Say a Little Prayer

By: Jenna Voris

Narrated by: Caitlin Kinnunen

Saved! meets Casey McQuiston in this wry, heartfelt tale of a teen who's taking her church camp by storm—one deadly sin at a time.

Riley quietly left church a year ago when she realized there was no place for a bi girl in her congregation. But it wasn’t until the pastor shunned her older sister for getting an abortion that she really wanted to burn it all down.

It’s just her luck, then, that she’s sent to the principal’s office for slapping a girl talking smack about her sister—and in order to avoid suspension, she has to spend spring break at church camp. The only saving grace is that she’ll be there with her best friend, Julia. Even if Julia’s dad is the pastor. And he’s in charge of camp. But Riley won’t let a technicality like “repenting” get in the way of her true mission. Instead of spending the week embracing the seven heavenly virtues, she decides to commit all seven deadly sins. If she can show the other campers that sometimes being a little bad is for the greater good, she could start a righteous revolution! What could possibly go wrong? Aside from falling for the pastor’s daughter . . .

Critic reviews

Praise for Say a Little Prayer

"Though the book’s themes are seemingly heavy, they’re sweetened by pop culture references galore and the narrator’s sharp, clever sense of humor. . . . An original blend of queer romance, nuanced revenge plot, and religious deconstruction."--Kirkus Reviews

"[A] delightful romp, a forceful callout, and a gorgeous look at what real community looks like—inside and outside of the church."--Booklist

"A unique look at reconciling religious values and personal beliefs."--SLJ

narrator I love her

love her - gender and seek map to cancer and seek map to cancer and understanding the arrows Pennsylvania 🏹

SO GOOD

That was such a fantastic listen! I'm a sucker for best friends to more, but this story also delivered on its revenge sins plotline with equal importance. The two aspects felt like they were woven together seamlessly, and really informed eachother.

I also seem to gravitate toward books featuring religious trauma despite not growing up around religion at all. But theres something about characters learning life lessons on their own while unlearning harmful beliefs that I think can resonate with just about anyone.

I actually did not read the "prequel" (Hear that Song) yet, but I will definitely be grabbing it soon.

Narration was also on point. Great balence between quiet seriousness and absolute snark that captured the full spectrum of Riley.

Wonderful Religious Deconstruction Lesbian Romance

What a beautiful, sensitive, thoughtful and funny book. Written out of a lived experience in the church comings to terms with the church culture of judgment, hypocrisy and shaming the lgbtq community and female autonomy. The characters are charming, funny and reflect a variety of personalities. Incredibly well written!!! and narrated!!! A great read. Thank you.

Great performance! Made me think a lot about my time being raise Catholic

Kind of what the title said- this story has made me think a lot about my time being raised Catholic and even though we were not a super religious family, still went to mass on Sundays, Catholic children’s development (which was essentially Sunday school), had other after school programs as a teen, etc. I have only recently accepted in myself that I’m bi, and this is YEARS later. While nothing as outright as what happened in this book happened to me, there was just so much hate and judgement in general, and I know it played a role in delaying me coming out even to myself.

As an adult, it’s easy to think a few actions taken by characters in this book seem immature, they make complete sense when I think about their ages. Being a teenager is confusing enough in general, but then add in having feelings that you’ve been told your whole life you should be ashamed of and need to “repent” for? Everything then becomes a lot more complicated.

Finally, great job to the narrator and audiobook production! I found it very easy (and sometimes even soothing) to listen to.