Susan the Librarian

The publisher’s summary

Saved! meets Casey McQuiston in this wry, heartfelt tale of a teen who’s taking her church camp by storm—one deadly sin at a time.

Riley quietly left church a year ago when she realized there was no place for a bi girl in her congregation. But it wasn’t until the pastor shunned her older sister for getting an abortion that she really wanted to burn it all down.

It’s just her luck, then, that she’s sent to the principal’s office for slapping a girl talking smack about her sister—and in order to avoid suspension, she has to spend spring break at church camp. The only saving grace is that she’ll be there with her best friend, Julia. Even if Julia’s dad is the pastor. And he’s in charge of camp. But Riley won’t let a technicality like “repenting” get in the way of her true mission. Instead of spending the week embracing the seven heavenly virtues, she decides to commit all seven deadly sins. If she can show the other campers that sometimes being a little bad is for the greater good, she could start a righteous revolution! What could possibly go wrong? Aside from falling for the pastor’s daughter . . .

My recommendation

Voris delivers another riveting and complex queer love story full of humor, heart, and small town family feeling, proving herself unafraid of tackling the fraught and underrepresented perspective of gays who pray. By developing a broad range of Christian characters of different sexualities and faith interpretations, Voris invites the reader to consider the intersection between faith, community, and identity, allowing room for characters (and readers) to love, reject, or embrace mixed feelings about church without a sense of judgment. As a queer Christian, I know I’m biased, but seeing books like this one hit the market makes my heart sing. Love is messy; church is messy, and Voris captures the reality perfectly.