Holy Ghost Girl

Reviews

“What a life! Holy Ghost Girl takes you inside a world where God and sin and miracles and deceit and love are so jumbled together you can’t tell them apart. Donna Johnson sorts through her story with great insight, compassion, and humor, giving us an indelible portrait of a charismatic preacher and the faithful who so desperately believed in him.”

“This is a thoroughly provocative memoir. Memoirs don’t usually resist the obvious. This one does. You won’t find Donna M. Johnson dithering in anger, cynicism, or self-pity. Holy Ghost Girl is a sensitive exploration of the power that inheres in faith communities, however flawed.”

“Donna M. Johnson’s memoir captivated me from the first page. Vividly written and richly detailed, it evokes a curious subculture that few Americans are familiar with—that of the Pentecostal revival tent, with all the spiritual and carnal ecstasy that simmer beneath it. Holy Ghost Girl is also a cautionary tale of preachers whose followers elevate them to a godhood then blind themselves to their leader’s often extravagant sins.”

“Holy Ghost Girl turns, as good books must, from promising read into sure bet. Ms. Johnson’s enthralling memoir, her first book, is about growing up on the road in a clan of what she calls Holy Rollers…Fascinating.”

“Yet for all the disaster that seems inevitable from the opening pages of this plainspoken memoir, Johnson still maintains some affection for the part-time charlatan who was often caring and loving to her…and therein lies the paradox at the center of Johnson’s story, in which faith and love live alongside anger and betrayal.”

“Johnson’s lively memoir recalls a truly strange childhood…Fascinating and sometimes disturbing…mixed with serious reflection.”

“Johnson’s beautifully written and super-absorbing memoir of growing up on the tent revival circuit is full of vivid and sometimes shocking events.”

“Johnson spent her childhood in the 1960s and 1970s traveling America’s South with revivalist preacher Brother David Terrell, a hugely popular Holy Roller who brought thousands to his raucous tent sermons. But life under the tent—and under Terrell’s control—was far from easy, and Johnson eloquently recounts this uncommon upbringing shaped by constant upheaval and her increasingly fraught conception of faith…Leaving the tent circuit for good at sixteen gave Johnson the perspective she needed for this fascinating tale of life with a ‘con man, a prophet, a performer.’”

“Johnson has a terrific ability to write details as seen through the eyes of a child, letting readers discern what is really happening before the narrator is able to understand herself…Brilliant prose that is both precise and evocative of larger truths illuminates the normalized yet bewildering world.”

“A trustworthy narrator, Johnson is consistently funny, poetic, and remarkably devoid of bitterness.”

“Carrington MacDuffie was fantastic as narrator. She made the atmosphere of a tent revival come to life. When she narrated Brother Terrell’s sections, I was glued to the story. She brought his charisma through the speakers.”

“Holy Ghost Girl is a wonder of a book. Chief among its marvels is how clear-eyed and deeply compassionate Johnson is as she recounts what it was like to grow up believing all things are possible and how hard it was to leave that harsh and deeply flawed paradise to become a part of the world in all its ‘gaudy glory.’ With evocatively precise details, fond humor, and an utter lack of scorn or cynicism, Johnson accomplishes the camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle miracle of rendering the world through the eyes of a young child. Arriving at a time when the war between fact and faith is escalating, Holy Ghost Girl is a book that people will be talking about.”

“A wrenching and extraordinarily beautiful memoir. If you’re a fan of The Glass Castle, you’ll be mesmerized by Donna M. Johnson’s true-life tale of how her young life was upended by her mother’s love affair with an infamous charismatic preacher.”

“A brilliant and beautiful story of people who passionately loved God and broke his commandments in almost every way possible. The kind of story the Bible is full of, told with rare compassion and grace.”

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