A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

 "Julia liked the church environment, the caring and support, the concept of renewal and inclusion through baptism. Yes, and why not? That Brad seemed to approve only motivated her further. We suspect Jesus had little to do with any of it."

"Then she met Xavier, and for the first time she understood what sexual desire felt like. How hard it was to control the urge to want to touch someone, and be touched by someone. How that desire lit you up inside, created what felt like actual heat in your groin. And so, she could excuse Brad somewhat, knowing that, as she'd been taught at New Hope, men had even more trouble controlling their desires than women did. By this standard, Brad was just being male... Sure, it's be great if a girl's own stepdad never though of her that way, but maybe that was asking too much."

"Here we have no choice but to be trite and say, 'Hindsight is 20/20,' and, 'what's done is done,' and continue with our story, because it's in the telling of a tragedy that we sow the seeds, we hope, of prevention of future sorrows."

"A trial would be futility made into spectacle."

Interesting enough but not all I hoped it would be. I picked it up because I saw it on Goodreads and the 'Gram and the blurb made it sound like something I'd like. I thought it might make a good Fall read with the cover :-) Having the neighborhood as the narrator was a unique and engaging choice, but did make it difficult to get to know any of the characters well enough to care much about them. So, I did encounter one of my big hang-ups--lack of a sympathetic protagonist. But I was very interested in the portrayal of purity culture, and the plot was interesting enough to pull me along. Here's the thing about plot-driven books, though--tragedies (and we were warned that this would be one) can leave the ending quite unsatisfying. And there was no redemption through development of any other character which I found disappointing. I did appreciate that though some of the more toxic elements of purity culture were called out, it was clear that it was purity culture itself that was doing damage, not faith or Jesus. It would have been a solid 3/3.5-ish star read for me, except for the other matter which is that it seemed okay as art but awkward as an attempt at activism. This article talks more about that, and in it the author says, "It provides the same frustration one feels at Thanksgiving, when your self-described open-minded aunt won’t shut up about the beautiful gay couple she waves to at the gym," and that's such a good metaphor for the vibes this book was giving me. So overall, I'm going with a 2.5, rounded up to 3 stars.