This is really beautiful writing and evocative. I wish the characters had been more developed and their relationships more detailed--it was hard to feel sorrow over the loss of characters' connections because they didn't feel very connected. I did really like all the sly references to scripture, and appreciated the author's personal experience of being raised in the church coming to life on the page, and how that shapes a person.
I would have liked a lot more of thomas' life and a lot of less of grace macaulay but what we got of Thomas was really lovely