"A Bitch for God"

A Bitch for God by Clark T. Carlton

Goodreads Giveaway Win

Pages: 433 Genre: historical fiction

Rating: 3 Stars

Kindle Highlights

It's 1990, and Tyler St. George is a failing screenwriter (but decent chef) who is tired of feeling helpless during the AIDs crisis. He decides to volunteer at Manna from Heaven, a strange and spiritual organization dedicated to providing meals for those with AIDs. Tyler doesn't buy into the New Age spirituality that Manna from Heaven seems to prop up, but he stays to help. In charge of Manna from Heaven is Lakshmi Steinmetz, a Hollywood guru offering a message of love and forgiveness. With their intentions at odds, Tyler must fight for Manna from Heaven's mission, which likely means going head-to-head with Lakshmi, who is proving herself to be a very powerful woman.

I generally liked this book — the beginning, at least. All the little criticisms I had seemed to be amplified in the last section, which was rough.

The author did a really good job setting up the environment. I wasn't alive in the '90s, nor do I work in a kitchen of any kind, but Manna from Heaven felt incredibly real. I think what helped here was some (SOME) of the volunteers, who were unique and lively and really added to the atmosphere. And, for the most part, Tyler was a good main character. He was witty and entertaining, and I wanted him to succeed, even when he was being obnoxious.

Unfortunately, Tyler didn't seem to have much character development. At a certain point near the end he just became Completely Correct All the Time. It's not character growth, it's a complex. I feel like Tyler needed to be in a different story, one that's more absurd and out-of-this-world. But we were way too grounded in reality for me to believe that he's just inexplicable the moral compass of LA.

Other than Tyler, there were way too many characters. In many cases, their names were also too similar. Cut the cast in half and I'll care about the remaining people a whole lot more. Ultimately, I spent too much time trying to remember who everyone was. The well-written characters were good, but the others just took up space. Too many cooks in the kitchen, one might say.

All of the writing was a little hit-and-miss. One of the main quirks that got on my nerves was how every chapter ended with some foreshadowing statement. Like, "You won't believe what happens next!" or "Things would get a lot worse from here." That kind of thing. Once and a while, that kind of thing is okay (I get it, he was writing from far in the future). But every single chapter got old really fast.

Otherwise, some of the story felt a little repetitive. The plot was progressing and giving us different scenarios, but they would all play out in the same way. It didn't bother me too much, but it happened enough that it was worth noting. I think this is also part of the reason why the book gets worse as it goes on — the freshness has worn off.

The biggest crime, though, was the last chapter. I'll try to not spoil it, but jumping ahead to give us everyone's entire life story is a boring way to end a book. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it cheapens the whole thing, because it makes it clear that you didn't actually plan a story. There was no real ending, time just passed. I also don't think it's a spoiler to say that it was very cliche, and the "ending" was the single most basic political stance you could take. It's just boring! Write a real ending next time.

Tyler also had a huge ego that I'm not sure was intentional. This is easily seen through the central religious argument. We sort of shifted from "religious and spiritual leaders can easily be people who manipulate vulnerable populations to line their pockets without actually returning anything to the communities they're taking advantage of" to "I'm objectively a better and more competent person because I don't have imaginary friends! (God)." Like, cool? What am I supposed to say to that? Personally, I just think that's a really cheap way to engage with religious debate. There are a lot of things to say about how belief systems can be dangerous, but when you just fall back into "atheists enlightened and believers idiots," you just seem like you're trying to be cool and edgy instead of actually engaged. And this is certainly the case for the book — this, Tyler's superiority complex, and the cyclical nature of the writing made it seem like we just ran out of things to actually say.

Not every book needs to have a grand message, but this one was trying to. And I think it failed when it made Lakshmi and those similar to her comically evil to the point of absurdity. That's not a plot, it's a rant.

I did enjoy most of this book, but it's probably not one I'd recommend to anyone else.