Revival Season

I'm always willing to broaden the scope of topics I read and pick up. It was a “newer” release when I got to it from my library so there weren't that many reviews at the time. Hindsight would've worked well in my favor here so I could have read some in depth reviews and decided stronger that this wasn't going to be for me.

Of course, I had to read this. Of course, there might be a slight religious obsession due to lowkey religious trauma. This is the story of Miriam, whose father is a preacher and healer/revival leader. He has a problem with his temper and his violence and his hubris. Fancy that. Every summer, they leave their little town for three months to go on a revival tour. The summer before the book starts, her father lost his temper and punched a pregnant girl in the stomach. So the book starts out with this year's revivals already in trouble. And it does get worse. Miriam's father gets called out for being a phony by a man, and proceeds to beat said man. Outside the tent, out of view of all the parishioners, but Miriam follows and sees. And her whole world comes crashing down.

And then she learns that she can heal.

There are going to be trigger warnings for abuse, physical, emotional, psychological, and religious; sexism; cutting; birth and discussions of stillbirths.

Miriam's story is extra. I grew up in New England in an SBC church, child of a pastor. So the whole Southern thing didn't match my childhood, nor did the abuse. But I could still relate to a lot of the things Miriam experiences, even though my spiritual realizations came much later. So yeah, this book hit close to home, despite differences. It's not an easy read, but for anyone dealing with religious trauma, even if not religious abuse, this is a should-read.