Godshot by Chelsea Bieker

I decided to request Godshot by Chelsea Bieker after seeing a few reviews from my Goodreads friends and dived into it right away, looking for a deep connection to a story and the characters. I started to get a little worried about the way it started and wondered what I got myself into. I hung in there and was rewarded with an unquie look at the bond between our main character 14-year-old Lacey and her mother.

The story is set in drought-stricken cult ran town by Pastor Vern, who preys on the vulnerabilities of the members, especially with the children. He promises them rain for doing assignments that I felt were too bizarre by the way the story was told, and the cult storyline wasn’t a convincing part of the story for me. I did read this one on my own, so I didn’t get the chance to talk about that with anyone. Maybe I would have felt differently after chatting about that.

What did create that emotional response I was looking for was with Lacey’s growth throughout the story. Lacey’s mother is banished from the community. Instead of Lacey holding feelings of abandonment and anger towards her mother she becomes determined to find her. Lacey develops some interesting friendships and through some unquie women, she learns something about herself and sees her mother differently through them.

The story unravels slowly and, at times, almost lost me, however, Lacey’s observation of the world around her and her sense of humor under all the pressure and her will to survive kept me hanging in

I received a copy from the publisher on NetGalley