After the Locusts

“A harrowing account of addiction and redemption framed in biblical terms.

Mari and Allen are self-confessed former hippies who’ve given up flower power and, with the help of a forceful young preacher, embraced religion. So when the couple’s two sons, Dillon and Cameron, slip into alcoholism, Mari is distraught. She wonders if she’s been too harsh with the boys—she is adamantly unwilling to write off their antics to youth—and struggles to understand why her sons are pushing their parents away. Cameron, the youngest in the family, returns home slightly chastened, but soon enough he relapses. Dillon, too, seems unable to quit and alternates between fighting and pleading with Allen and Mari. Redemption eventually arrives in the form of counseling and treatment, but for Sharpe the real savior is God, who has steered her through these years of pain for a reason. At a moment of great despair, Mari confides that she had “asked for mercy, and what I received was almost inconceivable.” Sharpe is a deft writer and especially good with dialogue—nothing feels abrupt or heavy-handed. Allen’s a father torn between unrestrained affection and tough love, and the portraits of Cameron and Dillon will ring true for anyone who has experience with unruly teenagers. What sets the book apart from ordinary tales of family strife is Sharpe’s use of the biblical account of a locust plague. She intersperses each chapter with allusions to that tale—she is plagued, the reader understands, by alcoholism. Only with divine guidance does Mari help Cameron and Dillon recover and find their way into adulthood. As she remarks near the end, “He has not only been with me, but He is restoring the years that the locusts have eaten.”

A hopeful book that will appeal to those who seek divine providence in life’s darkest moments.”—Kirkus Discoveries