Title: Devoted Author: Jennifer Mathieu
Published: June 2, 2015
Genre(s): Realistic/Contemporary
Page Count: 336
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads: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.
I’ve always thought that YA fiction need more novels about faith—struggling with faith, leaving a faith, adopting one. Though it’s often a large component of adolescence, faith is a hard subject to find in YA; I can think of only a handful of novels that talk about religion and/or faith in any way. Which is why Devoted is so important, and doubly so because of how respectful Jennifer Mathieu is with her character, Rachel’s, journey throughout the novel. This isn’t a flashy title, but I think it’s better for how unassuming and quiet it is.
The opening chapters of Devoted establish Rachel’s life with her fundamentalist Christian family. 10 children, homeschooled, strict censorship, unquestioning obedience to the male head of the house, mandatory church attendance—failing to comply with the family’s belief system equals being sent to a wilderness camp until you’re back on track. Or being shunned.
What I think is important about what Mathieu has done here is that she doesn’t outright condemn Rachel’s family. Even though Rachel leaves them, even though the average reader will probably dislike them. Obviously Devoted doesn’t set up the Walkers as heroes, but they’re not two-dimensional villains either. Rachel doesn’t agree with their particular interpretation of scripture, but she does love her family, and she’s conflicted about her actions and decisions.
The internal unraveling of Rachel’s rigid belief system is also wonderfully done. We see her as a girl who tries hard to live up to expectations, but can’t. She’d rather read all day than take care of children—the very idea of getting married at 18 like her older sister is distressing. Rachel wants to learn, but in her current situation that’s impossible, as the only schooling her parents provide her is what will be necessary to be a helpmeet for her future husband. And even as she chafes under these restrictions, Rachel also struggles with God, who she feels that she loves but has trouble connecting with. Is her parents’ way the only way to please God? Or is there an alternative?
Devoted does an excellent job in following Rachel as she answers these questions, as she explores the world she was sheltered from, and as she tries to reconcile with her family. The conclusion the author writes is empowering but bittersweet, which I thought was the perfect way to leave Rachel: open to the future but not without a past.
