The Blessing of Brokenness

by Karin Slaughter

Mary Lou Dixon works at the Christ Holiness Baptist Church. She's overseeing the repair of the cross above the altar in time for Christmas when things start to go horribly wrong.

This short story by New York Times best-selling author Karin Slaughter is taken from the exclusive audiobook collection The Unremarkable Heart, and Other Stories.

Genres: Short Stories, Audiobook, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime

36 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 28, 2012

About the author

Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty- five novels, including the Edgar nominated COP TOWN and standalone novels PRETTY GIRLS and FALSE WITNESS. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. PIECES OF HER, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. THE GOOD DAUGHTER will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.

Facebook: Facebook.com/AuthorKarinSlaughter

Website: http://www.karinslaughter.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karinslaugh...

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This super short story brought to mind several important life lessons:

1) You never know what you would do in a particular situation so don't judge.
2) Everyone deserves compassion and a helping hand.
3) We are all hypocrites in some area of our lives.
4) Our biggest blessings can stem from our worst times...aka the blessing of brokenness.

I love Karin Slaughter and have especially enjoyed her collection of short stories. The Blessing of Brokenness was originally published as part of Like a Charm, a mystery/crime anthology.

My favorite quote:
"...a woman can run faster with her skirt up than a man can with his pants down. But he had failed to point out that when both of them finally stopped trying to run, it was only the woman who could not escape the consequences."

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose this audiobook thinking it was a Christian Christmas story. It is not. It was listed as a Christmas mystery on Hoopla, but it is neither mysterious nor set during Christmastime.

This short story is centered on main character, Mary Lou Dixon, who embodies every negative Christian stereotype I've ever encountered. She is racist, hypocritical, adulterous - she's even overweight. The author doesn't even attempt to write about the woman from anything like a Christian point of view. The pro-life movement is called anti-abortion, revealing the author's motivation for this story. We are led to believe that pro-life, Christian people are all cruel and uncaring. They won't volunteer at church and they certainly don't understand the plight of a woman in need of an abortion.

Even if I could get past the negative characterizations of everyone in this story, it is difficult to appreciate the pointless plot and lack of real conclusion. I'm just glad it was only about an hour long.

[Jamie Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story had a great back story and was very descriptive but I felt it had an abrupt and unsatisfying ending. It left me wanting to know the rest of the story!! Maybe that was the point, but I just wanted more loose ends tied up.

[Jillian Ferry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our main character in this crime author’s short story portrays a Christian woman that commits the seven deadly sins in about seven minutes.

[STEPH · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just sad. I was sympathetic, upset, and conflicted the entire time I was reading this short story.

The main character managed to do a lot of bad things in the span of 30 minutes. I know some people are dealt a bad hand, but Mary Lou Dixon could’ve made choices to turn her life around. We should never judge how others live or the choices they make—but stacking one wrong decision on top of another will almost always end in suffering.

A short read. Not the usual Karin I know, but this one stings a bit.

[Rosa Dracos99 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siendo como soy una fan de la autora, este realato me ha decepcionado, no me ha atrapado; aparte de encontrar las motivaciones y el desarrollo un poco liosos. Menos mal que no es el primero de la autora que leo, porque si me hubiera tenido que basar en este, no habría conocido a Will Trent!!!!

[Dimitris Passas (TapTheLine) · Rating 3 out of 5]

RATING: 2,5/5.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't the normal Karin Slaughter book. It was bland to say the least. The book is about a single mom who as slept with the preacher and become pregnant. She is depressed and is poor. The church is against abortion and she was thinking it. She feels that her ex-husband would be better off without her and that he would rather not give her child support. Than she wanted to commit suicide because she's pregnant and not married, she felt her son would be better without her and so would everyone involved. MaryLou decided to do a self abortion with a hanger and doesn't want to tell anyone. She falls while going to look at the cross that was being fixed for the church and realizes what she's done too late.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short story and very unlike the thrillers the author has written. I personally did not like it so much and it contained too much church stuff for me.
The subject is a sensitive one and had potential, but the ending missed an opportunity as all the commotion of a scandal coming out would have made the story much more interesting.

[Annthelibrarian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Mis-tagged as a Christmas story, which it definitely is not.
A depressing, ugly story.
Can I give it 0 stars?

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is well contained. Meaning that nothing should be left out and nothing needs to be added. Well contained.

[Marichu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mari Lou es la encargada de que todo funcione correctamente en la iglesia bautista de su localidad. Tiene que supervisar la reparación de la cruz a la que se le ha partido un brazo. Mientras está sentada en un banco de la iglesia controlando como la bajan para llevarla a reparar hace un repaso de su desgraciada vida. Viuda tiene un encuentro amoroso con alguien de su congregación y todo empieza a ir peor. Se ve obligada a plantearse ciertas situaciones que siempre ha criticado y por las que ha luchado en contra. Hasta que no te ves en la situación no puedes hablar ni decidir con propiedad lo que deberían hacer otras personas ni lo que está bien o mal.

