Galloway’s Gospel
Galloway’s Gospel by Sam Rebelein is clever, funny, sweet, sad, strange, and, most of all, scary, in both the immediate visceral and existential horrific senses.
Set in Rebelein’s fictional Renfield County where everyone knows weird things happen (like his previous books - also great reads), Galloway’s Gospel primarily takes place across two timelines and with two Rachels at the heart.
In 2009, Rachel Galloway lives in Burnskidde which has only one access road, through a tunnel which connects it to the rest of Renfield County and the world. She works at the Pancake Planet with her best friend, has a solid family life, and gets really bored in history class. Through a combination of bored classroom doodling and the supernatural weirdness of Renfield County, things spun out of control when she accidentally creates a cult and all its associated gods, creatures, and rituals are made real as even the adults start believing the stories about the made-up religion that arose from her pig and bat drawings.
Just ten years later, in 2019, Rachel Durwood is recovering from the trauma of her parents’ death and her own car accident, out of which came her new life with the County Guard which involves investigating the strange occurrences of Renfield County. When she is given a copy of the “The Gray Book, as Retold by Rachel Galloway” left for her by fellow guard Mark, she finds herself making her way through the now mostly collapsed Burnskidde Tunnel in search of him - or at least to discover his fate.
On its own, each Rachel’s story would make a solid novella, and by weaving the two narratives, Rebelein loses none of the impact of each woman’s story but does successfully heighten the tension, while at the same time giving us clues to the upcoming events of each timeline making us want to read that much faster.
Galloway’s Gospel is my favorite of Rebelein’s works to date; the characters are complex and imperfect - one or two are downright abhorrent, the storytelling is the strongest I’ve seen from him with how he addresses faith and grief while not letting up on the horror - it has basically put him on my “auto buy” author’s list, especially as long as he continues to bring us to Renfield County.
I listened to this on audio as well as read the ebook; the production quality and the narrators Charlie Thurston, Helen Laser, and Eva Kaminsky were excellent.
Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and HarperAudio Adult for the advance copies for my honest review. Pub. date: 9/16
Support your favorite indie bookstore (and me) by using my link to order the audiobook from https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm60355 OR if you prefer using your eyes to read, support your favorite indie (and give us both 20% off if it’s your first purchase) by using my link at https://refer.bookshop.org/candidanorwood.
