In her debut novel Crooked Hallelujah, Kelli Jo Ford follows the lives of four generations Cherokee women seeking a safe place amidst their faith-based convictions, class, and nation, and dysfunctional families. Set in the 1970s and 1970s, proud and stubborn characters like Lula and her mother (Granny), daughter Justine (in the first part of the book a teenager herself, in the second part mother of Reney), and granddaughter looking back on past certainties and the unsure present.

The writing style however seriously needs attention. Disjoint chapters, the introduction of new characters without rationale or clear position in the context, and the very different nature of the third part, in which statements replace the narrative, confused me very often. I went on reading, although I could easily put this book aside. On various occasions, I really had no clue what I just had read.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Grove Press for a free uncorrected proof/e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Kelli Jo Ford's debut novel Crooked Hallelujah follows four generations of Cherokee women across four decades. The book opens with teenager Justine in 1974 and jumps both back and forth in time, including the stories of Justine's mother Lula, Lula's mother (only called "Granny" in the novel), and Justine's daughter Reney. The struggles of being both Native American and a "holy roller" in Oklahoma, Reney's life and relationships in Texas, and the troubled but also beautiful relationships between mothers and daughters are the focus.

"His baritone sounded familiar but busy, his words fireflies that flitted between them without illuminating a thing."

Justine learned early that life was made up of occasional threads of joy woven through a tapestry of unceasing trials and tribulations.
(Reviewer's note: quotes are from the uncorrected proof and may not reflect the finished copy)

I thought the writing was absolutely gorgeous, but the plot itself was sometimes hard to follow. In the midst of the women's stories is a brief interlude about a neighbor, Mose, and the death of his mother. This incongruous segue interrupted the flow of the story and I am not sure it added anything to the whole. I was also not a fan of the ending of the book, but I don't want to give away any spoilers. So I will end this review with a recommendation to read this book, if not for the plot, for Ms. Ford's beautiful way with words.

Crooked Hallelujah is due to be published on July 14, 2020.

It is rare when I get to the end of the book and I still don't know how I feel about it. Crooked Hallelujah is like that. I have finished the last page, but the story seems to continue on without me. I know that sounds odd.

It is a story as old as time. The choices of the mother and the effects on the daughter. Crooked Hallelujah follows four generations of women. All trying to find something. Stability. Meaning. Happiness. It seems each generation is mirroring the one before. There are some changes, but not enough.

I found myself hoping for a happy ending, but I knew I was not going to get the fairy tale ending like I would prefer. I would get an ending with some happiness, some sadness, and some understanding.

This book explores 3 generations of Indian women and is a solid story. Disappointing there is nothing Indian about this book and it tells the story of them being poor, that's it, no heritage nor Indian life. It's extremely confusing with so many characters coming and going, and a difficult timeline leaves it not recommendable.

These are stories of generations linked, mater to mater to mater. Granny begets Lulu who begets Justine who begets Reney . . . Oklahoma, Texas to Portland, Oregon. . . it is a long road for these ladies as they try to figure out the maternal bonds they have (or don't) and how Granny's strict evangelistic religion plays (or doesn't) into the challenges and solutions of their lives.

The men in their world take a backseat - sperm donors, some, and some like Uncle Thorpe are controlling parts of the narrative to which that younger generation refuses to bow. . .some of the men are ineffectual - like tornado-tossed Pitch, or are sweet, like Moses. . . and once on stage, scene done, they are gone. ?What happened to them? The donkey versus calves element was another confusion for me - like Moses, it was never mentioned again, and I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from that information.

As the story unfolded earnestly tried to hang on and find the cohesive thread that would unravel my confusion. I never found it. I wanted more history, indigenous, in-looking-out for a change and with all the mentions of Cherokee, Choctaw, feathers and beads, I thought there would be that. Instead, these four ladies live through the decades and don't seem to benefit by their indian-ness, rather they were no different than poor Americans throughout the states. Could be me, though, not on the right horse.

This is a story of family. It mainly follows mother and daughter, Justine and Renee through their lives. Overall a solid read. There were times where I had trouble for a while discerning which character was narrating. I liked that way it was written.

This book was promising but the jumble of characters made it a little too confusing to follow. While I do like to read to see if cyclic behavior is ever broken, the amount of characters introduced throughout the book made it difficult to enjoy.

Crooked Hallelujah started off promising but turned stagnant 1/3 of the way through. Too many characters made it confusing to follow along and I quickly lost interest.

Crooked Hallelujah was beautifully written, and I loved the characters, but it was a bit confusing as the timings of the chapters weren't defined, nor were the narrators.
Crooked Hallelujah" explores the relationship between three generations of women on a Native American reservation in central Oklahoma

The first half of this book is compelling and drew me in completely. The second half slows down a lot and takes some patience to get through. All that said, Crooked Hallelujah is a nice novel. Kelli Jo Ford’s characters feel real in their relationships with each other as well as how they stand as individuals. Ford captures mothers and daughters and the complexities in those relationships extremely well, which is one of the ways she shows her skill as a talented writer. The writing style is nice and flows well, but sometimes it lags and draws down the pace of the novel as a whole. All THAT said, it’s great to see more novels with Native American representation, particularly Native women!

First, thanks to the publisher and netgalley for a chance to review this book.

