BookBrowse Reviews These Heathens by Mia McKenzie

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A 17-year-old seeks an abortion in Atlanta in 1960 and becomes embroiled in the civil rights movement, along with her teacher's sordid love life.

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It is 1960 in Millen, Georgia, a rural town three hours by train from Atlanta, and 17-year-old Doris Steele is pregnant. This is a devastating development in a young life already marred by disappointment and drudgery—Doris, an enthusiastic student with a talent for crafting language, had to drop out of school two years earlier to take care of her father and younger brothers after her mother got sick. As a young Black woman her options are already limited. If she gives birth, she knows she will be locked into a lifetime of continued domestic labor and very little else. Doris wants more.

She knows her parents would make her carry the pregnancy to term, so she goes to the only other adult she trusts: her former English teacher, Mrs. Catie Lucas, who calls her old friend from Spelman College, Sylvia Broussard, wife of a wealthy Atlanta housing developer. Sylvia, Mrs. Lucas tells Doris, knows a Black doctor who will perform the abortion, and she's also willing to pay for it, because she "has a lot of money and she likes finding new ways to spend it."

Author Mia McKenzie thoroughly immerses the reader in the world of the civil rights movement and 1960s Atlanta generally. Mrs. Broussard and some of her friends live in Collier Heights, a majority Black suburban enclave (see Beyond the Book). Since her patroness is a wealthy and connected member of the community, Doris has credible encounters with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, among other luminaries both real and imagined. At times, the book feels stuffed for its short length with encounters and events that distract from the main storyline. A few of these incidents could have been removed for a more streamlined narrative.

Nevertheless, McKenzie offers compelling insight into the questions the movement, and integration specifically, raised for Black Americans at the time. For instance, Doris is lukewarm on the prospect of eating at a lunch counter beside white people who don't want her there, and Mrs. Broussard raises the question of whether there will be any Black teachers remaining once schools are integrated. "'And what will be the impact,' Mrs. Broussard asked, 'of white teachers on colored children? Nothing good, that's what. You think a white teacher would be helping you now the way Catie is, risking jail for you?'" These questions are still relevant today, and will give book clubs a lot to discuss.

It is a canny decision by McKenzie not to delve too deeply into Doris's backstory. We don't learn about the father of her child or her relationship with him. The fact that the pregnancy is the result of an uncomplicated passing sexual desire rather than rape, incest, or even a loving star-crossed relationship means that the reader must accept Doris's desire for an abortion for its own sake, along with her sexual autonomy. She had sex, she got pregnant, and now she wants to terminate the pregnancy. Based on the events of the story, she will probably have sex again. The reason Doris wants an abortion is simply so she can maintain control over her life and future.

McKenzie has a lot of fun with the fish-out-of-water motif, as Doris comes to know Mrs. Broussard's friends in Atlanta, who are unlike anyone Doris has ever met before. A particular highlight is when she asks Julia Avery, a famous singer in the world of the novel who is also Mrs. Lucas's former lover, what two women do in bed together:

"My friend Lena said one woman acts like the man, but—"
"Stop!" she shouted, putting up her hands. "Lord! What is this 'acts like the man' nonsense?"
"Well, I—"
"Tell me something, darlin," she said. "If you see two women sitting around having a conversation, do you imagine one of them is talking like the man?"
I shook my head. "No, ma'am. No, Miss Julia."
"And if you see two women baking a damn pie together, do you think one of them is mixing in the flour like the man?"
"No."
"Of course you don't."

The story isn't as simple as Doris having her mind expanded by this wealthy, cosmopolitan crowd, though that does happen. But her ignorance about lesbian sex aside, Doris isn't just some country rube learning the ways of the world from the more polished and educated residents of Atlanta. She is already a ruthlessly discerning judge of character with a quick wit and ambition when she comes to the city, and her observations are incisive.

These Heathens is replete with snappy dialogue, compelling characters, and plenty of dramatic tension as the reader waits to learn if Doris will get the abortion she needs. McKenzie effectively and movingly captures Doris's coming of age on this profound trip where first-hand experience allows her to question everything she has been told about God, heaven and hell, sexuality, gender, and the possibilities of Black life. Watching her emerge from her struggle with confidence and autonomy, the reader feels likewise transformed.

This review first ran in the June 18, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.