Unabridged Chick

My full gushy review.

I love novels of about the yearning for a spiritual connection or featuring heroines who wrestle with their faith.  But I can't stand 'inspirational' fiction -- I expect some nuance and sophistication with that journey.

With Orr's novel, I was very nervous that the setting -- mid-1800s West Africa -- and the heroine -- the daughter of a slave-owner turned missionary -- would be a kind of The Help, all whitewash and White Man's Burden.  In her Author's Note, Orr shares that she was originally inspired to write a biography of the first Southern Baptist missionaries who went to Africa.  With that in mind, I was even more worried it would be some kind of apologist fic.

To my intense relief, this novel didn't disappoint, and in fact, held a nuanced view in regards to our heroine, her faith, missionary work, and marriage.  The characters were complicated, the locale complicated, and while there was a slight whiff of Magical Negro in one plot twist, the fact that there is some ancestor worship indigenous to West Africa made those elements feel less grotesque and outrageous.

I'm sad this book hasn't gotten more press -- it's quite fantastic.