Reviews of ”Im God and You’re Not”

Judge, 7th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards. Feb 14, 2020

Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 4

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 4

Production Quality and Cover Design: 3

Plot and Story Appeal: 3

Character Appeal and Development:4

Voice and Writing Style: 4

I need a story about the bible or about a retelling of some religious thing to really captivate me or I tend to lose interest. It’s hard to do, and I really respect the effort involved in the task. This was an interesting iteration of that complicated narrative. It was clever to have God tell his side of things, to imagine him as a character with a story to tell rather than just rewriting the events of the bible

The writing was well done, but I felt that it was funnier and more compelling when it wasn’t trying to be funny…

…there are moments where the enormity of this storyline is hit on just right, and gets that balance of satire, social commentary, religious commentary, and obscure humor all in order

From a Reader on Amazon Dec 27, 2019

5 Stars

Great book!

Hilarious and well written book. Zeilig knows his Bible way better than many so called religious! Loved it!

From readers on Goodreads

Oct 24, 2018: 4.75 Stars

Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for works that peek behind the curtain, so to speak, and give alternative takes on Biblical stories. Stories like “Good Omens,” or “Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal,” really appeal to me. So I was already excited to get my hands on this.

I really enjoyed this book, and give it a solid 4.75 stars.

I see this book mostly as being two parts– one is a corrective historical guide, and I absolutely love it. More on that later. The other part usually comes at the end of several (not all) chapters/sections, where God– writing through Zelig– stands on a pulpit and sermons the reader about what bloody idiots we are. God’s not wrong; we are a species of dumbfucks who don’t appreciate the gifts we have, and we blame God for our everyday maladies. These sections are less fun than the historical ones, and I felt they were a bit jarring from the rest of the stories, and I wanted to skip over them (I didn’t though). Thankfully they’re a relatively small part of the overall book, so I think my score of 4.75 is a good reflection of their share of the book (not much).

Those sermons are a far cry from the true genius of the book, which is the historical “footnotes” from God. I’m far from a Bible expert, much less a historical one, so I can’t comment on the veracity of the information, but this book seems superbly researched. There’s a plethora of tiny details that truly add color, context and authority on the stories. One example that comes to mind are the various plagues Moses rains down upon the Egyptians– so much information! And also the cultural details of the times, such as what life really was like at Sodom and Gomorrah. The devil is in the details (hah), and Zelig (or God, working through this supremely talented debut author) educates the reader with every page.

This book is not merely comedy– and it’s PLENTY funny– it’s absolutely Bill-Brysonian, for which I applaud Zelig. This is equal parts easygoing banter and chock-full of facts, without slipping into dismissive snark. I loved it.

Aug 05, 2018: Rated 5 Stars

Oct 12, 2018:

I really enjoyed this book.

God decides to tell his story to an author (again) in the hope of clearing up a few misunderstandings.

The book is funny and caring, it’s cross-religion and also outside of religion. Lots of great historical info as background. Never too heavy, always readable.

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All reviews used by permission of the reviewer