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A review by somberlittleman
God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
(Cross-posted from my review on goodreads)
Found this book because of the podcast. I do have some technical nitpicks—quite a bit of the moment by moment action in the book could have been pared back to much better effect, for example—but overall, I’m glad it exists. The community I came from was far more radically controlling and harmful than even the evangelical community in this one, so the books in this space that tend to resonate me are probably ones that lean a lot harder into the cult deconstruction narrative.
Still, I could easily have seen this hitting me really hard as a teenager who hadn’t explored as much of this space yet. And I think McKinney had an overall very kind and reflective approach even as she examined the kinds of harms and shortcomings in a community that clearly has harmed the characters. Some books in this subject material, you need to be full of more vigor and action and self righteous characters casting off the shackles of the social ills they hail from.
However.
If you’ve grown up in a community like the one in the book, and you’re not running away as fast as you can from something very specific… it’s a lot likelier you are going through/have gone through a much more confusing, uncertain, and internal journey as you reckon with adult eyes. That’s the kind of story this is.
I don’t think this book got *quite* to where it should have been to be a *great* piece of writing, but I think it’s an important one all the same. I would definitely recommend it to any young adult or teen who’s just starting to wrangle with their upbringing in a flawed evangelical culture. There weren’t a ton of theological bits in there, but what *was* there was quite thought provoking even to someone who’s almost 20 years into deconstructing.
I probably would not recommend to those much outside the target audience/age of main characters unless you’re also just starting to extract yourself from church life a little. If the flaws and social ills of the worst side of such communities are old hat to you, the emotions therein won’t resonate the same way and the story itself is a bit slow.
In all, I eagerly await McKinney’s next novel, should she choose to write one. It’s not often you find someone writing with such tenderness and truthfulness at the same time about a religious community, holding both the knowledge of its propensity for profound damage *and* its inextricable weaving of an extended family system into one’s childhood. That perspective is much harder to learn than writing craft.
Found this book because of the podcast. I do have some technical nitpicks—quite a bit of the moment by moment action in the book could have been pared back to much better effect, for example—but overall, I’m glad it exists. The community I came from was far more radically controlling and harmful than even the evangelical community in this one, so the books in this space that tend to resonate me are probably ones that lean a lot harder into the cult deconstruction narrative.
Still, I could easily have seen this hitting me really hard as a teenager who hadn’t explored as much of this space yet. And I think McKinney had an overall very kind and reflective approach even as she examined the kinds of harms and shortcomings in a community that clearly has harmed the characters. Some books in this subject material, you need to be full of more vigor and action and self righteous characters casting off the shackles of the social ills they hail from.
However.
If you’ve grown up in a community like the one in the book, and you’re not running away as fast as you can from something very specific… it’s a lot likelier you are going through/have gone through a much more confusing, uncertain, and internal journey as you reckon with adult eyes. That’s the kind of story this is.
I don’t think this book got *quite* to where it should have been to be a *great* piece of writing, but I think it’s an important one all the same. I would definitely recommend it to any young adult or teen who’s just starting to wrangle with their upbringing in a flawed evangelical culture. There weren’t a ton of theological bits in there, but what *was* there was quite thought provoking even to someone who’s almost 20 years into deconstructing.
I probably would not recommend to those much outside the target audience/age of main characters unless you’re also just starting to extract yourself from church life a little. If the flaws and social ills of the worst side of such communities are old hat to you, the emotions therein won’t resonate the same way and the story itself is a bit slow.
In all, I eagerly await McKinney’s next novel, should she choose to write one. It’s not often you find someone writing with such tenderness and truthfulness at the same time about a religious community, holding both the knowledge of its propensity for profound damage *and* its inextricable weaving of an extended family system into one’s childhood. That perspective is much harder to learn than writing craft.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Sexism
Minor: Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Suicide, Grief, and Religious bigotry