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The Secret Lives Of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Publication date: 5th May 2022
Blurb:
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.
There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher's wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta's "same time next year" arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.
With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.
Review:
The Secret Lives Of Church Ladies is a collection of nine stories.All of them feature Black women and their lives and relationships from romantic to familial. They each have their own challenges and desires.
Each story is told in a distinct way and I love the writing style. They all felt so real. We hear stories about infidelity, religion, sexism and everything in between.
Society and the Church play a huge part in most of these women's lives and they are made to hide their inner feelings but display different ones on the outside. Some watch their mothers cheat, some sleep with married men, some are in same sex relationships with their mother not approving. It is a beautiful and emotive look at relationships and how we perceive ourselves inside but also how we want others to perceive us outside.
A wonderful collection.
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A massive thank you to Pushkin Press for having me on the blog tour. You can find out information about the other bloggers taking part in this tour in the graphic below.
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