Move over, Jean Shepherd! Young Bridget in award winning Dodging Satan takes refuge in wacky misunderstandings of 1960s Bible Stories and Catholic iconography to avoid problems in her Irish/Italian family life. Her musings will have you in stitches. Get ready for glorious supernatural worlds–with exorcisms, bird relics, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the ‘holy’ in holy water–as Bridget … grapples with sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, & God the Father’s romantic life!
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Let me just say that this could be one of the funniest books I have ever read! Kathleen Zamoboni McCormick has a real gift for writing comedy, and ‘Dodging Satan’ is going to have Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, and even atheists like me, rolling on the floor laughing.
I wasn’t brought up in a religious household, but I can imagine many women that were will really relate to the hilarious musings of young Bridget Flagherty. As part of an Irish/Italian Catholic family that has a number of nefarious secrets, she is rather confused. When she starts having nightmares that she assumes have been sent by the Devil, the various influential Catholics in her life all have different opinions. Of course, this makes Bridget even more comically confused
Although upsetting and sad in parts, this coming-of-age story is full of heart and is bursting with humour. I’m not surprised it is an award winner, it has completely changed my view on religious fiction. Exceptional!
Dodging Satan is an excellently written story about a girl trying to figure out her religion and her families values as she grows up. Kathleen McCormick does a great job of describing her feelings and the things she saw. This story has a great flow and is very descriptive so that you can feel what everyone feels that is in the room with Kathleen. You learn how she got to where she is today and who supported her and who turned away from her. Dodging Satan is a great book that will transport you to another world about different religion and cultures and you just won’t be able to put it down.
Dodging Satan by Kathleen McCormick
Starts out with praise for the book, table of contents and then the story begins.
Story of a girl growing up Catholic and she’s got roots from Italy and Ireland. I remember the cards she spoke of as I also collected them when given to me from the nuns that were teaching us from K through grade 7.
The girl grows up thinking Satan is under her bed and she gets her mom to sprinkle things around to scare them off.
She really has a philosophic opinions about the virgin Mother of Jesus and the nuns don’t like how she portrays her. I myself thought she’s really obsessed about her, her clothing, her paintings done elsewhere and how she’d never be able to spank Jesus.
Some of the scenes I found funny and some remind me of things that either we did as kids or the cousins did.
Acknowledgments and why the author wrote the book.
I received this review copy from the author via the publisher and this is my honest opinion.
Dodging Satan by New York author Kathleen Zamboni McCormick is a story told from a child’s point of view, being raised by an Irish/Italian Catholic family whose faiths and beliefs clash constantly but in a humorous way, as we all know how literal children can interpret things. Intermingled in both religions Bridgette struggles to fit in as well as trying to discover herself, who she is and what she wants in life this is a fun and very entertaining read that will appeal to many different people. This is a short read that is hilariously well written with relatable characters that left me feeling disappointed when I’d finished as I didn’t want it to end. Highly recommended.
C. Toni Graham weaves intensity and mystique into her paranormal fictional novel, Crossroads and the Himalayan Crystals. Fours unlikely high school students are paired together for a biology assignment that requires them to search for nature specimens. When they get turned around, they end up wandering into a different realm and there is no returning to the world they knew. Jake is the new kid in Middlefield; he is caring, but able to take charge. Shayna is pretty and popular, having to rely on her wits and logical thinking is something new to her. Conner loves football and struggles with patience. Seneca battles with connecting with other since her family moves a lot. She is very intelligent. This group faces many trials with the creatures of the world they are in, along with each other.
I found C. Toni Graham a captivating author. Crossroads and the Himalayan Crystals is full of mystery as the bizarre creatures despise the teens in their realm, but pretend them from finding their way home. This novel has the elements of a brilliant young adult fantasy; excellent writing, diversified characters, and an exceptional plot. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series; Crossroads and the Dominion of Four.
This award-winning book was dark and twisted and seemingly misleading for me who is a devout Catholic person. I felt that the main character Bridget had all the familiar Catholic sentiments of a Catholic child-teenager until her musings began to sound really strange and uncanny by the end of this book. After I read this book, I sighed and thought to myself: yet, here goes another doubtful Catholic character bent on ridiculing the church and her teachings but then I think to myself, nah, I’m sure Ms. McCormick is just kidding since at the end of her book here, she lists all the credentialed individuals who helped her get this book into fruition and stuff. And these individuals have some kind of connection to the church. Also, she states that the character Bridget was inspired by her own childhood Catholic beliefs so okay.
I am giving this book a three stars because of the “peculiar experience” I had while reading it. I feel that that’s my honest reaction to this book that it’s in the middle between like and dislike. I felt that her assertion that the BVM a.k.a. the Blessed Virgin Mary felt oppressed by God did not align with Catholic beliefs. God is the Master/Creator, Mary is just the “Mother” and not higher. Plus she is already a Queen herself because she is the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. She never has to worry or to feel herself as abused because she’s already a Queen in that regard. I know that McCormick does not mean harm but this is for the innocent Catholic reader that may be set adrift by Bridget’s thoughts.
I think this book is for the super liberal/feminist movement reader because the main character is a feminist. Her dialogue is totally anti-God-the-Father and that Adam the father of the human race was a wimpy man for having eaten the forbidden fruit without further questioning Eve and the serpent’s motives. All I can say is: everyone’s Catholic experience is different.