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Book Review of The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, Bk 2)

The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, Bk 2)
reviewed on
Helpful Score: 2


Quite possible the worst book I've ever had the misfortune to read-- its only possible rival in sheer badness is the Left Behind series. I couldn't just put it down, I felt morally obligated to hurl it across the room with as much force as I could muster. The fact that this book is as popular as it is leaves me with very little faith in American literacy.

The writing is execrable-- I wasn't offended by the "theology," but I was by the prose. The book reads like a bad pulpy radio drama, complete with end-of-the-chapter "Little did they know what would happen NEXT!" The "handsome, literate, well-respected" protagonist is clearly a stand-in for the author, who is seemingly unaware that "symbology" is already an academic discipline called semiotics. Sophie is a cryptographer who apparently can't solve a simple substitution code or recognize a Fibonacci sequence for chapters at a time.

The half-baked conspiracy theory that was supposed to be so provocative and subversive is honestly laughable, at best. If Jesus was no more than human all along, then why do we care about his bloodline? How precisely is Mary Magdalene honored by being Jesus' Babymama instead of an apostle in her own right? What is a monk doing in Opus Dei-- a LAY society? The mind boggles.