I was totally drawn in by the premise of Godshot: a girl growing up in a cult in drought-ravaged California.

Thus, I was surprised when the first third of the book felt like a bit of a slog - I'd read a few pages, fall asleep, and not think of it again until I did the same thing a couple nights later. Hoping to get into it, I committed myself to reading Godshot in slightly larger chunks (~5%); I wasn't to the point of DNFing. But while the plot did pick up by the halfway mark, I never really fell for this one. No gold glitter for me.

Godshot had a few lines that stuck out as powerful, but more spots where I felt like it was overwritten. There also were some lines that were just too over the top for me (though I recognize some love this sort of dramatic writing).

I'd recommend this one to those who like coming of age stories, are OK with a trauma-ridden plot, and have at least minimal interest in what happens in cults. The focus was less on how these people became taken up with the church of Vern, and more on living within it.

Thank you to Catapult and NetGalley for a free e-arc of this title for review.

Godshot is the story of 14-year-old Lacey May, a young girl growing up in Peaches, CA. Her town is in a severe drought, and Lacey and everyone she knows is in thrall to a charismatic preacher who says he can bring the rain back. When Lacey's mother runs off, she has to grapple with faith and community herself, and soon has to delve even further into motherhood and motherloss than any child should have to. The story is devastating, with occasional sparks of hope and love, asking deeply important questions and rooting on our heroine in even the darkest of times. Gorgeous.

GODSHOT is an epic tale of survival, a girl's coming of age, and motherhood. It is shocking and heartbreaking, and you will find it so hard to put down because you will be desperate to know what is going to happen to our strong-willed protagonist Lacey.

Set in a California town taken hostage by a psychotic religious cult leader named Vern (who promises rain and makes the young girls get pregnant in horrific and traumatizing ways), Lacey is abandoned by her mother to live with her truly crazy grandmother. As she both searches for her mother, and comes to terms with being a mother herself, we root, cry, and fight alongside Lacey as she tries to not only make a better life for herself, but literally fight for her life against religion, men, and her own family.

GODSHOT is no easy read, and I often had to take breaks from reading it (especially this week, of course). But I encourage you to read it and stick with it -- it is unlike anything I have read, and I know it will stay with me for a long time. Lacey is a protagonist for the ages.

I had been seeing this one all over Instagram, and I was intrigued by the premise from the beginning. I feel like I have been reading a lot of books about religion, faith, or lack there of, and how it shapes younger people. I was no expecting what this story was truly about - a religious cult that is deranged by lack of water in a drought-ridden county of California and willing to do anything and put their faith in anyone to bring the rain. Lacey is one hell of a protagonist, and I loved her deeply while reading this even if she did take a long time to see the light, as it were. Her relationship with her mother was something so painful to read that I could imagine it happening so clearly in my mind. How much she loved her mother shined throughout the entire novel, even to the end when she realizes that she needs to put her behind her in order to move forward. This book also enraged me because I couldn't stand the church and Vern and all of his disciples who would let heinous things happen behind their backs and turn a blind eye. I know that there are religious sects and cults in the real world where this happens all the time, so I think that it made it so real that it was hard to not be disgusted by it. But I think the best part of Godshot is Lacey's awakening, her coming into her own, and creating a family for herself out of all of the bad things that happened to her. She is such a bright light that it is hard to not be drawn to her, and even though it may not be the happiest ending, I think it was fitting for her because she finally got everything she had ever wanted in a family.

The premise hooked me: a California cult, with followers desperate for even the most misguided hope and leadership during a drought, a broken mother-daughter relationship, and elements of misogyny, battle for control of the self, and the strong female fighting spirit.

But each detail was more over the top than the last. Because of that I found this book difficult to read because so much of it felt implausible, yet the tone was not farcical or campy. Gold glitter rains down on the congregation during the low-tech church services (no one looks up to see the leader's daughter doing this until the main protagonist peers up, late in the book); the bible is rewritten with the cult leader Vern's name in place of Jesus', the congregation is forbidden from securing food or supplies from neighboring towns, so rather than water they only drink (and baptize in) soda. I don't doubt that people exhibit blind faith and are willing to go to extremes, and that this is especially possible during times of desperation, but the presentation of each element of Vern's rule and followers and community made them feel distracting and unlikely.

Not to mention the various sinister cartoonlike quirks of the dangerously faulted grandmother: Cherry collects and plays with taxidermied animals that she dresses up, *and* she has her granddaughter continually follow through with revolting hygiene tasks such as removing all the hair from her body, *and* she covers her bald head with jelly and soda.

The pacing felt uneven, and the strongest and most cohesive part of the story was toward the end, with a search and some resolution, strong female characters, and a cobbled-together family of sorts that seems destined to succeed.

Catapult and NetGalley provided me with an advance publication copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cult America is alive and well. Many worship politicians without ever engaging in critical thinking. Perhaps they do so just to feel safe. In GODSHOT, Bieker explores how and why people believe in things that make no sense and are not in the best interests of those who believe in them. But it is also a wonderful novel about a young person trying to find her way in the world, especially when the information she has been given about the world is inaccurate. Really, really interesting!

