If you have read Westover's _Educated_ you'll have some idea of the rural, deeply religious setting in Idaho. The story revolves around three sisters and in particular the daughter who returned ill and pregnant from a church mission and declared that she was impregnated with the "child of God." How the family deals with this story is at the heart of the book. The subject was handled well and the emotions and personalities of the three girls was well written.

Mozart may have composed his first symphony at the age of three, but just as inspiring are tales of artists who didn’t pick up the brush, pen or harpsichord until well into their golden years. Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until she was 78, and continued working until her death at 101. Actress Kathryn Joosten, of West Wing and Desperate Housewives fame, didn’t start acting until she was 42. Singer Susan Boyle released her first album at 48. Add to this list debut author Val Brelinski, who began writing at age 42 and is now 58. Her novel, The Girl Who Slept With God, is a semi-autobiographical account of a teenage girl in 1970 rural Idaho, who along with her older sister runs afoul of their parents’ strict Christian lifestyle. Although Brelinksi draws deeply from her own life, her protagonist, 14-year-old Jory, and her 17-year-old sister Grace are unique characters whose actions determine their fictional fates. Despite its awkward title, Girl does not read like a debut. It has a teenage protagonist but is definitely not YA, straddling the line between women’s and literary fiction.
Even though Grace, Jory and youngest sister Frances Quanbeck have grown up in an extremely religious household, attending a Christian school, dressing modestly at all times, and strictly supervised, they do not rebel. In fact, Grace seems determined to out-Christian her parents, astronomer Oren and his wife Esther, by volunteering for missions and putting her entire Sunday School teacher paycheck into the offering dish. But when she returns early and sick from a mission in Mexico, Jory soon learns her older sister is pregnant. Grace insists she’s been impregnated by an angel, and self-absorbed Esther can’t handle it. She takes to her bed, and hapless Oren solves the conflict by buying a house on the other side of town and dumping his daughters in it. (Jory is also in the doghouse because she was accused of shoplifting earrings; a complaint her parents believed even though Jory was innocent.) To add insult to injury, Jory is forced to leave the Christian school she’s attended her whole life for the local high school, so that no one will ask questions about Grace. Into this mix comes ice cream man Grip, who’s at least twice Jory’s age and takes an inappropriate interest in the sisters.
The combination of fundamentalist Christians and rural Idaho farmers could have resulted in some stereotypical characters, but Brelinski is a talented writer who does not take short-cuts. Devout Grace is open with her struggles of faith, especially after her parents—by all intents and purposes—abandon her. The character who comes across the worst is Esther, and that’s not because of religious belief but due to her failure to put her daughter’s needs before her own. Both parents come across as clueless, leaving their daughters to live by themselves and then being surprised that they do not follow the rules they had established in their own household. A wonderful counterpoint to the parents is the sisters’ neighbor Hilda, who begins to care for Jory as if the girl were her granddaughter.
The book takes place in 1970, and as such, the countervailing forces to the Quanbeck’s conservative lifestyle are hippies and moonies. These characters place the book firmly within its setting, but at the same time, its conflict is universal: How does a teenager form his or her own identity while remaining loyal to family? With a love-hate relationship with Grace that goes back years, Jory is torn between wanting her sister’s approval, blaming her for their predicament, and enjoying her new-found freedom. Eventually she is forced to make decisions that change the course of everyone’s lives.
With its title, I had expected the mystery of Grace’s pregnancy to be more fully explored than it was. However, this is fully Jory’s book, so it’s not surprising that Brelinski chose to play down that subplot in favor of how certain revelations affected Jory. Still, I was disappointed that Grace’s heavenly baby wasn’t more central to the book. Yet, I think the author made the right choice in handling it the way she did. While I was disappointed that this storyline didn’t play out in a traditional fashion, it worked for novel and protagonist. The best writers always leave their readers wanting more, and it’s impressive that a debut author was able to create this yearning. Brelinski may have begun writing at age 42, but clearly her talent began much earlier.