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The Prophet Joan
A novel that takes you on a moving, humor-filled ride through a snowy murder mystery, small-town politics, eloquent shrimp, and the nature of prophecy. From New York Times bestselling author Jay Heinrichs, a story with skiing, cocktails, eloquent shrimp, a girl, a gun, the tragedy of omniscience, and the archangel Gabriel.(Well, he says he’s the archangel Gabriel.)Fourteen-year-old Joan Mudgett suddenly finds herself alone without her parents in a small New Hampshire village. Only she’s not alone enough. People think they see Jesus in the sky over her meadow. As if she doesn’t have enough trouble, a raven comes to her campfire and tells her she has been chosen as a prophet to save the world. Is her trauma triggering hallucinations? If so, why do her silly predictions keep coming true?Told in the witty, determined voice of Joan Mudgett herself, The Prophet Joan follows the narrative plot of the biblical Book of Jonah—complete with a reluctant prophet, a warning to humanity, and even a Leviathan. This time, though, the prophet is a girl. Who decides to call herself Jonah.
384 pages, Paperback
Published March 18, 2021
3 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Jay Heinrichs
12 books172 followersJay Heinrichs is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Thank You for Arguing, published in four editions and 14 languages. The leading modern work on rhetoric, it has been taught in more than 3,000 college rhetoric classes and countless AP English Language & Composition classes.
Jay maintains the popular rhetoric and language websites ArgueLab.com and websites Figarospeech.com. In addition, he holds frequent Skype-ins with classes that use his book.
When he’s not spreading the gospel of rhetoric, Jay conducts content strategies and persuasion workshops for clients as varied as the Wharton School of Business and NASA. Middlebury College named him a Professor of the Practice of Rhetoric and Oratory. Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine did a not altogether flattering portrait of him titled Jay Heinrichs’s Powers of Persuasion.
Jay maintains the popular rhetoric and language websites ArgueLab.com and websites Figarospeech.com. In addition, he holds frequent Skype-ins with classes that use his book.
When he’s not spreading the gospel of rhetoric, Jay conducts content strategies and persuasion workshops for clients as varied as the Wharton School of Business and NASA. Middlebury College named him a Professor of the Practice of Rhetoric and Oratory. Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine did a not altogether flattering portrait of him titled Jay Heinrichs’s Powers of Persuasion.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 30, 2021
I’m not sure how I’d have received being told at the age of fourteen that I was a prophet but The Prophet Joan, our eponymous heroine handles it admirably and her quirky and original story is told with wit and humour by Jay Heinrichs.
From the dramatic start where Joan relates “the Incident”, this book leads you into the world of Joan Mudgett (or as she prefers to be called, Jonah in honour of her father) and her transformation from regular teenage girl to chosen one as God’s messenger.
Told in the first person, Joan is a very entertaining narrator and is a likeable character who is trying to navigate a situation of sudden loss and abandonment at a difficult age. If that wasn’t enough, she is also being visited by otherworldly phenomena which are imbuing her previously simple existence with a lot of importance and a great deal of publicity. As with the prophet Jonah from the Bible, Joan is recalcitrant at first and merely wants to escape her predicament but when she realises that it may lead to her finding the truth behind “the Incident”, she becomes more accepting of her given role.
Enter the roller coaster ride that is the world of the prophet at a time in the world, set in the present day, when everything seems to have gone haywire and Joan’s words are spun and contorted into meaning a lot more than she intended when uttering them.
Alongside the unwanted publicity, Joan has all of the foibles of being a high school student to deal with and I like the way that Jay Heinrichs incorporated teenage problems into Joan’s story, like the way she has to deal with attitudes that may be less than favourable towards her and the rumours that surround her. He has created a strong female character in Joan, one who can stand up for herself; who feels afraid but faces the fear; who is intelligent with a maturity beyond her years. Her sarcasm and dry wit made me laugh out loud at times.
Moby Dick features strongly in this book, the obvious parallels with Jonah and whales prevalent throughout and I really enjoyed this aspect. Heinrich’s use of the book as a comfort to Joan, a love shared with her father is expertly interwoven.
Jay Heinrichs’ book is an unorthodox tale with a serious message that is really, really enjoyable.
This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC.
From the dramatic start where Joan relates “the Incident”, this book leads you into the world of Joan Mudgett (or as she prefers to be called, Jonah in honour of her father) and her transformation from regular teenage girl to chosen one as God’s messenger.
