The authors discuss their new novels Revival Season and God Spare the Girls.
It’s not often that two novels are as aligned as Monica West’sRevival Seasonand Kelsey McKinney’sGod Spare the Girls.
West describes its themes as “disillusionment and faith and family and power.”
Credit: HarperCollins; Simon and Schuster
Bringing the authors together for a conversation was, it seems, written in the stars.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: As you read through each other’s books, what resonated with you the most?
I thought that was really well done.
Both of your novels are rooted pretty heavily in evangelical traditions and processes.
WEST:It’s all internalized, there are things that people just follow.
And it’s really uncomfortable if you’re an outsider.
How did your own personal stories and background with religion play into the building of your novels?
[Laughs] But the questions at the heart of it are true.
I grew up evangelical, I bought into all of it and it was really meaningful to me.
I know don’t know for sure that I believe those things anymore.
WEST:I echo so much of this.
My book is complete fiction as well.
I grew up in a religious family, but it was very different from the one I wrote.
MCKINNEY:I think we both wrote characters who are learning to understand their faith at their own pace.
There’s a slow deterioration in what you believe.
There are other small breadcrumbs that lead to it.
[Laughs] My editor was like, you’re gonna wanna amp this up.
WEST:I thought a lot about this as I wrote.
The Hortons, the family in my book, are really insulated.
The kids are home-schooled.
There’s a bubble around them.
Instead, Miriam is asking, what is my role in this family and how do I navigate that?
And you don’t judge the people who navigate that differently.
It’s not hard to find inspiration.
It happens all the time and they’re still in pulpits, they still give sermons.
So I mostly did my research in watching those sermons to understand how they do what they’re doing.
He preachesathis daughters, and he emphasizes their purity.
I haven’t read another book that felt close to this until I was sent this galley.
And I just thought, this is fascinating.
Two books about different churches and their prodigal daughters coming out in the same year.
I felt envious that I didn’t include a character like that because that is really true in churches.
