft from winging itself through her nasal passages. That's what comes from naming your kids after TV characters, thought Turk." It's simply not funny and it's the type of overly quirkiness that makes the characters seem false instead of genuine and pales in comparison to books which manage to do quirky well, like Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You.

More significantly, Maguire simply begins too many storylines and ends up with so many loose ends as to strangle any potential that The Next Queen of Heaven even had. Extracting one storyline out the book- for example the story of the elderly nuns, or that of a gay man and his former, now married lover and perhaps Maguire would have had a book I'd enjoy but as it is he overstretched both his talent and my attention span. Exceedingly tedious, the book had me so bored that it was hard to focus on it for any significant length of time and found me actually avoiding it by cleaning my apartment at one point- which shows my desperation. It's not that The Next Queen of Heaven was awful bad- but it just doesn't pull you in which means that reading it is an exercise in persistence instead of the passion I feel when reading a book I love. *(less)

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Jan 17, 2011 Terence rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only other Maguire novel I've read is his now legendary Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, 20 years ago when I was a callow graduate student at UCLA. I remember liking it more for the subversive revision of the children's classic than for any other reason. I enjoy that kind of literature - Jason & Medeia, The Looking Glass Wars, Gloriana, Or The Unfulfill'd Queen, King Jesus: A Novel, et al.

When I read the blurb for this novel, I expected something along the line...more The only other Maguire novel I've read is his now legendary Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, 20 years ago when I was a callow graduate student at UCLA. I remember liking it more for the subversive revision of the children's classic than for any other reason. I enjoy that kind of literature - Jason & Medeia, The Looking Glass Wars, Gloriana, Or The Unfulfill'd Queen, King Jesus: A Novel, et al.

When I read the blurb for this novel, I expected something along the lines of James Morrow but got Miriam Toews instead.

This isn't a bad thing: I like Ms. Toews. In fact, I like her more than I do Maguire, so I wasn't disappointed - much. There's much to like in this novel but nothing that's particularly great. A lot of the characters are stock "types" you find in novels of this kind and the story can be formulaic. Maguire's worst offense in this regard (IMO) is the plotline involving Jeremy Carr, the gay choir director of the Catholic church, and his friends Sean and Marty. It felt tacked on and passionless. Compared, at any rate, to the story of Tabitha Scales and her family.

Tabitha is the most potentially interesting character in the novel and there are points when you can see what Maguire could have done if he had been more focused on her:

"Now Tabitha was walking along with the whole globe inside her, the whole brightly colored existence, all its impossible skins and layers and transparencies. It was hard to think about it.... (T)he whole globe was in her, and in the globe was the eensy little baby with it little kicking feet, and the whole baby's life was in there with it, and the whole world it would experience, it was all right there inside her....

She walked past Pastor Jakob Huyck, who with his usual timing just happened to be driving by. He rolled down his window and said, `Going somewhere?'

`Not going,' she called, `coming. I'm coming.' In an earlier month she would have said this sexily, but the sound in her own voice was more than sexy. It was godly.

She waved him by and kept walking, loving herself almost for the first time. She walked all the way to the gas station, thinking about everything and nothing at once." (p. 285-86)

The other potentially interesting group of characters are the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mysteries, a group of geriatric nuns exiled to a near forgotten home outside of Thebes.

By rights, this book falls somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars, so I can't wholeheartedly recommend it but if you like Maguire or this type of fiction, you may enjoy it.(less)

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Dec 13, 2009 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to bookczuk by: concord press

Shelves: bookcrossing, at-least-the-writing-was-good, somewhat-disappointing

Finished this last night and am still mulling it over. There were moments as I was reading it when I smiled or chuckled or maybe even laughed out loud at some of the quirky bits and phrases. I really wish I'd followed my sometimes-pattern of marking those spots so I could dutifully report them here, but for some reason, I didn't mark them.

Let me say straight off that there were several things I really liked about this book. The main thing was how Concord Press and Gregory Maguire made it availab...more Finished this last night and am still mulling it over. There were moments as I was reading it when I smiled or chuckled or maybe even laughed out loud at some of the quirky bits and phrases. I really wish I'd followed my sometimes-pattern of marking those spots so I could dutifully report them here, but for some reason, I didn't mark them.