Told in the first person, Joan is a very entertaining narrator and is a likeable character who is trying to navigate a situation of sudden loss and abandonment at a difficult age. If that wasn’t enough, she is also being visited by otherworldly phenomena which are imbuing her previously simple existence with a lot of importance and a great deal of publicity. As with the prophet Jonah from the Bible, Joan is recalcitrant at first and merely wants to escape her predicament but when she realises that it may lead to her finding the truth behind “the Incident”, she becomes more accepting of her given role.
Enter the roller coaster ride that is the world of the prophet at a time in the world, set in the present day, when everything seems to have gone haywire and Joan’s words are spun and contorted into meaning a lot more than she intended when uttering them.
Alongside the unwanted publicity, Joan has all of the foibles of being a high school student to deal with and I like the way that Jay Heinrichs incorporated teenage problems into Joan’s story, like the way she has to deal with attitudes that may be less than favourable towards her and the rumours that surround her. He has created a strong female character in Joan, one who can stand up for herself; who feels afraid but faces the fear; who is intelligent with a maturity beyond her years. Her sarcasm and dry wit made me laugh out loud at times.
Moby Dick features strongly in this book, the obvious parallels with Jonah and whales prevalent throughout and I really enjoyed this aspect. Heinrich’s use of the book as a comfort to Joan, a love shared with her father is expertly interwoven.
Jay Heinrichs’ book is an unorthodox tale with a serious message that is really, really enjoyable.
This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC.
December 22, 2021
I have had a number of books for which I desired the ability to give 1/2 star ratings, and this is one of them: 3-1/2 stars. Three stars feels too little and four, too generous. But I err on the side of generosity.
The book is enjoyable, overall, and my some of my students will likely enjoy it, but it isn’t one I would ever chose to reread. The protagonist is precocious for fourteen and quite fiercely independent. The mystery of whodunit gets overshadowed for most of the book by the mystery of the talking Raven and all the vague and bewildering “guidance” it delivers to Jonah. The visitations from the Raven were honestly the least enjoyable part. These scenes felt like a place to show off historical and scientific knowledge without doing anything to actually affect the plot. We occasionally rejoin Jonah’s mission to uncover the truth about the Incident, but it is lost in the shuffle of school troubles, being a “prophet,” enduring the presence of the Uncle, and trying to make money and take care of the land. There is a lot of running away to the cabin or the cave or the campsite — honestly, it’s a wonder the child is passing school at all, because that seems a complete afterthought. (I’m a high school teacher; I can’t help noticing.)
The writing is descriptive and maintains an appropriate voice for a forward-but-somewhat-reclusive fourteen-year-old girl who has been traumatized by horrific loss. The excessive agency and independence the character maintains over her own life (even with periodic visits from Child Protective services) might be realistic for a small, Northern mountain community; it would never fly in the cities where I have always lived. But then most of the adults are written with a notable degree of incompetence, which I assume was intended — because that is the way many young teens perceive the adults in their life.
The book is enjoyable, overall, and my some of my students will likely enjoy it, but it isn’t one I would ever chose to reread. The protagonist is precocious for fourteen and quite fiercely independent. The mystery of whodunit gets overshadowed for most of the book by the mystery of the talking Raven and all the vague and bewildering “guidance” it delivers to Jonah. The visitations from the Raven were honestly the least enjoyable part. These scenes felt like a place to show off historical and scientific knowledge without doing anything to actually affect the plot. We occasionally rejoin Jonah’s mission to uncover the truth about the Incident, but it is lost in the shuffle of school troubles, being a “prophet,” enduring the presence of the Uncle, and trying to make money and take care of the land. There is a lot of running away to the cabin or the cave or the campsite — honestly, it’s a wonder the child is passing school at all, because that seems a complete afterthought. (I’m a high school teacher; I can’t help noticing.)
The writing is descriptive and maintains an appropriate voice for a forward-but-somewhat-reclusive fourteen-year-old girl who has been traumatized by horrific loss. The excessive agency and independence the character maintains over her own life (even with periodic visits from Child Protective services) might be realistic for a small, Northern mountain community; it would never fly in the cities where I have always lived. But then most of the adults are written with a notable degree of incompetence, which I assume was intended — because that is the way many young teens perceive the adults in their life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews