None But the Righteous by Chantel James is the tale of Ham, a 19-year-old orphan displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He sets out to find something familiar that he could call home. His spirit guide, St. Martin de Porres, takes him from Alabama to Atlanta and back to New Orleans.

The spirit of St. Martin was a prominent character speaking from a first person point of view. I found the pace of the story was lacking and at times confusing. While I did complete the book, this is one that I would not recommend to others.

I did not finish this book. I thought from the blurb that it would be more gothic speculative fiction but it was more literary fiction. What I did read was well written.

I’m not really sure how to rate this,
I think this is probably how people felt when Toni Morrison first started writing novels.
If it were not for the ambiguous ending then I would definitely be able to say this is a solid 4 stars, but because the ending (like A LOT of books) seems hurried and really not as cohesive as the rest of the book, I cannot.
I can say that for me, the title doesn’t capture the essence of the story.
Starting out the dust couple chapters was rough, but once I got a feel for James’ writing style, I couldn’t put the book down.
My heart went out to Ham throughout his entire journey. There were so many moments where I wanted to shake him and others where I wanted to hug him.
The element of the spirit living within his body really did not add as much to the story as it could have, but I see where the author was going.
I know this review has a lot of critiques, but I honestly did enjoy it, I look foreword to reading note fiction by her!

** spoiler alert ** Fiction is fiction, and we're supposed to be able to read it as that, but I can't always do so. That's the reason I stay away from things like "psychological thrillers," in which I'm apt to see a character pushed to the point of maximum anxiety and vulnerability. Chantal James' None But the Righteous isn't a psychological thriller. It's a dreamy, complex narrative of Ham, a young man who's never had a real home and who finds himself drifting after Hurricane Katrina. He wears a necklace with a small fragment of a saint's bone; it's the saint's way of remaining in this world, and at times the saint can guide Ham's thoughts or actions. So far, so good. Interesting premise, lots of possibilities...

Here's where the spoiler part comes in. Over the course of his wanderings, Ham stays with Deborah, a young woman, and her family. They have sex, consensually, Ham continues in his wanderings and discovers two months later that he's about to become a father. His response, after a second stay with Deborah and her family, is to wander yet again, joining a group of migrant workers after promising he'll save his earning to support the baby. Not necessarily ideal parenting, but the point of fiction isn't to depict ideals—it's to tell believable stories that let readers explore human possibilities.

Ham eventually returns to Deborah, with many baby gifts, then asks permission to take the baby for the day to the city where he was born as a sort of "baptism." A childhood friend, Wally, is with him at this point. And the novel ends as they reach their destination and Ham toys with the idea of whether or not he'll return the baby to its mother and her family. And I can't read this part of the story as anything other than terrifying. What happens to the baby? How long will it be until she returns home? What kind of childcare skills does Ham have? What will happen to the mother and her family while the baby is (potentially) missing?

Basically, the novel ends on a horrific point of ambiguity that I can't embrace as mere fiction.

I received a free electronic review cpy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

This story was haunting. I feel like I might have understood more if I had biblical knowledge to fall back on, but even without that knowledge… this is a riveting ghost story.

The story got bogged down about halfway through which may have been on purpose to symbolize the stagnation Ham was experiencing, but I lost interest and quit reading.

This novel introduces many lovely, well developed characters in this slow burn of a novel. But, the plot is less well considered.

I was very excited by the synopsis of this book, but I made it about half way through a dnno couldn't finish. There was nothing thing me to the story. I expected more of a story about Hurricane Katrina and Ham's journey back home but there's just so much other stuff happening that I'm just not seeing the point of this. I felt like there was potential here, but something is just missing, something to really ground the reader into the story.