I really tried to reflect while reading this book on what evangelicals would feel and how they would react to Du Mez's narrative. In other words, if a white evangelical who voted for Reagan, subscribes to quiversful philosophy, and/or protests at a Planned Parenthood read this book- could they seriously engage with it? After reading this book, I would say no because for white evangelicals, if you're not in the group, your opinion means less than nothing. There is no valid outside opinion or critique in this sphere. (And even within the movement, if you're a woman, person of color, not 110% in line with them, etc., your opinion doesn't matter much.) To be fair, this is why this movement has been so powerful and unshakeable while liberals hem and haw and endeavor for some "moderate" middle ground. So, I can really only imagine those of us outside the white evangelical bubble could benefit from this book.

I think her breakdown could have been a little more intersectional, but it can be mostly forgiven because Du Mez was trying to focus on representing and dissecting white evangelical arguments and rhetoric. I was interested to see that the author, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, is a professor at a small Christian college, so I imagine she has an interesting personal perspective. I did wonder at times how fair it is to lump together all the folks Du Mez analyzes on the Christian right, but I certainly don't know enough granularity in that space to confirm either way.

If you like this kind of American political and social analysis and what a deep dive into a big pivot point in the 90s, I would recommend When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s. I think Du Mez is a more entertaining writer, however, and able to keep the depressing information moving more gracefully. Even as someone who was aware of the last two decades of American politics, this was a sobering read, even covering the last few years. I think this book will hold up over time in ways other contemporary political breakdowns might sour. Du Mez doesn't try to suggest "fixes" or solutions to deconstruct white evangelicalism; she just tries to explain what the hell happened and how it did not start with Donald Trump.

I gave enjoyment 5 stars because the audio book is incredible. Joel de la Fuente and Lee Osorio did excellent jobs. I think, though, that if I had used my eyeballs for this I would have checked out/mostly been annoyed.

The plot is pretty basic, the characters largely tropes, and the twist pretty obvious. The found family is mostly theoretical, the love languishes under some really unexplored dynamics that aren't great, and this is a bit slow. Our main man here also has just, not a single drop of urgency to be found anywhere, which was a little hard to get through.

This doesn't hold up if you look too closely at it, but as a fun quick read it was a good time. The writing itself is quite gorgeous, with some really beautiful, poignant, and romantic lines and emotional moments. Kelley obviously put a lot of time and care into establishing an accurate time period as well, which makes me interested in checking out more from them!