Let me say straight off that there were several things I really liked about this book. The main thing was how Concord Press and Gregory Maguire made it available to the reading public. It was incredibly generous, and altruistic and far-reaching. Don't believe me? Then see the list of charities and contributions people who have received this book have done in return for the gift: everything from the usual spots for donation to $20 (Au) to a blind Aborigine on the streets of Alice Springs. More than $114,950 at this writing. Generosity-based publishing rocks! Thank you Concord Press, and thank you Mr Maguire.

I think I went into this expecting this to be a little more light-hearted. All I had to go on was the blurb on the site which said

. Set in the grotty upstate town of Thebes, The Next Queen of Heaven is a Christmas tale gone horribly wrong. Clocked by a Catholic statuette, Mrs. Leontina Scales starts speaking in tongues. Tabitha Scales and her brothers scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus—whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K.

The book was that, but also involved a heavy amount of teenaged angst/anger from a sullen, not so nice teenage girl and her equally dysfunctional brothers, a lot of struggling with the HIV, homosexuality in the lives of three men in Thebes, and a dying order of nuns. I think I expected the Y2K part to be a bit bigger in the general scheme of things, and the lust of a certain Pentecostal minister to be a lesser part.

But in general, the writing was good, crisp and clean. Maguire has a talent for showing the other side of the story, and does so, once again, quite nicely here. There were a lot of the Catholic bits that made me smile. I think the main disappointment was that the book did not match my expectations, and what I thought it would be about. That certainly isn't the author's fault. He told the story he set out to tell. If I wanted something different, then perhaps I need to write it myself.(less)

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Apr 04, 2011 Paula Hebert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

normally setting his books in fantasy, as in wicked and son of a witch, gregory puts this story in modern day, but the characters are just as odd and funny. a born again single mother of two boys and one girl, each of different fathers, is hit on the head by a statue of the virgin mary and begins to speak in obscene tongues, and her delinquent daughter finds herself being her mothers caretaker, cramping her own wild and nasty streak. add a gay music director, a convent of antique nuns, an upcomi...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Kyrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Greg Maguire is channeling Christopher Moore and doing a better job than Moore.

It's nothing like Maguire's other books - it's not a take off on a fairy tale, and despite the title, it really isn't a take off on Mary, Mother of God, although her Son's church's feature heavily in it.
It's about a three-times divorced mom who gets hit on the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary, in the church basement. Don't ask me why Mary was on top the refrigerator, maybe she was looking for a snack? Mom gets kn...more

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May 18, 2011 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-authors

All of the fabulous characters and complex story lines of Maguire (without the fantasy that I know and love him for). A real pleasure to read. Maguire combined humor and general entertainment with great emotion and drive. I truly laughed out loud a few times.

In the story line with Jeremy and his friends fascinating, Maguire did a great job telling the story of young men of my generation (I do still count as young, right?) dealing with HIV and AIDS in a way that Michael Cunningham and Julia Glass ...more

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Dec 19, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was good - creative, witty and funny. I'm not totally clear on the significance of setting it in 1999, on the eve of the new milennium, but it was a fun quick read. Maguire's take on organized religion and sexuality has played a key role in most of his work, and I'm always curious to see what he'll come up with next.

My only criticsm (and this is pretty standard for his wor) - while I liked it, I couldn't emotionally engage with most of the characters. So, while I liked it, it was sort of a...more

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Nov 06, 2010 Naomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'd like to give this 2 1/2 stars. It was a decent story and entertaining read although I thought it was uneven and didn't fulfill its potential. It could have been really good if he had just developed it some more and used some of the interesting characters he introduced only to ignore for the rest of the book.
After being impressed by Wicked and The Ugly Stepsister, I have been consistently disappointed by Gregory Maguire, especially since his concepts for each novel have been so original. This...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Blair rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I swear Maguire has some other people writing stuff and putting his name on it. I understand that an author will not always hit it out of the park but it is an even 50/50 with this guy. Still trying to figure out what he was trying to accomplish with this book. No resolution, thin plot-line, just a bunch of stuff that happens with really weak dialogue.

It feels like this is a short story he had stashed away somewhere, needed something to turn into the publisher in between "Wicked" books, fleshed

...more

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About Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children's stories (such as L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children'...more

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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)

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Quotes from The Next Queen of Heaven

“But his face had that hollow look, as if there was something gone... you know that look. The inward focus. Distantly attentive to the home you're missing, or the someone you're missing. That look that a bird has when it turns it dry reptilian eye on you. That look that doesn't see you because the mind is filled up with someone it would rather see.” — 8 people liked it

“I hate New Year's Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven't yet done what you wanted. And to pretend it doesn't matter.” — 7 people liked it

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