BookBrowse Reviews Dominion by Addie E. Citchens

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The actions of the son of a prominent Black preacher unravel a family and town, showing how church culture and patriarchy foster hypocrisy, secrets, and more.

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Debut novelist Addie E. Citchens takes us to Dominion, Mississippi, where we meet the Winfreys—a wealthy, influential Black family that dominates the town. Reverend Sabre Winfrey, pastor of the Seven Seals Baptist Church, wields significant power not only within the church but across Dominion, where he owns a barbershop, a radio station, and real estate. Priscilla, the matriarch, is known as the First Lady. There are five sons; the youngest, Emanuel, also called Manny and nicknamed Wonderboy for his musical and athletic talents, is the family's pride and the town's favorite. However, in a shocking encounter, Manny's violent actions have lasting consequences for his family and the community: "you couldn't un-ring a bell, nor could you expect to pull back a train with a rope." Primarily told through the perspectives of Priscilla and Diamond, Manny's love interest, Dominion explores hypocrisy, secrets, misogyny, patriarchy, church life in the American South, how we can all be complicit in perpetuating the cycles and systems that allow men to evade accountability and maintain power, and how women can reclaim their lives from these men.

Dominion is a family drama mainly focused on how Sabre and Manny's actions influence the lives of those around them, especially women. Switching perspectives between Priscilla and Diamond offers a nuanced view that emphasizes the book's core issues. A significant part of the novel, which begins chapters with sermon notes, explores how the church affects the community and how religion plays a major role in Southern American culture. Citchens illustrates the rules, dynamics, and norms that the town residents adhere to as they dress in their best attire for church, turn to prayer during times of tragedy or hardship, and avoid drawing attention to any situation involving the Winfreys, for fear of damaging their own reputations.

Priscilla and Diamond are resilient women at different life stages. Both are navigating relationships with powerful and harmful men, along with other personal struggles. Priscilla fights addiction to pills and alcohol, while Diamond, an orphaned teenager, has a past filled with abandonment and isolation that fuels her desperate need for love and belonging. ("That's why I loved what I had with Wonder so much; it was like we were creating something all our own, something I inherently belonged to.") Citchens skillfully crafts distinct voices for the women that feel lively and genuine to their personalities and Southern speech, displaying Priscilla's wit and Diamond's naivety. While each woman is skeptical of the other, there are parallels in their journeys of reckoning with the truth about the men in their lives. ("It crossed my mind that just because you birthed somebody didn't mean you knew them," Priscilla remarks of Manny.) We see them struggle to hold the men accountable for their actions and fall into traps of blame and shame, as women often get the brunt of the blowback when men make bad decisions. ("And though I felt bad for thinking it, I also couldn't help but know that whatever he'd done, they'd manage to blame me. They always blamed the mother.")

The Reverend's actions show his hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the church and patriarchy in general, as he preaches moral and sexual purity but satisfies his own desires to have sexual relations with women outside of his marriage. Even when confronted, he attempts to dodge blame by referring to biblical teachings, which demonstrates how religion can be used to allow men to behave immorally in a situation where it is difficult for women to counter authority they also subscribe to. In an argument, Priscilla says, "you think your sons have no idea about your lifestyle, but I guess it don't matter to you what you teach them," to which Sabre responds, "to woman he gave a womb, and to man he gave dominion — that's what I teach my boys because that's what the living Word say."

Several times throughout the book, Priscilla realizes that her marriage is one-sided. Early on, she reflects, "I thought we were in this together; it took me a long while and harsh fall to see it has never been about us, but about him." Through Priscilla, Citchens shows how powerful men can become consumed with fueling their ego and legacy, and how this comes at a cost to the women who seek genuine and loving partnerships with them and feel special at being associated with them. Priscilla later remarks, "maybe he'd only needed a vessel for his legacy and deemed me appropriate, and it was not enough to keep him interested in me. The sad part was that it had never in the history of the world been enough; the saddest part was that so many women like me had convinced themselves it was noble to participate."

Intrigue and tension are maintained for the reader through knowledge of Manny's violent acts, of which the other characters are unaware. When accusations and suspicions are raised, Priscillia and Diamond deny them, either out of loyalty to Manny or concern about how acknowledging the truth could reflect on them. The dramatic irony of Diamond consistently defending Manny as a harmless, innocent boy, while Priscilla, more suspicious of his true nature, struggles with what a mother should do to hold her son accountable, is thought-provoking.

"As long as he had no memory, I had no real knowledge, and as long as I had no real knowledge, I wasn't a hypocrite for my behavior, or even worse, responsible," says Priscilla. Dominion considers how women, despite their vulnerabilities within power structures, can contribute to allowing men's behavior to remain unchecked while maintaining a false image of trustworthiness. Citchens' moral worldview becomes clearer as Priscilla and Diamond, each in their own ways, reclaim their agency and find a desire for accountability. Their actions demonstrate that it's never too late to seek change and that demanding accountability isn't just about justice for oneself but also for others. Dominion explores how systems of power shape this community and the lives of Priscilla and Diamond. It highlights how challenging it is to hold those in power accountable, how we can all innocuously contribute to their protection, how love and fear can make us vulnerable, and how it is never too late for retribution.

This review first ran in the September 24, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.