Publisher’s Weekly Review

Jessica Wilbanks

Sep 24, 2018

I got an awesome early birthday present today: a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly for When I Spoke in Tongues!

Here’s a snippet:

“Wilbanks, winner of a Pushcart Prize for essay writing, debuts with the captivating story of how she turned away from God. She eloquently explores her long journey from being a Pentecostal Christian who spoke in tongues to being an atheist. . . . Whether writing of these scars, her dad’s rusty pickup trucks, or massive Pentecostal revivals in Lagos, Wilbanks captures the scene beautifully. Wilbanks’s slow deconstruction of her family-given religiosity is an evocative inversion of the average spiritual journey.”

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