I had mixed feelings about this book. Having grown up in a church identical to the one throughout the center of this story, I find it a very accurate portrayal of the Pentecostal/holiness movement and some of the effects it can have. Based on a Native American reservation this book follows the lives of a mother and daughter and granddaughter. The point of views jump around a lot and it often goes in a different direction than seems it should. Overall a unique book that is worth a read.

This book started out strong, and I was captured by generation of women and their struggles and strengths. Characters are multi-dimensional and complex, and the Oklahoma/Texas settings gave a real sense of time and place. But it started falling apart mid-way through when new characters were introduced and the book lost its cohesive narrative..

There were too many characters and too much going on in Crooked Hallelujah. The premise was a good one but due to the aforementioned the book seemed all over the place. I also don’t feel the ending gave real closure to the myriad familial concerns of four generations of women.

I was given early access to "Crooked Hallelujah" through Grove Press for my honest opinion.

I came upon this book through Netgalley. The synopsis sounded so good! I was very intrigued due to the story taking place in Oklahoma and Justine was apart of the Cherokee tribe.

I did feel that Kelli Jo Ford did a tremendous of showing mother-daughter dynamics between four generations of Justine's family. However, there were few characters that felt a little pointless. I'm still trying to figure out what they're contributions to the storyline.

I enjoyed most of the story but felt the ending was not the best fit. End of the world?! It's as if the author did a complete 180° from the story.

I'm said to say this was more 2.5 star read. I felt a little down by the synopsis.

One issue I had with this book is that I struggled to work out how all the characters were related to each other. It may benefit from a family tree at the start of the book.

Apart from that the book was so intriguing finding out how generational trauma can effect one family. The characters that are the speakers of the chapters are vivid and immersive.

This was another book that was not in my normal wheelhouse but that I was so excited to read. I loved the authors writing style and loved the characters, I felt like I was right there, next to the real people, watching their story unfold.

This will be a very hard review to write. I liked the authors writing style.
I HATED the book.
I liked the individual stories and found some of them so engrossing that I could not put the book down. The story about Mose and Stevie. Yet that great wonderful seed of a story was slapped down in the middle of the book and never finished and never began.
Every single part of the book was like that.
The author would then introduce new characters over 75% of the way through of the book.
I thought that there was a common theme, and then the last part happened...and then all of a sudden its a post apocalyptic world?????????? WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!
Author....this book has shades of greatness and I felt you were hesitant to bring it all together!
Don't throw spaghetti at a wall and try to get it to stick.

This book has a great title and interesting premise. I wasn’t able to get into it, which is no offense to the author. I’m likely just not the target audience or picked it up at the wrong time.

Flawed but beautiful, Crooked Hallelujah is an intimate road trip of a book portraying the stormy life of three generations of Cherokee (though this fact actually barely features in the narrative itself) women hailing from Oklahoma. Sporadically narrated by a variety of tertiary characters, we most often look through the eyes of either Justine or her daughter Reeny as they each attempt to find their way in the world.

To my mind, two things make this book both special and poignant. One is the sweet simplicity of its prose. There's no overwroughtness here, no artificial desire to dress up the writing in more layers than it needs. Its sharp and uncompromising in parts, and it lays things bare instead of padding them up. Ironically, this results in something that is far from dry or boring or dull despite some part of me actually thinking that it should be boring or dull. I think that is remarkable.

The other one is the characterization itself. Simply put, it feels like the author has really tapped into the minds of Lula, Justine, and Reeny, and like a magnet, we are simply drawn to learn about them. That is how I felt, at least.

Unfortunately, there are also some unfortunate flaws that kept this book from being truly outstanding. The most glaring are the narrations from the tertiary (at best) characters like Moses and Ferrel that not only break away from the book's subject matter, but they don't really add anything in return. I kept hoping they would be made relevant, but by the book's end this simply did not happen. I can't help but think those chapters could have been better utilized by exploring more about Reeny, who basically carries the first half of the book and then disappointingly fades for long swathes of the second half.

Despite the above, however, it was an intriguing read, I'll be looking forward to what the author writes next.

3.5/5 Stars.
"Crooked Hallelujah" is a beautiful generational story of mothers and daughters, Cherokee identity, faith, womanhood and questions of home.

"Can I love anything the way that I used to love the mystery of my mother, her strength in suffering?"

This novel is absolutely heartbreaking, and I was close to crying a couple of times, both because of the events in the book and because of the way Kelli Jo Ford uses language to accurately express emotions that sound impossible to put into words. Because of the nature of the novel, it deals with some very difficult topics, especially several instances of abuse and gender violence. While I can recommend this novel, please listen to your mental health and don't pick it up if you can't currently stomach things like that (feel free to contact me for more specific trigger/content warnings).
The environmental and religious elements of the novel are woven beautifully into this soft semi-apocalyptical setting.
One thing I did not enjoy was the way changes in POV were not marked, so it is sometimes confusing to read until you figure out who is speaking right now. Sometimes the perspective shifts to secondary or background character and while I first was sceptical, I figured that that added to the emotional complexity of the novel.
As a white European I cannot possibly judge the Cherokee representation but guess what, this is an Own Voices novel! For the linguistically curious (such as me) there even are a few sentences in Cherokee (Tsalagi) featured in the dialogue.
All in all, an honest ᏩᏙ to Kelli Jo Ford for this beautiful novel