God in Kevin Brooks’ ‘Killing God’

Upon opening ‘Killing God’, it becomes impossible to escape to its constant references to Christianity. Whilst simultaneously trying to escape the influence of God and denying his existence, our protagonist, Dawn, counter actively surrounds herself entirely with the idea of a God. Dawn finds herself drawn into ideas of God all around her in her own actions. Suffering after her father rapes her and leaves the family; she blames God for her father's actions and consequently believes erasing the idea of God may ease her suffering. Within Dawn’s narration, God is presented as a force that lives within the minds of Christianity’s followers. For her, the only way God may be ‘killed’ is to remove the idea of His image from humanity, and thus the duration of the novel she spends wrestling with the idea of God.

Dawn attempts to disprove the idea of God to herself obsessively, as for her; ‘killing’ God would allow her to recover from her traumatic past, however, by doing this she ends up surrounding herself with the idea of God. Readers are shown her buying two bibles, one of which is a ‘Children’s Illustrated Bible’, a subtle hint by Brooks to her motives for trying to ‘kill’ God. Her childhood was traumatic, and thus by burning both a regular and children’s bible, she attempts to erase what she believes are the effects of God in both her own childhood and in the world as a whole. She takes these two bibles home to burn them, feeling as if a way to remove the influence of God would be to remove the text that spreads the fundamentals of Christianity. However, by doing this, she is left with the burnt ashes of the bibles in her room. Drawn up later by Mel and Taylor who visit her later, whilst she simultaneously tries to destroy the idea of God, the only result of it for her is more evidence to remind her of the past.

Dawn’s occupation with getting revenge on her father by ‘killing’ God dominates the narrative of the novel. Ultimately, the novel is an exploration of Dawn’s own conquest to fix her traumatic past, and for that it must be admired. Although on the surface without the fuller exploration and explanation of Dawn’s character seen later within the novel, it may appear to be anti-Christian, Brooks really only takes the idea of God and bends it around Dawn’s warped, strange character. The novel carries a sense of poignancy within its ending, as Dawn’s needs have finally be met to remove the uncertainty of life without her father, yet the future of Dawn and her mother are left open and uncertain to readers. Her father's final death resolves the conflict of her character, she may finally let go of the thirteen year-old Dawn who was so vengeful against God. ‘Killing God’ for her is really her own desire to be okay and recover from her past, and the final outcome of the novel, although raising new problems for her, leaves Dawn satisfied that she has killed God.