Revelator: A novel

Stella Wallace doesn’t want to go back to the secluded small town of her childhood, but when her grandmother Motty dies, she doesn’t have a choice. What she returns to in Daryl Gregory’s latest novel, Revelator, is equal parts history and horror.

There’s something special about the Birch women. Stella’s mother, a Birch, passed down her secret ability to Stella, although Stella never knew it existed until she returned to Cades Cove in Tennessee and Motty reluctantly told her of the family god, known only as Ghostdaddy. It’s the women who can commune with him, but the men in the Birch family want to control the power of that communion, and their desire for control over a thing never meant to be tamed creates a struggle that is both biblical and terrifying.

Known for her exceptional moonshine recipe, Stella tries to maintain her status as a bootlegger during the 1940s without getting caught for illegal activity while also trying to save Sunny, a ten-year-old girl, from a fate she is too young to understand. Absalom, a family friend for decades, tries to help Stella but puts himself at great risk in the process.

Revelator is horror wrapped around commentary on religion, gender, and race, and it illuminates what is darkest inside us all. It is a bit graphic for those with weaker constitutions, but Daryl Gregory’s storytelling is worth every page turn for those who can take it.