I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to. The story was immersive, and the characters were well rounded. The plot was inventive and even surprised me a few times. I loved the setting and the author's note at the end gave a neat insight into the history of the area and how the author's family inspired the story. ( )

Would have given this 5 stars were it not for my self-imposed rule. An engaging Southern gothic story set in one of my favorite places, the Smokey Mountains. Plenty of plot twists that you simply cannot predict. And, in the case of the audiobook, a reader with just the right accent. Highly recommended. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.

Thoughts: Previous to reading this book by Gregory I had read "Pandemonium" and liked it. I didn't enjoy this book as much as Pandemonium, the build here is just soooo slow and I found the big reveal to be pretty anti-climatic and predictable.

The story bounces between two time frames, 1933 and 1948. In both times we hear about Stella. In 1933, 9 year old Stella lives in the Cove, is in the care of her grandmother (Motty) and is eager to start communing with the family's personal god, known as the Ghostdaddy. Her grandmother keeps holding her back but Stella loves the attention of the bizarre and creepy god. Stella's uncle is trying to start a new religion based on the Ghostdaddy and is just as eager for Stella to start talking to the god more frequently.

In 1948 Stella is a bootlegger making fine whiskey for a livelihood when she gets word of Motty's death. Motty was taking care of a girl named Sunny and Stella is desperate to get Sunny away from the Cove and the Ghostdaddy. Unfortunately, Stella will have to fight her uncle for the privilege of taking care of Sunny. When Stella fled the Cove she left her uncle's religion high and dry and he's desperate to have another woman who can commune with the Ghostdaddy.

This was an incredibly slow paced story. The two timeframes are woven in and out of each other as Stella is drawn back to moments in the past because of what is happening with Sunny in the present. The mystery is very slowly revealed. The main things propelling the story forward are finding out why Stella left the Cove (which we do find out), and finding out what the Ghostdaddy is (which is still kind of a mystery by the end). We are also drawn into Sunny's story and trying to figure out what will happen with her in the future.

The Ghostdaddy is creepy and some of the reveals are just plan odd and a bit gross. The whole idea of what the Ghostdaddy is remains fairly ambiguous throughout. I enjoyed some of the creepiness here but never engaged well with the characters. All of the characters are fairly unlikable and I didn't care enough about them to really care what happened to them. I did listen to this on audiobook and I thought the audiobook was well narrated.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but had some serious flaws as well. I enjoyed the creepiness and how the story bounced back and forth between Stella's present and her past. I thought the story just moved way too slow, had too many loose ends and that the big reveal was fairly anti-climatic. This is the second book I have read by Gregory and honestly I think he's a bit more miss than hit for me. I don't plan on seeking out more of Gregory's books in the future. ( )

No rating. DNF.

Just...nope.

“Stella Wallace met her family’s god when she was nine years old”. So opens The Revelator, an amazing work by Daryl Gregory, that recounts the story of a bizarre family that lives in the rural South, worshipping a god that lives deep in a cave near their home. Told in parallel stories, the novel is well crafted and engaging. The last sentence is a mind blower. One hell of a read. ( )