My selection for February’s book of the month is a most satisfactory book. Really good. And, not to keep you in suspense, I am talking about My Dear Hemlock by Tilly Dillehay.
The very first thing to address has to do with the central conceit of the book. It is structured in the same way as The Screwtape Letters was, only this time for girls. The book is a series of letters from Madame Hoaxrot to a junior tempter named Hemlock. The reason this is the first issue to address is that writing in an inverted way like this is challenging and difficult enough as it is. And then on top of that, any such venture would tend to invite constant comparisons in the reader’s mind between what the writer is attempting and what C.S. Lewis successfully did. When this happens, it will be the rare writer indeed who would come out ahead. So the most successful achievement of this book is that Dillehay establishes her own authorial voice early on. This has the effect, not of her winning a comparison with Lewis, but rather of her making us forget to compare. Any worried comparisons of this book and Screwtape are likely to evaporate by the second letter. This achievement alone is remarkable because I have seen some sad examples of writers who were apparently thinking something like “look at me and C.S. Lewis go!”
Secondly, this book is filled with shrewd (albeit inverted) counsel for women. There is a lot of practical wisdom here, and one of the best applications I can think of would be for mothers to read through this book together with their teenage daughters. I can guarantee that there will be multiple discussion starters. Done well, it will spare those daughters a lot of grief. The subjects addressed include confession of sin, prayer, phones, female friendships, envy, empathy, and a lot more.
And last, Dillehay is simply a really good writer, including some laugh out loud moments. This is a truly worthwhile book.