Monica WestCritiques

Rich language and a compelling story. Absolutely love the ending.

This is the second book this year that I have had to continuously remind myself that what is taking place is in the current timeframe, as opposed to something happening in the last century. This is due, in part, to some antiquated ideals paired with timeless behaviors and practices. As a pastor’s child myself, a lot of the atmosphere and activities were very familiar, and I was appreciative of the fact that the author is respectful of the faith and views of God while still pointing out and uncovering the imperfect human nature prevalent in the religious community. The supernatural aspect is a fantastic and relevant twist, even with its own inconsistencies, and the familial relationships are compelling and provocative.

I definitely recommend this if you would like to step away from the normal read and explore something unique.

An advanced copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. The opinions are my own.

Luba. Fiction. The paperback is coming out in June. Miriam Horton's Papa is Rev. Samuel Horton, the Faith Healer of East Mansfield, TX. Every summer, the Hortons, a Black family, load up their van and bring the word of God to the spiritually starving in Southern cities. People pack into revival tents by the hundreds to witness the Reverend perform miracles on the sick and suffering. At 15 years old, Miriam idolizes and reveres her Papa for the healing work he has been gifted with. At the root of this idolatry is the striking juxtaposition that Papa is abusive to his family behind closed doors, and caused a scandal last summer when he assaulted a pregnant teen. This summer the Horton family is on pins and needles as they begin, hoping that people will have forgotten. The peace in their family depends on it. As the season gets underway, Miriam's faith and adoration of her dad is tested as she discovers more about her own healing abilities. Ultimately, this is a coming-of-age story, and a meditation on how the core values of Southern Baptist Christianity are in stark contrast to present-day views on gender equality. West's writing technique is precise and calculated-each word and sentence engaging and marvelous, every character masterfully fleshed out. VERDICT An impressive, special, haunting novel. Teens interested in literary fiction will be engrossed."

audio fiction - southern Evangelical family on the road (preacher father is a "healer"); one daughter has cerebral palsy

narrator's accent is twangy but pleasant; I just had trouble settling into this one (the dad is really toxic) but might do better with it in print.

Would absolutely give this author another shot, but this particular novel did not work for me.

Miriam Horton is the daughter of a faith healing evangelist who every Summer stages a series of tent revivals at various towns across the South. Her dad is an inspiration at first but loses his healing touch and in frustration beats ups a man who questions his abilities. At this point almost by accident Miriam lays hands on one of her friends and cures her of her health issues. So the tensions builds between father and daughter (who believes women can not heal) who apparently has the gift. An interesting family dynamic.

Wow. What an amazing, well written, factual, personal, believable, drama filled story!! Domestic violence, a man of God who outgrows God to focus upon himself, a family struggling to be the family the public believes them to be. Being from the south and understanding (although never attending) tent revivals, I found this story to convey messages seldom discussed. I found the story to be one that would have occurred somewhere between 1940-1960 rather than 2017 so I continued to picture the events from the old south, not the current one. I would LOVE to read a second book that will tell more about Miriam's life. An outstanding book you do not want to miss!!!!!

Monica West’s debut novel, Revival Season, is a classic coming-of-age story in which fifteen-year-old Miriam Horton comes to the realization that the world she has been living in is gone forever, and more importantly, that it had really never existed in the first place. Miriam may have been a naive teen at the beginning of Revival Season, but by the end of the book she is more an adult than her own parents may ever be again.

Miriam’s father is a Baptist preacher well known for his healing powers. Every summer, Reverend Horton packs up his whole family and heads east from their Texas home to hold a series of tent revivals throughout the Southeast. Revival season is an exciting time for the Horton children, an adventure they look forward to every year, and after the first revival goes so well, it looks like this is going to be the best revival season ever for their father. But it doesn’t turn out that way.

It all starts to go bad after a disastrous healing service during which Reverend Horton’s healing powers are loudly called into question by an old blind man. The way that the preacher reacts to being challenged, and the resulting violence that immediately follows, scares Miriam and makes her begin to question everything she thought she knew about her father. Now she has questions not only about Reverend Horton, but even about her faith, and the healings she has taken for granted for so long. But, within his family, Reverend Horton is a tyrant, a man who refuses to be challenged or questioned by his wife and children, a man quick to use the belt on his children for even the slightest violation of his principles. If Miriam is going to find answers, she will have to find them on her own.

And then it happens.

Miriam accidentally discovers that she may have her own healing powers despite the fact that both her father and her church have always made it very clear that God denies this kind of power to women. It is, of course, impossible to keep her newly discovered abilities completely secret, and over the next few months Miriam quietly, and privately, heals a handful of others. She knows that what she is doing could end up destroying her family and her church, and she is terrified by what her father will do when he learns what she has been up to. And now, at the beginning of a new revival season, she climbs with her brothers and sisters into their worn out old minivan knowing that she will have to decide between her family and her God before she ever sees Texas again.

Bottom Line: Revival Season is a remarkable debut novel. Monica West is a good storyteller, and she creates here a believable family being forced to live within its own secretive world by a man who tolerates no questioning of his authority and power. Miriam Horton, though, is a young woman brave enough to think for herself; the question is whether she is also brave enough to defy her authoritative father. Revival Season ends in a way that lends itself to a sequel, and I’m hoping that happens because I would love to know what happens next to Miriam Horton and her family.

Fast read with lots of twists and turns.

3.5 This book took me on a trip to a place of which I had little knowledge. Yes, it's in my own country but this is a look into the Southern black Evangelical church, of which faith healing is a big part. Where women are secondary, have little control over any aspect of their lives, their only role, to keep the faith and bolster their men. Accept whatever they say and do. So it is with the family in this book, a family that travels on a summer circuit through the south, preaching and healing as they go. Father, preacher, mother, son, two daughters, one with cerebral palsy. Miriam is the eldest and she respects, reveres her father, until one day........

This was a difficult book for me to read, it was tension filled, cloistered, and exposed the hypocrisy hidden inside, this family, this religion. It made me angry that a mother would not protect her daughter, but in fact, she had few options. Something Miriam will have to come to terms with. It does not end with a definitive answer, but the reader must come to their own interpretation. A read with Angela, Esil and myself, and we all came to the same realization by books end.

ARC from Edelweiss.½