“To have an assignment, Pastor Vern said, you had to be a woman of blood… And you should never reveal your assignment to another soul” (1). Peaches’ inhabitants trust in their Pastor, following all of his instructions and ultimately forming a cult-like community. Lacey and her town follow their Pastor, Vern, believing “God in Vern” (Bieker, 42). Godshot follows Lacey May, a fourteen-year-old girl growing up in Peaches, California as she navigates her identity through the lenses of feminism, religion, motherhood, and knowledge.
But in an increasingly divisive political climate, should there be conversation about how individuals can both be religious and feminist? This exploration is the focus of Chelsea Bieker’s debut novel Godshot (Catapult, 2020), and the author does an exceptional job at depicting the difficulties of such a journey.
The two ideologies are often at odds with one another, the former perhaps stereotypically associated with conservatives, and the latter with liberals. Although many might argue we are amidst a 21st century feminist literary canon, there are few stories that explore the coexistence of religion and feminism, particularly within a young narrator.
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