En mi blog: https://lecturasdemarichu.blogspot.co...

[Sherry · Rating 1 out of 5]

pointless

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blessing of Brokenness is a short story by popular American author, Karin Slaughter. As Mary Lou Dixon, an employee of the Christ Holiness Church, sits in the church overseeing a repair crew, she muses on the downward slide her life has taken over the last year and thinks about her Uncle Buell’s Bible Teaching: ‘Only Jesus can put you back together once you’ve been broken by sin,’ Buell had preached. ‘And that part of you that is broken becomes all the stronger for it.’ Quite a different man from Pastor Stephen Riddell, her boss, and the architect of her current problems. Slaughter very effectively portrays Mary Lou’s feelings: defeat, dejection, despair, anger, worthlessness and hopelessness. Yet, at the end, there is also kindness, the surprising kindness that crew foreman Jasper Goode shows her which undermines her initial mistrust of him. A powerful read.

[Marla · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short story I listened to on audio. I thought I had read some Karin Slaughter, but my Goodreads book list says no. This was not an encouragement to do so. It felt all over the place with an abrupt and unsatisfying ending. What I did like about it was how she portrayed a woman struggling with having an abortion or not. Well done. And to be fair, I'm new to audio books and not sure they are for me, at least not fiction. I think the narration had a little to do with my "ok" review.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointing

[Christiane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not care for the subject - home abortion and suicide. I was hoping for an inspirational story, but found it depressing and repulsive instead :-(.

[Jaclyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disgustingly horrifying

[Kristi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too morbid for me.

[Alexa Barnes · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was awful. 😭

[Tj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked out this audiobook from the library without reading the description. Slaughter is known for her thriller/mystery work. This is totally different.

First, this is a quick listen. Mary Lou is not an easy character to like. Actually, she would be hard to tolerate on most days. She comes across as narrow-minded, bigoted, and judgemental. As the story progresses you realize this is in part to the men in her life and her inability to speak up.

We meet her in a Baptist church. She is there to oversee workmen repairing a cross. The foreman is a black man with severe burn scars, and the crew is Mexican. Mary Lou's bias and prejudices are evident in her thoughts, and the superior attitude she uses when speaking with the foreman.

Mary Lou does not look well, and the foreman politely asks about her health. As the work on the cross progresses, we go on a mental journey with Mary Lou and find out what caused her current health crisis. The reader also finds out just how little she knows about her body, the law surrounding abortion, and the propaganda often spread by her church.

Mary Lou also finds out about true compassion. At the point where she most needs kindness, grace, and compassion, it comes from an unexpected source. She would not have extended the same to this person had they been the one in need.

This book would be great for a book club. It screams for discussion and multiple points of view.

[Nickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well-done piece. I can't believe it is only a short story. I had already bought into all the characters and their problems when it ended. There are a lot of mainstream issues being presented in an unusual fashion. This tale has religion, sexual harassment, divorce, racism, single mothers, unplanned pregnancy and eventually abortion . Karin Slaughter invokes some very strong feelings very fast with this piece. You do not have to agree with how they are approached as long as it gets people discussing issues that real women face.

[Nicki Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no secret I have been a longtime fan of Karin Slaughter's books and this is just another one to add to the list of favourites. Whilst it's a very short read, it doesn't lack any of the suspense and page turning addiction that her longer books do. A great short read for anyone short on time but still wanting to wrap themselves up in a great read. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ #karinslaughter #theblessingofbrokeness #tea_sipping_bookworm #goodreads #greatreads #bookqueen #bookstagram #shortread #litsy #amazonkindle

[Alex at lost Haven Homestead · Rating 2 out of 5]

disturbing situation where a woman who works for church gets with pastor commits adultery and a pregnant and anti-abortion church would look down at her for sins with the married pastor. wanting the self harm the killing the child to winning the murder someone it's a little bit confusing but also crazy not for me but interesting story.

[Kayleigh Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not for the weak hearted. I found this so difficult to read but I couldn't put it down. What that poor woman went through broke my heart. The worst part is that there are real women who suffer like this all the time.

[Tammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Lou is pregnant from an affair with the married preacher she works for. She comes to the conclusion that the only choice she has is to perform a third term abortion on herself. Really disturbing, awful language and slurs throughout, not a great story.

[Mrs D M Marklew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of her best.

I wouldn't recommend this book, its a bit slow .and wasn't to my taste. Hope the next one I read will be better

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, I really hated this. I was so looking forward to seeing all the men who had wronged her get their comeuppance, I was disappointed.

[Cass Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story from my favourite author - well written and fast paced!

[Bert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read - this was a quick test to see if I would enjoy a book by Karin Slaughter. Winner!