YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME
A delightfully insightful exploration of our obsession with gossip that weaves together journalism,cultural criticism, and memoir, from the host of the massively popular Normal Gossip podcast.
Can you keep a secret? As the pandemic forced us to socialize at a distance, Kelsey McKinney was mourning the juicy updates, jaw-dropping stories, and idle chatter that she’d typically collect over drinks with friends. She realized she wasn’t the only one missing these little morsels and her hunger for normalcy took on a life of its own, and the blockbuster Normal Gossip podcast was born. With listenership in the millions and gossip quickly becoming her day job, Kelsey found herself with the urge to think more critically about gossip as a form, to better understand the role that it plays in our culture.
In YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling. Why isgossip considered a sin and how can we better recognize when gossip is being weaponized against the oppressed? Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life because they are a public figure? And how do we even define “gossip,” anyway? She dishes on the art of eavesdropping and dives deep into how pop culture has changed the way that we look at hearsay. But as much as the book aims to treat gossip as a subject worthy of rigor, it also hopes to capture the heart of gossiping:how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear. With wit and honesty, McKinney unmasks what we're actually searching for when we demand toknow the truth – and how much the truth really matters in the first place.
GOD SPARE THE GIRLS
A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover an unsettling secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception.
Luke Nolan has led the Hope congregation for more than a decade, while his wife and daughters have patiently upheld what it means to live righteously. Made famous by a viral sermon on purity co-written with his eldest daughter, Abigail, Luke is the prototype of a modern preacher: tall, handsome, a spellbinding speaker. But his younger daughter Caroline has begun to notice the cracks in their comfortable life. She is certain that her perfect, pristine sister is about to marry the wrong man—and Caroline has slid into sin with a boy she’s known her entire life, wondering why God would care so much about her virginity anyway.
When it comes to light, five weeks before Abigail’s wedding, that Luke has been lying to his family, the entire Nolan clan falls into a tailspin. Caroline seizes the opportunity to be alone with her sister. The two girls flee to the ranch they inherited from their maternal grandmother, far removed from the embarrassing drama of their parents and the prying eyes of the community. But with the date of Abigail’s wedding fast approaching, the sisters will have to make a hard decision about which familial bonds are worth protecting.
An intimate coming-of-age story and a modern woman’s read, God Spare the Girls lays bare the rabid love of sisterhood and asks what we owe our communities, our families, and ourselves.
Kelsey is represented by Dana Murphy at The Book Group. Translation Rights handled by Jenny Meyer.
Early praise for God Spare The Girls:
“[A] tender, aching debut . . . where faith and betrayal are intertwined.” —Elle
“A thoughtful and candid meditation on faith, family, and forgiveness . . . a fabulous debut.” —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
“Kelsey McKinney has wrought an elegant tale of sisters, yes—but its greatest success is in accommodating a story of Evangelicalism that both speaks to its strengths and all-too-human heartbreaks. A compelling read.”
-- Esmé Weijun Wang, New York Times bestselling author of The Collected Schizophrenias
“A deeply felt book about love — love for family and community, for people who sustain you and people who disappoint you. And love for God, too, which Kelsey McKinney writes about with humane and incisive frankness.”—Linda Holmes, New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over
“The accomplishment of this canny novel is in positing coming of age itself as a loss of faith—not only in the church, but in our parents, our family, and the world as we thought we understood it.” — Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Rich and Pretty
"A heart-filled exploration about faith, family, and loyalty, and what it means to strike your own path . . . Told with such tenderness, humor, and yes, hope, this is a novel for anyone who’s felt broken down over faith and love and who has questioned what they thought they knew about life, which is to say, all of us. A coming of age tale that feels fresh and untold . . .These characters will be on my mind for a long time." -- Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot
"Kelsey McKinney has written a real whopper of a novel with God Spare the Girls, a book that explores the ultimate cost of love within a family and the secrets people keep. I felt deeply touched by these characters as I read; both hopeful for their relationships and also wishing for their success. It is a precious thing to find a novel that allows for both the sweetness and the sour—McKinney writes it all deftly, beautifully, and fearlessly." -- Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things and With Teeth
"God Spare the Girls is an incandescent novel. The book is a clear-eyed breathtaking exploration of sisterhood, faith and love and loss. McKinney broke my heart a million times with her beautiful and unflinching exploration of two sisters caught in a repressive world of religion and even more repressive love. I couldn't put it down. I found myself lost in the world of Texas heat and the fires of faith. McKinney's world is both familiar and engrossing, compelling and poignant. God Spare the Girls is a dazzling debut." -- Lyz Lenz, author of Belabored and God Land
"A story of sisters, family, faith, power, performance, secrets, and betrayal . . . a gorgeously written exploration of what it means to attempt to love and trust when the foundations upon which we’ve built those words have been torn down." -- Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want and Hold Still
"I don't know what I was more moved by in God Spare the Girls: the depths and twists of family love, the complexities of faith, or the failures of both faith and love. A devastating and large-hearted novel." -- R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries