claire_fuller_writer 's review for:

Pew by Catherine Lacey

4.0

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This started out brilliantly - an ungendered un-raced, unnamed, young(ish) person is found sleeping in a church. (The first paragraph is especially wonderful). The pastor names them Pew for where they were found. Pew remembers very little and says even less, but this isn't Pew's story. It's the story of the insular bigoted religious community who takes them in but insists on knowing Pew's gender, race, age and name in order to consider Pew 'safe' to have around. It's creepy and unsettling, and Pew is subjected to questions and medical examinations and monologues from the people they are passed between. (Sometimes the monologues ram home the message a little too forcefully - okay Lacey, I get it.) The community is gearing up their annual festival of forgiveness, which unfortunately I felt a little let down by. The ending is very ambiguous, and I like an ambiguous ending, but this one had me scratching my head.