Dominion by Addie E. Citchens follows a prominent Baptist preacher and his family in Mississippi—and when I say the drama is drama-ing, I mean it!
At around 250 pages, this is a relatively short novel, but there is a lot happening within this family. At the center is a reverend, his wife and First Lady, Priscilla, and their five sons. However, much of the story revolves around one son in particular: Emmanuel, better known as Wonder Boy.
The story is told from multiple perspectives, but I felt like the women—particularly Priscilla and Diamond—were really at the heart of the novel. Priscilla is the First Lady trying to maintain the image of the perfect church family while knowing that things behind closed doors are anything but perfect. Her husband is unfaithful, her family is falling apart, and Wonder Boy is nowhere near the perfect son everyone believes him to be. I found her perspective especially interesting because we see her slowly confront how much she has ignored, excused, or allowed for the sake of her family and their reputation.
Then we have Diamond, a teenager who is completely in love with Wonder Boy. After being abandoned by her mother along with her siblings, Diamond is taken in by a woman named Maggie. Despite everything she has experienced, so much of her world becomes centered around Wonder Boy. She’s young, in love, and infatuated with the person she believes him to be—even when the reality is much darker.
One of my favorite things about this novel was the writing style. I especially enjoyed experiencing so much of the story through the women’s perspectives. Through Priscilla and Diamond, we see two very different women at different stages of life who are both affected by the same family and the actions of the men around them.
Spoilers: Wonder Boy was horrible. As the story unfolds, the image of this beloved preacher’s son completely falls apart. He’s violent, manipulative, a rapist, and willing to use and hurt people to get what he wants. Eventually, all of his actions catch up with him, leading to his death.
Diamond’s storyline was particularly interesting because she spends so much of the novel deeply in love with him. She’s pregnant with his child and imagining a future connected to him, while Priscilla seems to recognize that Diamond still has an opportunity to build a life outside of Wonder Boy. Once Diamond finally learns the truth about who he really is, everything changes.
Priscilla’s story also became one of the strongest parts of the book for me. She’s forced to question her marriage, her motherhood, and even herself. How did her son become this person? What did she overlook? Could she have done something differently? Eventually, it felt like she reached a point where she simply wanted to be free—free from her marriage, the expectations of being the First Lady, and the responsibility of constantly protecting her family’s image.
Dominion explores young love, motherhood, family dysfunction, religion, hypocrisy, reputation, and what can happen behind the closed doors of a seemingly respectable church family. I thought the contrast between the family’s public image and their private reality was one of the most interesting parts of the story. The reverend especially knows that he isn’t living according to the values he preaches, yet religion and God are repeatedly used as a shield for his behavior.
Overall, I thought Dominion had a great writing style, an interesting concept, and plenty of family drama. It genuinely feels like a story that could be adapted into a TV drama because there is so much happening within this one family.
If you’re looking for a novel centered on a Black family in Mississippi that explores what might be happening behind the closed doors of a Baptist church and its respected First Family, Dominion definitely delivers.