Noah: Ila's Story

by Susan Korman

The ancient world. A young girl, Ila, is found, injured after a violent raid. She is taken in by Noah and his family and grows up strong and happy--she even finds love with her soulmate, Shem, Noah's son. But when devastation comes to the world in the form of a huge flood, Ila and her new family are responsible for saving not only themselves but all life on earth. Against all odds they set off in the Ark, but all is not as it seems... As events unfold, Ila has to find the power within her to help Noah in his epic quest, and ultimately save humanity.

Genres: Young Adult

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Susan Korman is the author of over thirty books ranging from picture books and licensed works to YA novels. She has written tie-in novels for Ice Age, Monsters Vs Aliens, Kung Fu Panda, Kicking and Screaming and various Transformers movies.
She attended Le Moyne College, and now lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania, where she works as a writer and editor.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just beautiful.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fill your mind with what is good, the things you love.

[Tyrelle Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to read this book because I knew about Noah's ark and this was a side story to it. I didn't liked this book because the plot was not something that I usually like in a book. I learned from this book that miracles can happen. A event that was interesting was when the rain came and flooded the land and the family wanted to save more people but the dad said they weren't allowed too.

[pau · Rating 3 out of 5]

i mean, if u haven’t seen the movie, read the book, if you have, don’t read it. it’s the same story, just through Ila’s point of view which is apparently the same POV as the audience. it doesn’t add anything new really. whenever Noah does something and Ila is not there, she ends up finding out anyway cause either someone told her, or Noah himself told her. u can just watch Noah.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read during the BookTubeAThon! That’s four books completed.

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 1 out of 5]

In Summary

With Emma Watson’s face gracing the cover and her character’s name in the title, Noah: Ila’s Story seems a not-so-subtle effort to capitalize on Emma Watson fans. If what you want is a brief retelling of the Noah film from Ila’s point of view along with five color stills showcasing or including Watson, you’ll get that but not much else. Restricting the story to Ila’s point of view results in a weak and oftentimes confusing narrative, and if you haven’t seen the film or read the Morris novelization, I’d caution against picking up this title.

The Review

The front cover touts Noah: Ila’s Story as a novel, but it’s sparse for a novel. The book is only 108 pages long. In addition, the storytelling style and vocabulary seem more suited for a middle grade audience, and I found punctuation and formatting errors scattered in the text, which give it the feel of a rush job.

Noah: Ila’s Story, like the Mark Morris Noah novel, is based off the Aronofsky film and covers the same plot, beginning with Ila’s adoption and concluding with the rainbow blessing upon Noah’s family. Unlike Morris’ book, Ila’s Story stands poorly on its own. Unless you’ve seen the movie or read Morris’ novelization, following the plot in Ila’s Story would be difficult. This is due to the fact that the book follows the events of the Noah movie from Ila’s point of view only. As such, several pivotal moments, including the trips to Methuselah’s cave, Noah’s horrific visit to the refugee camp, and the battle with Tubal-Cain within the ark get recounted secondhand, sometimes long after the fact.

To be honest, the book reads like a weak fanfiction. Korman doesn’t go nearly as deep into Ila’s thoughts as she could. We only get a little bit of extra details on Ila’s birth family and some of her reflections after the flood recedes. I had expected more about her relationship with Shem, like the how and why of them falling in love, but the descriptions of their romance remain on a very shallow level. The pair are in love just because they are, and Korman spends most of her efforts trying to relate all the major events of the movie, a task the Morris novelization does a much better job at.

The book includes eight full-color stills from the movie as extras.

For more manga and book reviews, drop by my blog Keeping It In Canon!

[Nobody Loser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey readers, thanks for swimming by! For those of you who didn't catch my Noah review, it's about half-accurate (to the Bible) and half-fantasy. Personally, I got into a few parts and thought it was quite good, beginning with the murder of Lamech by Tubal-Cain when Noah was a child, and then jumping into the future during the time when Noah is contacted by God. The book and, I'm assuming, the play/movie make a pretty decent addition to the religious fantasy arena.


Pictures From The Noah Movie Novelization

For me, the story's inaccuracies are probably the least of its issues. After all, it's difficult to accept the Bible as pure fact. My biggest problem was with some of the fantasy aspects, but putting aside everything I know about the Bible—or even the Koran and a large portion of other original religious books and stories—I actually enjoyed the read quite a bit. There is a definite story and plenty of action, but Ila's Story—a novel covering Ila's perspective on the Noah story—wasn't as enjoyable.

What I didn't like about it was that there appear to be gaps in Ila's story whenever she doesn't appear in the Noah novelization, almost as if her character doesn't exist unless there is someone around her. Does a tree make a sound if it falls and there is no one to hear it? I don't know, but I know Ila can't hear any trees falling unless someone is there to see her hearing it.

Honestly, it was nicely written. It wasn't terrible, and it did add a little extra perspective, including a more feminine view on the plight of Ila as she deals with the hardships that dominate her life. The problem is that the novel doesn't add much in the way of extra story. What went on with Ila behind the scenes, and what else did I miss that went unmentioned? Considering that the Noah novelization relied so heavily on fantasy, I expected to see more fantasy elements in Ila's Story. It ends up being a wasted read, if you ask me.

A http://www.fanboysanonymous.com/ review

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to read this after I saw the movie because I was intrigued by Ila. I knew she wasn't a part of the bible and her story was separate so I wanted to know more about it.

This book was basically the whole Noah movie but told in Ila's POV and from what she saw. Very short and quick read. I actually loved it told from her perspective. It cuts down the rest of the other things about the movie and mostly just focuses on Ila and Shem.

With that said I JUST LOVE ILA AND SHEM THEY'RE MY OTP AND I NOAHSHIP THEM SO HARD. They had some lines in this book that I wished made it into the movie but it was pretty close enough. Reading this was like reading the script for Noah tbh.

But I think I would recommend seeing the movie first before reading this because spoilers and there's so much more in the 2 hour movie than this 100 paged book. Reading this book was just the short and simple version.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those great movie novelizations that expand upon the plot and action of your favorite films and give you further insight into the characters' feelings and motivations? This isn't one of them. This is essentially the script for Noah with all the important plot development scenes taken out because it's told from the viewpoint of a secondary character. The only reason I give it two stars is because I love the movie. I plan on reading the regular adult movie novelization, too. Hopefully it's better than this seemingly slapped-together-at-the-last-minute version.

[Alisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I thought it would be a quick read since it was a juvenile fiction book, but just the same I couldn't get into it like I thought I would. I had to put it down. I may try to read this book again at a later time.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noah's Ark told from the point of view of Ila, Shem's wife. The author takes the story from the Bible and adds her own twists.

[Chelsea Riordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was pretty good. The reason I read it was because I wanted to read before I saw the movie. It wasn't a long book so I sat down and read it pretty quickly.

[Nicole Cervera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book a lot because I loved the movie NOAH! This is just the movie told from Ila's point of view. It was a really quick read and I would definitely read it again!