This book was *goooood*.It really showcased how Black families often prioritize covering up messed-up situations to protect their reputation within their community, rather than doing what's right. That damn WONDERBOY in Addie E. Citchens' *Dominion*!The story is deeply rooted in how the South is full of secrets. So many things are overlooked rather than talked about within Black Southern families, and the pervasive belief that we can just "PRAY OUT THE DEVIL" instead of addressing that something...

Addie E. Citchens' *Dominion* really nails how patriarchy messes up relationships. There's a lot of powerful stuff here about how shame, judging yourself, and violence get all twisted up with sex. It shows how intimate relationships get totally warped when it's always about what men want. I did find the way this book was put together a little confusing. All the different points of view never really clicked for me. I almost wish it had stuck with just one or two characters and told their story in...

I'm overjoyed to report that people were NOT lying about this one!!! Addie E. Citchens is a generational talent, and her phenomenal debut is exactly why my friend Michaela says that people shouldn’t be allowed to get book deals before the age of 35. This story has simmered and stewed until it’s falling off the bone!!! What a refreshing, rare joy it is to have a novel live up to its hype. Addie E. Citchens talked a big game in her Stacks Podcast episode, from putting her work in conversation with...

A family drama, a unique perspective, a searing story, AND THAT COVER... so many reasons why I absolutely had to read *Dominion* by Addie E. Citchens.https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...Fittingly, there were moments when *Dominion* felt like it was trying to do a bit *too* much, but for the most part, there was just so much to love about it.I really appreciated the unique structure, the connection between the title and the plot, the underlying themes, and Addie E. Citchens' writing style.I t...

As a huge fan of historical fiction, especially when it's set in the more recent past of the U.S., I was really looking forward to diving into "Dominion" by Addie E. Citchens, especially since it's primarily set in the 1990s. The character development, particularly of the women whose stories were so central to the novel, was really well done and fleshed out. It was fascinating to see the inner workings of this Southern Baptist church and how the town of Dominion was so deeply connected to it. ...

A thrilling debut. It starts off witty and effortless, an easy portrait of a church and its people, and then slowly the ground shifts under our feet and the whole book has flipped before you ever really notice. I don’t want to say too much, but it really works. Citchens nails the alternating narrators and their voices. She taps into the ways desires, loyalties, and power dynamics are ever shifting, even imperceptibly so. She has a gift for evoking a whole person with one quick off-handed observa...

There's some decent writing here, but overall, *Dominion* is a mess of a novel, riddled with disturbingly simplistic takes on character psychology and motivation. We're just supposed to swallow that this kid is a serial rapist and murderer, an irredeemable monster, simply because he's gay and his dad hit him once? Or does the beating *cause* the gayness, too? And Diamond is blindly, sycophantically in love with him because she had a rough childhood, which somehow melted her brain right out of th...

There's a lot to love in "Dominion", especially Addie E. Citchens's distinctive voice and the vivid setting. I really hope we see more from Citchens in the future. It wasn't until almost the very end of the book that I truly understood what "Dominion" was *about*, and I wonder if knowing that upfront would have changed my experience. That's unusual for me! I usually prefer to go in blind and let a book reveal itself, but in this case, I think it could have been really interesting to start readin...

Dominion is Addie E. Citchens’ explosive debut novel, written as part of her writer’s fellowship from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, awarded to fresh and exciting voices. Set in the small town of Dominion, Mississippi, the novel follows a wealthy Black Baptist family torn between devotion and destruction. Citchens crafts an intimate portrayal of how the patriarchy molds and folds everyone under its crushing doctrine and alienation in this propulsive story.The story opens with a secular history of th...

Whew. *Dominion* is one hell of a novel. In *Dominion* by Addie E. Citchens, people’s secrets are largely out in the open. Priscilla, the First Lady of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church, has long looked the other way from her husband, the Reverend Sabre Winfrey Jr.’s indiscretions, but to do so she has turned to vices that help her grit her way through it. She has raised her five sons into young men, and the Winfrey family enjoys the privileges of a well-to-do family. Diamond is a girl w...