If you just read the synopses for these two books, Transcendent Kingdom and Godshot, they seem radically different.
Transcendent Kingdom features a young Black middle class woman who is trying to make peace with her family’s personal tragedy in the midst of a national opioid epidemic by pursuing scientific answers. On top of all this, she’s also learning new ways to exist with her grieving mother.
Godshot features a poor white little white girl being raised by a single mother in a religious sect who has to grow up too fast and figure out a way to question and then exist.
However, and perhaps it's because I read them relatively close together, I think they complement each other really nicely. Loosely inspired by the great Shea Serrano’s new podcast “The Connect”, I’m going to run down things these two books have in common:
They are both coming-of-age stories that feature a daughter-mother duo;
The mother in question is deeply involved with religion;
The previously mentioned devout daughter has a crisis of faith prompting her to reevaluate her relationship to religion;
The authors invite us to think about motherhood, agency, and community;
The books’ settings are in rural places; and
At some point the books also both take place in California.
If you’ve read these two books are there any other connections I’m missing?