Brit Bennett's The Mothers
This is one of the big fall debut buzz books, and rightfully so--it's a beautifully written and powerful story of a small Black church community in California, and what happens when the pastor's son knocks up a congregant's daughter--whose mother has recently committed suicide. The titular Mothers are the elderly church ladies, who narrate parts of the story as a Greek chorus--those were my favorite sections. They fade out of the narrative a bit as the story goes on (and characters do frustratingly stupid things), so that I felt the first half was a bit stronger than the second half. I loved the end, though. And the writing here kind of grabs you by the throat and won't let go. Content warnings for mentions of rape and child abuse. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.
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