An Imperfect Rapture is a coming-of-age story about growing up in the crucible of Christian fundamentalism and white American poverty. Kelly recreates the real-life shadowlands of her youth with the lyricism of a poet and the nuance of an insider. Her unflinching examination of the people and places populating the story offers the reader a rare glimpse into an experience hidden from or ignored by our first-world culture, and its unsparing, fiction-like narrative resonates as both a personal exorcism and a public plea for empathy.