This is the best book I've read so far in 2020. For readers who loved Rachel Kushner's THE MARS ROOM, here is another gem of a novel with gorgeous prose and a complex female protagonist, someone you will root for and worry about. The tactics of religious manipulation and systematic assault in this cult community were handled with compassion and nuance. This is a complicated story about mothers and daughters and the grief of learning to recognize one's own capacity for agency and independence despite longing to be saved. A riveting read, hard to put down.

This novel takes you on an emotional rollercoaster in the life of 14-year-old Lacey May. After her mother abandons her in a cult, Lacey May must deal with the fallout. The cult's leader has a plan to end the drought that has fallen on the rural California town and his plan involves the young girls, including Lacey May. You will feel deeply for Lacey as you follow her journey after being "godshot" and dealing with her doubts and feeling of being stuck.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

"Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mice collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules, and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother, no matter what it takes."

Good story.

4☆

Hard to believe this is a debut novel as the writing and content are so well done. It isn't often you read a book you are unable to put down but this was one of those books. Highly recommend!

Chelsea Bieker's book Godshot is a coming-of-age tale like no other. Fifteen-year-old Lacey May lives in the town of Peaches, in California's Central Valley, a town dying in the grip of drought and a cult leader whose neck I guarantee you'll want to wring with your own bare hands. The injustices and violence visited on Lacey May will make your heart burn with rage, but Bieker has created a character of true grit, and Lacey May's awakening to her circumstances—and the resulting choices and revelations—make this book a page turner.

Very impressive debut novel. The main character, Lacey, lives with her mother in a drought ridden California town where the main industry of farming has died because of the terrible drought. The town is basically a cult which is run by "pastor" Vern who has his own plan and radical ideas and an more seemingly outlandish plan for his people. They all follow him and carry out his "assignments" which get more crazy as the book progresses. Lacey's mom fall's off the wagon and abandons her for a TV career (or so she thinks). Lacey ends up living with her very eccentric grandmother who has a collection of stuffed rodents that she dresses up like dolls. Needless to say, not the best place for Lacey to live. As Vern's plans unfold, Lacey is caught in a situation that she is unprepared for and has to grow up really fast without a mother to guide her. She manages to find one safe haven at the phone sex business in town, run by a compassionate mother with a teen daughter. This book really picked up speed and got to the point where I couldn't put it down. Lacey deals with her situation with her intelligence, a little bit of common sense, grace and resiliency and the kindness of others who she meets as she grows up quickly in a radical situation. Fabulous book with amazing writing! thanks to NG for the ARC!!!

This is a book everyone will be talking about. I really enjoyed it and the motley cast of characters. It is Flannery O'Connor with a dash of Carl Haissan but in draught affected California instead of the humid south. Not the type of boom I normally read because I’m drawn to thrillers and horror but this was really great.

I'm a sucker for a cult memoir, and while this is a work of fiction, it's an interesting and plausible tale of what happens when people put all their faith in someone who does not at all deserve it.

I have not enjoyed a book this much in a long time! Hard to believe it is a debut! Sad, awful, heart-wrenching, beautiful, all these and more.

I requested this book from NetGalley because it has an eye-popping cover - I love the gold sparkles! However, it definitely proved (once again) that you shouldn't judge a book based on it's cover. This cover-buy was a fail for me, unfortunately. It is a cult story, which typically aren't my thing, and this was no exception. I also ended up skimming a majority of it just to get through so I could review it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The comparisons to Geek Love and White Oleander are apt, to the point where this one almost felt overshadowed and slightly derivative. I also found it had a pretty slow start. And yet! the second half I read entirely in one sitting; Lacey was a compelling protagonist, and the prose caught hold of me. It's clear Bieker is very talented.

As much as I wanted to love and enjoy this one, I didn't. I'd high hopes, but there was another review I read saying that if it's not a page turner, they tune out. I typically follow along the same lines. It doesn't have to be a thriller or anything fast-paced, but I find that if I'm not eager to get to the next page, I'm losing interest. That was Godshot to me. Plenty of people on Netgalley have raved about it, and sometimes a book, no matter how many people love it, just isn't for me.

The writing is almost poetry, but to me, the story wasn't.

Godshot comes out 4.17.2020.

3/5 Stars

Thank you to Catapult for an ARC of this book. This is a beautifully written coming of age story about a young girl in a drought-stricken small town in rural California. Abandoned by her mother, living with her grandmother, Lacey's life centers around a cult-like church whose leader promises relief from the drought in exchange for unquestioning devotion. While she struggles to find her mother, she's drawn deeper into the clutches of the cult. She finds unlikely solace with a phone sex worker and her daughter, who may provide her with the answers she seeks. By turns suspenseful and moving, I'm still thinking about it days after finishing it.

I picked this book up because I love books about cults. If that is your reason for picking it up, that is the wrong reason, BUT it is a wonderful book, just not about cults in the way I thought it might be. It is about so much more. It brought tears to my eyes at the end, and that makes it a 5 star read for me.