Devoted : A Novel
Author(s): Jennifer Mathieu
From Jennifer Mathieu, the author of The Truth About Alice comes a novel about the courage to believe and what it means to be truly devoted.
Rachel Walker is devoted to God. She prays every day, attends Calvary Christian Church with her family, helps care for her five younger siblings, dresses modestly, and prepares herself to be a wife and mother who serves the Lord with joy. But Rachel is curious about the world her family has turned away from, and increasingly finds that neither the church nor her homeschool education has the answers she craves. Rachel has always found solace in her beliefs, but now she can't shake the feeling that her devotion might destroy her soul.
Review(s):
“This thoughtful, character-driven study of one girl's struggle to reconcile her strict, conservative Christian
upbringing with the modern secular world is an exceptionally nuanced treatment of religious choice.” —Booklist, starred review
“An engaging, illuminating, but never sensationalized portrayal of one plucky teen's self-discovery and pulling away from a controlling, restrictive (and real) religious movement.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This exploration of life within and removed from a fundamentalist community makes for riveting reading, all the more poignant for the sympathetic characters in both worlds.” —Publisher's Weekly
“Devoted chronicles that calling to pursue one's heart's desire, a feeling that most teens will connect with and understand.” —School Library Journal
Long-listed Booklist Editors' Choice (2015), Long-listed Amelia Bloomer Project/Feminist Task Force (2016)
ISBN: 9781596439115