Katrina’s Wings merges elements of several genres – inspirational romance, women’s fiction, and Southern fiction – without belonging wholly to any of them. While the story took time getting underway, I ultimately found this well-written tale and its unique central character to be very satisfying.

At first the story treads well-worn turf: the coming-of-age of a soul too sensitive to thrive in her own coarse family, but too marked by her background to fit into conventional society. I spent the first 75 unremittingly bleak pages wondering exactly how much misery I was going to have to endure with this character before things started looking up. Happily, the story soon moved from the conventional to the unique.

Katrina Hurley was born into the most rowdy, low-class clan in her small Arkansas town. Katrina’s lifelong dream is to spread her wings and fly as far from home as possible, but she has no support from her community or from her harsh, erratic family. Katrina narrates the book and is disinclined to romanticize her family’s exploits into humorous eccentricities, but she is also slow to judge or condemn.

After recounting bleak moments from her early childhood, Katrina becomes more optimistic when she finds religion as a teenager. She develops a crush on a local golden boy, Sol, and struggles to be a dutiful daughter without allowing her family to crush her spirit. Her narration is interspersed with scenes from her sister Eden’s viewpoint. Eden is weak where Katrina is strong and is more easily ensnared in their family’s self-destructive cycles.

Over the course of the book I grew to like Katrina very much and to find her all the more believable for her many contradictions. Katrina is a gifted artist who is extremely down-to-earth; deeply religious but never sanctimonious or preachy; and though she is raised in oppressive squalor by childish parents, she grows to be strong and independent. Watching Katrina tear a strip off her loutish first boyfriend is utterly satisfying. From mid-book onwards I was captivated by her self-reliance and delighted to cheer her on.

I was particularly impressed by the depiction of Katrina’s religious beliefs, which are a major element of the book and a profound force in Katrina’s life. By inclination I am irreligious and spent my formative years feeling mildly persecuted for my lack of faith, so I was pleased that Katrina’s beliefs never intruded on my enjoyment of the story. While faith is a guiding influence to her, she doesn’t press it on casual acquaintances or wear it on her sleeve. Katrina’s views on religion are key to understanding her character but do not demand that the reader embrace them as well.

While Katrina is a delight, the other characters are less fully realized. This is to some extent a by-product of Katrina’s necessarily self-centered viewpoint, but it often feels as if the other characters serve only to further illuminate Katrina’s personality. This is especially noticeable in Eden and Sol, Katrina’s sister and erstwhile love interest. Like Jenny in the movie Forrest Gump, Eden often seems bound to predestined misery merely to provide contrast to Katrina. Sol isn’t quite fleshed out enough to make a satisfying romance hero, but this isn’t a romance novel. Katrina herself is so clearly drawn that almost everything the reader needs to know about Sol can be inferred from his fascination with Katrina. It would take an exceptional guy to appreciate Katrina’s finer points, and though he’s roughed out in broad strokes, Sol fits the part.

My biggest problem with the book was those first 75 miserable pages. I loved Katrina’s strength, but nothing that she tells us about her childhood gives us much insight into where her internal resources came from. Her faith is an obvious touchstone for her, but it isn’t clear how she channeled it so positively. Since Katrina narrates the book through an adult’s perspective, it made me question how much she had really grown if she could acknowledge no joy in her life from ages 6 to 14.

For readers who are more disposed to enjoy the book’s the religious orientation, Katrina’s Wings may be well be a Desert Isle Keeper. Katrina’s Wings met or exceeded my best initial expectations, and I was very pleased to encounter this unusual read.

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