Revival Season by Monica West

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I interviewed Monica West earlier this month in anticipation for her debut release and I she kindly sent me a copy for review. And listening to her describe this story I knew this  wouldn't be one of those nice Christian stories of faith and hope but rather one that causes you to pause and examine your beliefs. 

The Horton family heads out on the road as they usually do for rival season with a number of church stops lined up. After an incident everyone is trying to forget last summer they're hoping this will be a summer of miracles. After all Reverend Horton specializes in miracles as he proclaims to heal people of their ailments. But things don't go as planned at one of their early stops and the family is forced to come back home after the Reverend is exposed for doing something very unbecoming of a preacher. After that church membership starts it's decent and tension continues to rise in the Horton household.

Miriam starts to recall incidents she pushed down here and there in regards to her father's temper and questions the strict rules he has for the house. While she's always bought into an idealized version of her parent's marriage she starts to talk to her mother more about her feelings and realizes it's not the pretty façade that's been presented. Her mother was a young woman trying to escape her less than stable or structured household and she found her father and God at the same time. She never knew one without the other and through herself into both. While her father may have once been a young and hopeful preacher with a gift he is now completely unrecognizable.

As Miriam's father's pride gets in his way and his downfall continues he inflicts his anger more on his family, specifically her and her mother. Monica West really writes these scenes as if you're standing in their house behind the closed doors bearing witness to their interactions. I felt the rage and the pain and squirmed in my seat while reading a few times. 

Miriam realizes her relationship with her younger brother has changed and they haven't been as close as they used to be since her father started grooming him to be a preacher. When she voices her concerns about her father's abusive ways her brother is hesitant to believe her at first. 

After reading this book I sat and reflected on my own complicated family relationships and it was a very emotional experience. Because sometimes you don't realize there's things you pushed down and forgotten about without fully addressing. Your family members don't fit the perfect picture of them that you have in your head. 

I've frequented a lot of churches but these strict Southern evangelical churches are something else. And behind closed doors is one thing but if my pastor openly displayed as wild behavior as Reverend Horton I would've been like those other people and fleeing too. Instead people are complacent in his behavior by standing by even though they suspect he's harming his family. And there's the idea that I've witnessed where women in the church play a large role keeping things together but aren't considered able to perform in certain positions. In this story Miriam is constantly told women can't be healers even though she sees signs she may just have the gift herself.  If you enjoyed books like The Secret Lives of Church Ladies I think you'll enjoy this slice of life story about a religious Southern Black family.