REVELATOR by Daryl Gregory was this month’s @mystery.book.club pick and a completely new author for me. I devoured this story. Strangely enough, I enjoyed spending time with a haunted family in the Smoky Mountains of 1930s Tennessee.

As a child, Stella Wallace learns from her grandmother that their family communes with Ghostdaddy, a god in the mountains who lives below the land where they live. Only the women are allowed to interact with their god, but Stella ignores her birthright and moves away to have a life of her own. Over a decade later, her grandmother passes away, so Stella returns to the Smoky Mountains to discover something more than she bargained for.

We toggle back and forth between Stella’s past and present, which makes for a quick read. Gregory’s REVELATOR is dark, weird, and draped in fear. Trust me, you want to know more about Ghostdaddy. I highly recommend this for fans of horror folklore and fans of Adam Nevill (ahem, Ritual).

A fast paced thriller and sci-fi book packed into one!
This book was quite the wild ride! The dark, gripping tale of a 1930’s family in the remote hills of the Smoky Mountains, their secret religion, and the daughter who turns her back on their mysterious god.
Right from the start, this book was immersive and fast-paced. I needed to know what happened to the characters!

Fantastic.. I was so surprised when I started this book that the author based the story in the East Tennessee/Cades Cove area, which is the area that I was born and raised. He has obviously done his research and name checks many of the institutions of the area (e.g. Smith's mortuary, Alcoa). Great writing, great plot, great characters. I raced through the book to find out what was going to happen. Loved it.

Now this is a weird book! I thought it had a lot of promise and I really enjoyed Stella's character in the present. I was not a big fan of how much religion and Ghostdaddy was included. I just don't think this one was for me but could see how someone else would like it.

This was a messy, religious disaster. I was hoping for something culty but it was just a church loving group of lunatic men worshipping a god that gave them nothing in return. I wasn’t at all invested in this.

This moved a little slow in the beginning. It had a lot of talk about the moonshine business that I don't think was necessary. The first half of the book had just enough weirdness to keep my attention and made me wanting more.

The last half of the book I read within an hour and left me saying WHAT DID I JUST READ. The ending has a huge cliff hanger, to me anyway, and I am definitely interested enough to read a sequel if there is one.

This definitely reminded me a bit of the Alien movies; not the gore/horror, but the aspect of them using a host to birth a new "species". Worth a read if you're into suspense/scifi type books!

Finished Revelator last week and have been trying to come up with a review of this book. I am at a loss because trying to put this one in a single genre would be doing it a disservice - I would hate for someone to pass it by because of a label that may or may not fit it. It is such a unique tale that has a bit of everything (horror, gothic, coming of age, mystery, creepy ick, heartwarming vibes, sci fi). Set in the mountains of Tennessee during the 1930-40s and partly told in flashbacks, this is the story of Stella and the mysterious god, Ghostdaddy (that name!), hidden deep in the caverns that her family worships. The writing is superb with a wonderful and unsettling gothic tone and fabulously developed characters. Absolutely look forward to more from Daryl Gregory! Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this one!

I read this book with the Mystery Book Club. I saw a few "What have I just read?" in the comments. Now that I have finished I know exactly what they mean. Trust me when I tell you they mean this in a good way, the very best of ways. Revelator is a genre bending mix of Appalachian noir and fantasy. Set in the 1930s and 40s, the wonder and beauty of Cades Cove and its early settlers come alive. In this isolated environment faith mixes with fear as we wade through family secrets and religious fanaticism.

Stella is our revelator and it is her job to commune with the Ghostdaddy and carry its message. But even she is not sure of what Ghostdaddy is our what Ghostdaddy truly wants. She fears that her family in their blind zeal to please their god may be putting themselves in danger. As she gets older she realizes the power of the Word lies not just in what is written but in who gets to hear the full story.

Revelator was not as scary as I thought it would be. Thank God for small wonders. I am not sure if I would classify it as horror but Ghostdaddy certainly was a weird creature that I wouldn't want to walk across even in the light of day. I appreciated the historical aspects of Cades Cove and that Gregory looked at gender politics and power dynamics in the church.

All in all, Revelator was a fully absorbing tale. Besides Stella, I absolutely loved Alfonse and Abby's characters.

Published by Knopf on August 31, 2021

As horror novels go, Revelator is creepy rather than frightening. The horror does not manifest as a vampire or demon or any other destructive entity that seeks to enslave or destroy the human race, although the possibility that such an entity might reveal itself underlies the story. For most of the novel, the entity that places Revelator into the genre of horror fiction doesn’t threaten anyone except the series of children who serve it, and it probably doesn’t intend to hurt them. Only at the novel’s end do we learn the true nature of those children and of their relationship to the entity they serve.

Alternating chapters focus on the life of Stella Birch in 1938 and 1948. Stella’s family has long resided in a mountainous area of Tennessee that is about to become part of a national park. Inside the mountain lives an entity Stella calls Ghostdaddy. Others in her family call it the God of the Mountain.

