Miriam Horton is the 15-year-old daughter of a well-known Southern Baptist preacher. Until she sees her father commit a violent act one night after a failed healing at a revival, she practically worshipped him. She suddenly became disillusioned with her father and his healing powers which threw their entire family into chaos.

This story is told with so much love and compassion. The characters are so well-drawn, and there was never a dull moment. The writing is so wonderful.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this debut. It is absolutely fantastic, and I will be recommending it to everyone.

I spent a lot of time in revivals growing up in rural Southern Missouri. Ms. West captures the essence of the evangelical movement and the particular religious fervor engendered by ecstatic experiences and psychological manipulation. She also catches the violence, jealousy, and turf guarding that is often acted out by "God's people".

This is a good read, but it definitely is not pleasant.

Revival Season is a coming of age story about a 15 yr old preacher's daughter who has grown in a very sheltered and restricted Christian household. She's homeschool and lives under her father's very strict rules which require dressing a certain way, only listening to church music, only Christian literature, no television, etc.

Every summer her family travels on the revival circuit as her father proclaims to heal people. Though lately he hasn't been healing anyone. After she witnesses a heinous act committed by her father she takes off her rose-colored glasses and starts to realize her life isn't the façade her family presents. Her father is abusive and controlling behind closed doors and her mother often takes the brunt of that aggression. Her little brother is being trained to follow in his father's footsteps and that includes turning a blind eye to the less than godly acts he commits.

This book sheds a light on the darker side of the evangelical community that's often ignored or covered up. Miriam is questioning everything she's been taught to believe in and acknowledging what she's been trained to ignore. There were some uncomfortable instances of abuse to read in this story but I couldn't stop turning the pages as I was sucked in. It was like being a fly on the wall in this family's home. This story has the opportunity to open up great discussions about faith and family. Fans of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw will probably enjoy this.

I think my high expectations for this novel may have gotten to the better of me, as I was interested in this but did not find it groundbreaking. The writing felt very realistic in terms of portraying the perspective of a 15-year-old from a very insular family and community, but that also meant it felt overly simplistic and lacking depth. I also found the plot a bit predictable and wish there had either been less drama or more perspective on the drama. This story is one I think could have benefitted from a protagonist looking back at this point in her life (although I am critical of that literary device as well, so maybe it wouldn't have worked), as there was just something missing here. I would still recommend it, though, if you are interested in a coming-of-age story that tackles the relationship between abuse and Evangelicalism.

Thank you to Monica West and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an early copy of this work through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Revival Season is coming out on May 25.

Revival Season by Monica West was a story told my a 15 year old girl, Miriam Horton, the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor from Texas. Her family travels around the South every summer for revivals where her father saves souls and performs healings to the sick and ailing.

This was a story of the pain of a daughter realizing her father whom she idolized for most of her life is not the man she thought he was. It’s the story of a young woman coming to terms with her own faith. It’s the story of the way women sacrifice their own thoughts, dreams and desires to follow a traditional faith-led household.

Regardless of your feelings about organized religion and faith in a higher power, you can connect with the family dynamics presence and the growth of a young woman who is learning to stand on her own even if it means going against everything she has been raised to believe.

Well done! 5 stars from me!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

This is a difficult book to review.

Miriam is a compelling main character and her journey to find her voice and agency had me rooting for her the whole way. I was worried I wouldn't like the plot with its deeply rooted Christian components. However, I think West does a good job exploring the ways that religion is used to excuse lies, manipulation, exploitation, and even abuse. It's a unique coming-of-age story, not only for a single character but for a family. If you are not a religious person, it's an interesting challenge reading this and finding ways to empathize with a situation you may not be able to fully understand.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

All aboard for the summer southern revival season. This is an interesting tale of a southern preacher with a devoted following who packs up his family every summer to spread god's word to isolated congregations. The summer Miriam is 15, she witnesses a brutal act by by her father and seeds of doubt are sown. She starts to remember other years, other failures. Then there's the beatings. Along with a glimpse into the revival circuit we see the deep sexism that exists in the evangelical community.
Thanks to Net Galley, the publisher and author for an ARC of this book.

4+

Revival Season is a quiet declaration of feminine power.

Miriam, at fifteen, has always believed what she was raised to believe in terms of faith, living under her preacher father’s thumb and having no real exposure to anything outside of the life she was raised in. When she witnesses a violent act by her father and discovers her own spiritual gift, both contradicting everything she’s been taught, her perception of family and faith begin to change.

