Book Review: "Maggie's Story" by Dandi Daley Mackall

WWJD? What would you do?

If Jesus had come during our time, what would our reaction have been? We scoff at the Jewish leaders in the New Testament for not seeing Jesus as the Messiah, when clearly all the signs point at him. Yet if someone now comes and says the same things, we label them as a lunatic, insane, unstable.

Maggie's Story takes a modern day view of the story of Mary Magdalene. The book takes her story from the Bible and puts it into a 21st century setting. Maggie is a bartender living a sex, drug filled life. Pete and Andy own a garage shop. Matt is her drug dealer. Jude is a reporter. The setting is set in Ohio. Jesus is portrayed by a former construction worker named Joshua Davidson. (get it? son of David?) The reader is taken through the life of Jesus/Josh through Maggie's eyes and how she feels about him and his ministry. And there is no Da Vinci Code in this story; no sexual relationship between Josh and Maggie here.

I found this book interesting. The characters were young and the miracles and other events are made more relatable and easier to understand. You sympathize with Maggie and her situation.

Yet I kept having trouble fully getting into the story. I found it hard to accept the modern setting without Jesus having originally happen. I realize that this is just a modern retelling but if Jesus didn't originally exist how is it the 21st century? The modern era started after Christ was born. Modern events could not have taken place without Christianity. The US wouldn't have even existed. I also noticed that there was no mention of Josh's birth. I guess that the virgin birth still would be hard to explain even in modern times? Also I know that as Christians that we're suppose not to judge people and this is going to sound bad, but if I saw a bunch of girls traveling with a group of guys and they were all living in the same van together, I might think negative towards those girls. The leader may say he's religious but the atmosphere would look sketchy.

Maybe I'm just looking too hard and reading too much into this. Like I said I did enjoy it. I would recommended this for teens or anyone who wants to know more about Mary Magdalene. It is a thought-provoking read.

Maggie's Story by Dandi Daley Mackall is published by Tyndale (2006)