A long line of Birch women, all born to absent fathers, have communed with the Ghostdaddy. They enter the mountain and receive the word of Ghostdaddy. Since they are apparently recipients of the mountain god’s revelations, a religion has grown from the communions. The religion was not founded by the women who actually commune with Ghostdaddy, but by a man who purported to have a better understanding of the revelations than the women who receive them. For each new generation of women, the word of the God of the Mountain has been transcribed in a series of books, accompanied by commentary furnished by a male family member who believes he better understands the god’s true meaning.

Stella is a child in 1938. She wants to read all the books of the women who came before her, but her Uncle Hendrick won’t allow it. Hendrick has appointed himself the current interpreter of the God of the Mountain’s words, as spoken through the Birch women. Hendrick would like Stella to produce as many revelations as possible, but her mother Motty doesn’t think Stella is ready. Hendrick defers to Motty as the oldest surviving Birch woman. Stella has her own mind about things and discovers truths about Ghostdaddy before Motty is ready to reveal them.

In 1948, Stella returns to the mountain because Motty has died. Sunny becomes the next Birch girl to commune with Ghostdaddy. Stella wants to shield Sunny from that experience while Hendrick wants to keep Sunny to himself. He’s moving the family religion to a broader audience and needs new revelations to cement his position. Struggles eventually ensue between Stella and Hendrick, between Stella and Sunny, and between Stella and Ghostdaddy.

Daryl Gregory adds color to the story by giving Stella a role in the family moonshine business with her Uncle Abby. She also has a quasi-romantic relationship with a preacher’s son. Something strange happens when Motty slaughters pigs, but you’ll have to read the book to understand it. All of that background helps Gregory portray Stella as an interesting and sympathetic member of a strange backwoods family.

The backwoods tendency to invent bizarre religions and to sucker others into believing them is a key component of the story. It might also be a thinly disguised commentary on the negative impact that backwoods religions have on their adherents. The backwoods church that most of the characters attend before they learn about the God of the Mountain doesn’t allow women to speak. On the other hand, the God of the Mountains is a real entity that demands a form of worship, even if it isn’t much of a god. Unsurprisingly, all of Hendricks’ interpretations of the god’s “revelations” prove to be completely wrong. Such is the nature of fringe preachers.

Stella views herself as a monster. If people knew what she is capable of doing, others might see her that way too. The reader will more likely view Stella as someone who had to play the hand she was dealt, and who played it with courage and compassion.

If Revelator isn’t particularly scary, the story’s creepiness — the ending, in particular — offsets the absence of chills. The atmosphere is appropriate to a horror novel, the story has a good pace, and the depiction of backwoods religion adds to the story’s interest.

RECOMMENDED

I'll be honest. I had some expectations for this book that were not met. Usually that would result in a less than pleasing review or a DNF. But my reaction was the exact opposite. I really liked this book, and several days later, I'm still thinking about it. Hell, I brought it up on a zoo playdate because it was just that interesting and I felt the need to share it with someone else.

What I Liked:
◊ Let's a moment to appreciate the cover. I mean, look at it... it's fcking gorgeous and ties into the novel SO WELL.
◊ The back and forth between Stella's past and present. Her present self became that much more interesting as her past self was revealed and vice versa.
◊ Secrets. So many secrets. I couldn't stop reading until I unraveled them all.
◊ Abby. Literally every single thing about his character.
◊ The fact that there is a god named Ghostdaddy. Yeah, if that didn't get you to pick up this book then I don't know what will.
◊ A lot of questions are left unanswered and there are bits that are up for interpretation. This felt very fitting, in my opinion, for a novel that was centered around religion.

My only complaint is it wasn't dark enough. I wanted more from the setting, the god, the outcome... it all felt a little tame to me. BUT, and this is a big but, I still really liked it. The concept was original and the unfolding of the plot was perfectly executed. I can only describe it as a dramatic, slow burn gothic mystery woven with folklore, religion, and supernatural elements. I personally wouldn’t categorize this as horror. Gothic? Yes. Down to the core. But horror? Not at all.

I highly recommend this book if you love: thrillers, a dash of the supernatural, and anything that remotely resembles a cult.

This is a top-notch spooky season kind of read to me. Its dark, tense, gritty, mysterious, cult-y vibes put me right into a black and white supernatural story. Every part of this book I can see as an HBO mini-series or something a little bit on the artsy side. The writing and pacing were phenomenal, I felt entirely engrossed in Stella and Motty and Ghostdaddy and wanting to uncover all the layers and secrets in this family. I think Gregory sprinkled in plot kernels adequately so that we slowly built the context around the story and got "teasers" throughout each chapter. The flashback chapters to Stella as a child were my favorite as she was so well written and balancing precocious, headstrong but also making sense of the world based on the adults around her.

