Reviews with content warning for Abortion - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

This was one of my most anticipated reads as I had heard so many great things about it. Unfortunately, I really did not end up liking it. This book literally made me sick to my stomach with some of the things that happened. Maybe I need to rethink my belief that I have no content triggers. As someone who normally loves family dynamics and conversations surrounding relationships, I struggled with this a lot. When I walk away from the book with this feeling, I always struggle to know whether or not the feeling is based in the fact that I listened to the book on audio rather than physically read it. I’ll never know the answer for sure because when I dislike a book so much, I’m not going to spend my time reading it a second time. I’m very happy that so many people really enjoyed this, bummer I couldn’t be one of them.

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imaginaryisobel's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Some really enjoyable stories and I could see this being a fave for other people I just wasn't majorly struck by any of them

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apaudioreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

This was the first set of short stories. I have read in a while, and the first that I had culturally identified with in a long time. These are the stories of our mothers and grandmothers and aunts. There is a sense of familiarity and a sense of sadness that comes with a familiarity. Stories about women in love you still desire to fit into socially acceptable, sexual orientation so they may be cast out by the only families they've ever known. Stories of women already cast out by the loved ones in favor of new lives in different spaces with people they want to build families with. And stories of little girls they grow up too fast and the families that didn't protect them from the men who would eventually meet unfortunate ends. No matter who you are if you've grown up black or southern or both you have found yourself in one of these stories in ways that may hurt so guard yourself as you must. But also in ways that you may feel comforted by.

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dcfelk's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Tender and critical. Didn't expect to love it like I did. Especially a short story collection!

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axel_p's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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grandpas_farts's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This short story collect kept getting so much buzz. The buzzing finally became loud enough I took a bite. Happy I did! This book may be titled Secret Lives of Church Ladies, but scripture doesn't really play into the stories. This is not a "preachy" book and more of a cup of tea.

In each short story we explore the lives of various women, throughout various decades, places, life stages, and situations of life. Anyone who has grown up in/around church culture will know some of the people in a few of these stories. This collection shines a light on what happens when the gossipers hang their laundry out to dry. He who is without sin and all of that!

My favorite short story was "Instructions for Married Christian Husbands" because it connected to "Peach Cobbler". Here we have a daughter (did we ever get her name), that never wanted to turn into her mother. As we see from the article or Facebook post, whatever it is she made, she has ultimately turned into... her mother.

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clarabooksit's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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imogenlj's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.5

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