Devoted: A Novel (Hardcover)
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Staff Reviews
Seventeen year old Rachel Walker is one of ten children in a family who has already laid out her destiny - to become a wife and mother and to serve the Lord. But Rachel's not sure if that is the life she wants; she loves to read and she wonders about the world outside her own. When she commits the sin of contacting Lauren, who has left her family's church, her father wants to send her to a camp that will reprogram her to become obedient again. Rachel escapes with Lauren's help and tries to build a life away from her family and all she has ever known. Jennifer Mathieu creates a balanced, engaging story of a girl's search for her own journey. I loved it! For grades 7 and up.
— CathyDescription
From Jennifer Mathieu, the author of The Truth About Alice comes a novel about the courage to believe and what it means to be truly devoted.
Rachel Walker is devoted to God. She prays every day, attends Calvary Christian Church with her family, helps care for her five younger siblings, dresses modestly, and prepares herself to be a wife and mother who serves the Lord with joy. But Rachel is curious about the world her family has turned away from, and increasingly finds that neither the church nor her homeschool education has the answers she craves. Rachel has always found solace in her beliefs, but now she can't shake the feeling that her devotion might destroy her soul.
About the Author
Jennifer Mathieu is the author of Devoted, Afterward, The Liars of Mariposa Island, and The Truth About Alice, which won the Teen Choice Debut Author Award. Her 2017 novel, Moxie, was developed into a film by Amy Poehler for Netflix. Jennifer teaches high school English in Texas, where she lives in the Houston area with her husband and son.
Praise For…
“This thoughtful, character-driven study of one girl's struggle to reconcile her strict, conservative Christian
upbringing with the modern secular world is an exceptionally nuanced treatment of religious choice.” —Booklist, starred review
“An engaging, illuminating, but never sensationalized portrayal of one plucky teen's self-discovery and pulling away from a controlling, restrictive (and real) religious movement.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This exploration of life within and removed from a fundamentalist community makes for riveting reading, all the more poignant for the sympathetic characters in both worlds.” —Publisher's Weekly
“Devoted chronicles that calling to pursue one's heart's desire, a feeling that most teens will connect with and understand.” —School Library Journal