This was my first Daryl Gregory book and I'm intrigued and fascinated by their writing style and can't wait to read more. Perfect for anyone looking for a twist on a family drama, light magic, uncovering secrets, and just a good ole fashion family who befriends a god who lives in a mountain and whispers secrets to them.

This book goes back and forth between the 1930s and 1940s in the backwoods mountains of Tennessee. It follows Stella, her family and her families personal ghost, ghostdaddy. In 1933, a young Stella is left in the care of her crotchety grandmother where she first discovers ghostdaddy and finds herself involved in dark secrets. Years later, Stella reluctantly returns to the backwoods for her grandmothers funeral and to check on a young girl, Sunny, who her grandmother had taken in after she left. Stella learns that she will have to dig up her and her families past to do what is right for Sunny and those she cares about.

From what I had heard of this book, I was ready to be scared while reading it. I just felt like the whole time I was waiting for something that would really have me on the edge of my seat. While the writing is good, there’s some humor and the characters are well developed, by the end of the book I was just a little underwhelmed with what I would consider the climax of the book.

Revelator, by Daryl Gregory
Thank you to @aaknopf and @netgalley for this free galley.

My review:

I don’t know. I DON’T KNOW. It was weird. Really freaking weird. And I couldn’t put it down? But also like, what did I just read? I DON’T KNOW. It gets all of the stars. But also, none of them? That ending was like 🤯. Do I love Ghostdaddy? Do I hate Ghostdaddy? WE DON’T KNOW. So yeah. That’s my review.

Stella is nine years old when her dad leaves her in the care of Motty, her grandmother. The Smoky Mountains and the woods surrounding Motty's house are filled with mystery. One evening, Stella goes wandering and encounters Ghostdaddy, the God her family worships. In the years to come, Stella will be part of a traumatic event that will cause her to flee Motty's home.

Stella, now an adult, is called home for Motty's funeral, and she has to leave her bootlegging business behind to pay her respects. She also can't help but wonder about the 10-year-old girl Motty took in, Sunny. The more Stella digs, the more she realizes just how powerful Sunny is.

First, thank you to Mystery Book Club, Knopf Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Revelator. This was so outside my normal comfort zone and I was delighted by how much I enjoyed it.

As the synopsis reveals, Revelator is told from two different times in Stella's life. Daryl Gregory expertly ended almost every chapter on some sort of cliffhanger which kept me flipping pages like a madwoman. It was also a lot "twistier" than I was expecting. I very much enjoy Gregory's writing style and he for sure has a new reader in me.

And I would be remiss to not mention Ghostdaddy. I mean come on. Who doesn't want to read a book with a storyline that includes a GHOSTDADDY?! It was super interesting, almost cult-like, and honestly who isn't fascinated by cults?

Revelator will be on bookshelves near you August 31, 2021!

This book was very far outside of the realm of the genre of books I usually read. But, I found the story to be engrossing. With every chapter and the going back and forth in time, I was sooo curious about the lives of the Birch women and finding out what was going to happy with the Ghostdaddy, I had my hunch about a couple of the characters in the story and what really happened with them but still found myself surprised as I got towards the end of the story. This book definitely kept me turning the page. Review to be posted closer to pub date.

First off, this is not well-categorized as a horror. It has a little creepiness to it, but it's more of a dramatic thriller with supernatural elements. But this novel could definitely be described as atmospheric - it's easy to "see" the cove in the Smokey Mountains during the depression era. So the tone and slow, intentional pacing feel at home. There's a very gradual build that doesn't hint at the payoff until more than two thirds of the way through the story. But the author does a good job of keeping the reader guessing and really wanting to know more. You do get the satisfaction of finding out the truth by the end, though some questions (such as where did the "god" come from) are left unanswered.

Weirdly wonderful! The setting- The hills of Tennessee in the 1930’s and 40’s. You follow a dual timeline of Stella Wallace, descended from the Birch family women who all had a daughter out of wedlock. There was always talk of the Birch women in these hills and only if everyone knew the whole truth it would be a shocking revelation to all. When Stella first comes to live with her grandmother Motty, she can feel a presence in an old cave under a church. The story goes back and forth from there and had me wanting to keep reading to find out exactly what is going on and why she left.
I can’t give any more details without spoilers but if you love weird reads with mystical and gothic undertones, this is one you need to read. Loved!

It was fine. I thought this would be a great book for me but it isn't. Based on other reviews I must be missing something. Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

This took me a while to get into, but I persisted, since I’ve been a fan of Gregory’s writing since his first novel. Despite the slow start Revelator drew me in and became more gripping ad I read further.
A moving portrait of a time and place distant from the present and a gallery of distinctive and memorable characters. I can recommend this book to fans of science fiction but more to those who appreciate good writing and solid character development.

Great pacing, strong characters, and I really enjoyed the use of past/present in the alternating chapters. Not a typical read for me, but it kept me interested until the satisfyingly strange ending.