Monica West writes beautifully, with gentle, yet hard-hitting truths stitched into the narrative. We see everything through Miriam’s eyes as the man she kept on a pedestal begins to crumble and West did a fantastic job reframing this perspective from beginning to end. Miriam’s melancholic tone is palpable and I found it impossible not to grieve alongside her.

Revival Season contrasts harmful religious beliefs with authentic faith. While I’m not sure how I feel about the healing focus of the book, I did really enjoy the story. Ultimately, I think Miriam was a strong character who was, slowly, finding herself - her own healing - as she began to see things in her upbringing more clearly. The final chapter’s offering was especially potent.

I was greatly impressed with Monica West’s insightful debut - a profound piece of literature that has the makings of a modern classic. If this is what she starts us off with, I can only imagine how extraordinary her future novels will be. Her talent is a gift to the reading community.

Revival Season is a heartbreaking coming-of-age story of young Miriam Horton, a teenager growing up in the heart of a Southern evangelical household and community. Miriam's initially unquestioning, staunch faith in her father makes the gradual erosion of her love and trust in him painful to watch as he makes blunder after blunder as both a father and a leader of his church. Her family is equally dogged in their loyalty, if not more, as they are beholden to his whims and bouts of angst and fury, surviving every day with an enduring sense of desperation and helplessness. There are a few climactic events that highlight Miriam's growth as a Christian woman in the South but her story is more about the gradual chipping of one's sense of self and everything it was once grounded in.

Growing up Christian, I've witnessed the public downfall of many famous pastors, both Korean and American, whether it was due to fraudulent financial practices, sexual scandals, or just gross nepotism. The church as an institution and system is something I've had a love-hate relationship with, and West beautifully portrays this internal schism budding in Miriam's heart as she faces the reality that contradicts many of the 'truths' she's been taught to believe in. Her conception of God blurs so messily with her conception of her father, and seeing her come to terms with how mediated her relationship with God is was powerful.

Feminism is a looming theme in this book, but not in the most obvious, in-your-face kind of way. In fact, I think it's a stunningly realistic depiction of how those who grow up with a religious background reconcile their faith with their yearning for a different, more egalitarian social order. I reveled in Miriam's constant tension and struggle for an answer that many younger Christians today have pondered over: are faith and feminism mutually exclusive? Miriam's feminism consists of small battles raging within her spirit rather than loud declarations or extreme decisions that come with an awakening of the female consciousness. And that's fine.

I imagine the reading experience might be different for someone who isn't familiar with Christianity or Christian culture/history in America, but I still think this would make an exceptional read for many with its wonderful arcs and achingly broken characters.

This book is one of the 2021 releases I was most anticipating reading. I was thrilled to be approved for an advanced copy via Netgalley.

The premise of the novel: a Black Texas pastor and his family travel through the South each year holding tent revivals where souls are saved and healing occurs. The events of one revival season, the year between the next revival season and the following revival season are told through the eyes of the family’s oldest daughter, Miriam.

Even though Miriam is not an adult character, some very mature themes are addressed in the novel from her viewpoint. Some of the themes include: gender roles in families, gender roles in churches, truth of human behavior and spiritual gifting.

West writes the novel in a gentle way. Considering the subject of the book it could have easily taken a fire and brimstone sermon feel. But instead it feels more like a look into a family and community that happens to be heavily involved in church.

I quickly consumed this novel in a few days. I am not sure if I am satisfied with the ending. I feel like West has more to tell with this family perhaps a follow up book.
This book is perfect for those who enjoy messy family dynamics, coming of age stories or faith based narratives.

Revival Season is my first book by Monica West, but I doubt it will be my last. She has a way of writing that instantly pulls you into the story and I was engaged from beginning to end. Some of the characters weren't as well developed as others, but on a whole, this was a story I won't be quick to forget!

Read if you: Want a vivid portrayal of a traveling revivalist family.

This is a mesmerizing and totally original story; I was captivated by this (relatively short!) coming-0f-age story; more coming-of-age stories featuring African-American characters are definitely needed, and this is quite unique.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"Every summer, fifteen-year-old Miriam Horton and her family pack themselves tight in their old minivan and travel through small southern towns for revival season."

