Godshot

A Novel

By: Chelsea Bieker

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

"Chelsea Bieker's Godshot is an absolute masterpiece. A truly epic journey through girlhood, divinity, and the blood that binds and divides us, it is a feminist magnum opus of this, or any, time. Bieker is a pitch-perfect ventriloquist of extraordinary talent and ferocity. Imagine if Annie Proulx wrote something like White Oleander crossed with Geek Love or Cruddy, and then add cults, God, motherhood, girlhood, class, deserts, witches, the divinity of women.... Terrifying, resplendent, and profoundly moving, this book will leave you changed." --T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it's an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret "assignments," to bring the rain everybody is praying for.

Lacey has no reason to doubt the pastor. But then her life explodes in a single unimaginable act of abandonment: her mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves Lacey and runs off with a man she barely knows. Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mouse collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern's shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother no matter what it takes. With her only guidance coming from the romance novels she reads and the unlikely companionship of the women who knew her mother, she must find her own way through unthinkable circumstances.

Possessed of an unstoppable plot and a brilliantly soulful voice, Godshot is a book of grit and humor and heart, a debut novel about female friendship and resilience, mother-loss and motherhood, and seeking salvation in unexpected places. It introduces a writer who gives Flannery O'Connor's Gothic parables a Californian twist and who emerges with a miracle that is all her own.

©2020 Chelsea Bieker (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Bieker has written a debut that joins Emma Cline's The Girls and R.O. Kwon's The Incendiaries in exploring the uneasy intersection of repressive religious belief and burgeoning sexuality, but Bieker's exploration of the way that poverty and environmental ravishment also add to the subjugation of the female body adds more rich layers to this narrative. It's a lot to juggle, but Lacey May is such a strong narrator, at once deeply insightful and painfully naïve, that readers will eagerly want to follow all the threads to the breathless conclusion. A dark, deft first novel about the trauma and resilience of both people and the land they inhabit." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Bieker’s debut novel is a vivid and cutting exploration of unconditional female love. It observes how mothers shape daughters, biological or otherwise, and how daughters must ultimately learn to mother themselves. Young readers will admire Lacy May’s resilience, moxie, and ability to survive in a world she did not choose." —Booklist (starred review)

“[Lauren] Ezzo gives an emotional performance that captures religiosity and fear in a town with few options for escape. Even when the story becomes extremely dark, listeners will find themselves glued to Ezzo's every word.” —AudioFile Magazine

Vividly Breathtaking and Heartbreaking

Did not expect to add this to my favorites list. The writing is exquisitely vivid and
heartbreaking; the story infuriating and empowering all at the same time somehow; the performance surprisingly brilliant. What a gift.

Not for me

I just couldn't listen to this story.Not the best narration in my opinion but shocking and amazing story

flawless novel, not the best narration

The story itself is excellent and deserves all the hype and praise it's received so far. The narrator, though, seems always at the edge of tears while reading, and the overdramatic presentation detracts from the novel's nuanced voice, which is sad, yes, but also hopeful, funny, angry, lost, etc. This is to say that the reading feels one-note, which is a shame as the story is certainly not.

a story of strong women

What an intense but oddly relatable story. A jaw-dropping tale of surviving cults, sexism, rape, etc

Cuticle peeling disturbia

Sometimes the characters I hare the most, that make me feel uneasy are possibly the best since they invoke an uneasiness inside. Disturbing but kept me interested until the end.

Rich, compelling, and unforgettable

The complexities of this story and the author's attention to detail on top of the absolutely killer narration made me swallow this book up in one sitting.

Made me uneasy in a good way

Great narration. The story made me very uneasy by the 2and chapter.it was good though. I eagerly listened, hoping that what I thought was going to happen didn't happen.

What a human story!

I love this gripping story so much! I love the focus on feminism and the way it fits in to religion (or doesn't). This is a book I would recommend to many people for perspective or for help connecting with your own definition of spirituality. I really loved the performance as well! The character voices were truly brilliant.

Not for everyone...

This book is definitely NOT for everyone; I'm not even sure who I'd recommend it to. As most of the reviews reveal...you're either going to think its all encompassing, surprising, and new or absolutely horrible. Thankfully, once I got past the initial shock, I could not put it down. I listened to the 11 hours and 37 mins in two days!

When I started God Shot, all I knew about the story was from the first descriptive lines of the summary, "Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it's an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret "assignments," to bring the rain everybody is praying for." The summary sounds innocent enough, right?! But, I believe, what makes the book so surprising (and not for everyone) is the blunt language and situations. I easily accepted the idea that Lacey May was extremely sheltered and knew little about life and the outside world because of the cult. There were moments I wondered how she could swing so significantly between innocence and seductive behavior but I accepted the idea that Lacey was mimicking her mother without understanding the feelings and meanings behind it all.

Overall, God Shot is unusual, shocking, poignant, gripping, different, and quite sad...but its also hopeful and enduring.

Wild Ride

What a wild ride! “ I felt uneasy right from the beginning but never could have guessed all the twists and turns.” “I like when a book makes you feel something. It makes me want to keep moving and listening to get past it.” Godshot is an Audible exclusive thus not available on all platforms. Narration was excellent.
The Walking Book Club Sneaker Ratings
Motivation to Move: 4.6
Quality of Narration: 4.7
Overall Experience: 4.6