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    God Spare the Girls: A Novel
    God Spare the Girls: A Novel
    God Spare the Girls: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    God Spare the Girls: A Novel

    Written by Kelsey McKinney

    Narrated by Catherine Taber

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    ""Read it for twists on twists, meditations on faith, and a deeply thoughtful treatment of an evangelical community.""  — Glamour, Beach Reads That Are Like Summer in a Book

    “A thoughtful and candid meditation on faith, family, and forgiveness . . . fabulous.” —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had 

    Recommended by Good Housekeeping, Elle, Parade, Real Simple, Glamour, Refinery29, Bustle, Oprah Daily, The Millions, Shondaland, Yahoo!, Literary Hub, and more!

    A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover an unsettling secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception.

    Luke Nolan has led the Hope congregation for more than a decade, while his wife and daughters have patiently upheld what it means to live righteously. Made famous by a viral sermon on purity co-written with his eldest daughter, Abigail, Luke is the prototype of a modern preacher: tall, handsome, a spellbinding speaker. But his younger daughter Caroline has begun to notice the cracks in their comfortable life. She is certain that her perfect, pristine sister is about to marry the wrong man—and Caroline has slid into sin with a boy she’s known her entire life, wondering why God would care so much about her virginity anyway.

    When it comes to light, five weeks before Abigail’s wedding, that Luke has been lying to his family, the entire Nolan clan falls into a tailspin. Caroline seizes the opportunity to be alone with her sister. The two girls flee to the ranch they inherited from their maternal grandmother, far removed from the embarrassing drama of their parents and the prying eyes of the community. But with the date of Abigail’s wedding fast approaching, the sisters will have to make a hard decision about which familial bonds are worth protecting.

    An intimate coming-of-age story and a modern woman’s read, God Spare the Girls lays bare the rabid love of sisterhood and asks what we owe our communities, our families, and ourselves.

    “A deeply felt book about love — love for family and community, for people who sustain you and people who disappoint you. And love for God, too, which Kelsey McKinney writes about with humane and incisive frankness.”—Linda Holmes, New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over

    “The accomplishment of this canny novel is in positing coming of age itself as a loss of faith—not only in the church, but in our parents, our family, and the world as we thought we understood it.” — Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Rich and Pretty

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJun 22, 2021
    ISBN9780063020283
    Author

    Kelsey McKinney

    KELSEY McKINNEY is a freelance features writer and cofounder of Defector Media. She previously worked as a staff writer at Vox, Fusion, and Deadspin. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, GQ, Cosmopolitan, and New York magazine, among other publications. Raised Evangelical in north Texas, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and dog. God Spare the Girls is her first novel.

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    Reviews for God Spare the Girls

    4/5

    78 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book is an absolute masterpiece. Worth buying and keeping in your collection forever.
    • 5/5
      Growing up in Texas and in the church this book was spot on. Great writing. I really enjoyed this book!
    • 5/5
      I thought this was a beautifully written, coming of age story! Having grown up in the church, I could relate so much to the story line.
    • 3/5
      I thought this book was really good, honest and authentic. There were some truly beautiful moments and the author does a great job of describing landscapes and other details. I wasn’t prepared for the abrupt ending, which left me feeling kinda empty and dissatisfied. It would have been a four-star book, but the ending was very disappointing for me.
    • 3/5
      Very well written. I didn't like how it resolved, maybe I'm just not a fan of whatever genre this is.