Great debut, the story flowed well and is interesting.

3.25☆

This book was recommended to me because I enjoyed The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall. The metrics must have connected the two books because they were both about Christianity and a church. However, when I first started reading the book, I was thrown off as to how these books were similar. Revival Season is much more intense, focused on one family, and covers only about a year where The Dearly Beloved was a larger examination of spiritual development and spanned the lifetimes of the four main characters. It took me weeks to get past the few couple of chapters of Revival Season. I was unsure of the time and setting and disturbed by the behavior of the patriarch. Eventually, I was hooked and wanted to see how the issues between family members would be resolved.

Thank you SO much to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this Masterpiece!

Wow, this book is a masterpiece, Monica West is a Debut writer and this book seems like it's her 20th novel, It's clear to me that Monica West is someone who needs to write, And we need people like Monica West around and celebrate her way with words... Just Junoesque.

Revival Season is an utterly original read, riveting story about tempestuous family about a evangelical family and young girl who starts to have doubts.. Monica West writes with so much compassion and clarity even as it tangles with the complexities and flaws of this DEEPLY troubled Southern family..

Revival Season opens with the Horton family preparing to travel on their summer revival circuit—a sermon and healing tour headed by patriarch Rev. Samuel Horton. Unease settles in the family remembering a past healing service gone wrong and what it foreshadows for their future. Once Miriam Horton witnesses the aftermath of another botched healing, her beliefs about her father, their life, and her own possibilities began to unravel and expand... Miriam is such a beautifully written heroine.
The way Monica West writes about women especially in the evangelical community is Spot on, capturing the intricate details of the social interactions within a faith community, particularly the deep sexism that seeks to damper the agency of women.

This obviously gets 5 stars from me and I don't give 5 stars very often. Please pre-order from your local book store or pre- order on the kindle.

This is a compelling story that immerses the reader in another world: a tight knit southern Black church, and a family in which the pastor father is also a faith healer who takes the family on a revival circuit every summer.

Fundamentally it is the painful coming of age story of Miriam, who at 15 is forced to grapple with both the limitations of being female in this conservative religious community, and some difficult truths about each of her parents.

This is a universal tale, told well in a very particular setting. Dark but worthwhile.

With thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for an advance review copy.

I can't believe this is a debut book! It is so well written and appropriately paced with well developed characters that I cared about and still think about. . Every character had something unique to offer like Hannah. My heart really went out to Hannah and I had such empathy for her. This novel is a compelling and brutal story. The author uses blunt and simple prose that is age appropriate for the narrator, as well as her limited education. She is sweet, loving 15-year-old Miriam, the oldest daughter in this tightly controlled, patriarchal household. She bears the brunt as primary caretaker to a special needs sister and helpmate to a broken, subservient mother.
There are some disturbing and possibly triggering scenes of physical abuse dotted throughout this book. I quickly fell in love with young Miriam, so the helplessness and my heart broke for such childhood trauma.. Every single character in this book, even the savage Reverend Horton, is so vividly created. Their relationships are so clear, and their intentions well-defined. Despite the horror they face, I loved spending time with Miriam, her siblings, and her mother. I really loved this book. I can't wait to see what Monica West does next!

This is the story of Miriam, the daughter of a Baptist preacher, who witness her dad doing something that fundamentally shifts what she thinks of him and starts unraveling their whole family slowly.

It's the story of what pride can do to a man, to a family. The story of what loss feels like and how we carry our thoughts, beliefs, wishes and dreams of who we are, who we can be and who we were inside ourselves. It's the story of what happens when you revere a person and come to find out they are human. It's the story of unspoken truths and how the weight of them can break a family. It's the story of how things can look one way from the outside and be completely different from the inside (as they often are.)

It's the story of what happens when you can no longer hide your own truth, your own potential and choose to step into your own sunshine even a little bit.

This is a wonderfully written, terribly sad story of a broken family and a strong heroine that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

with gratitude to Simon & Schuster and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

As a decidedly secular audience member reading this excellent book, I felt very much a stranger in a strange land but I definitely enjoyed the experience. The book was well written and engrossing. It felt like the author inhabited the story rather than a writer narrating a story from her imagination. I feel that this is a writer to be watching.

I loved this book. It was different than the thrillers or family dramas I typically read. It is a young girls journey into discovering that no one is infallible including her father. I couldn’t put it down.