What a gut punch of a novel! Leede's work in the past has elicited strong opinions in me and American Rapture is no exception. I go crazy for religious horror and this book bridges the gap between that genre and thrillers, mystery, and dystopian fiction beautifully. There is so much to dissect about how this book addresses conservative religious fundamentalism and human sexuality, but I think that is best done in the reader's mind after experiencing the wild ride this book will take you on.

Thank you to CJ Leede, Tor Nightfire, and Netgalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Gory, terrifying, emotional. This is a coming-of-age horror novel that has big goals, examining religious cults, modern conservatism, the divisive and angry American political climate, censorship, self-acceptance, parental abuse, sex, God, Hell, found family, sin and forgiveness.

I loved Maeve Fly so much and so I was pumped when I realized the author had a new one. This book was focused around a pandemic where everyone is hit with an extreme lust. Unique and intriguing.

Ok so I devoured this story of sex-crazed zombies and religious trauma - couldn’t put it down. But I couldn’t help but compare it to Maeve Fly which was an easy 5 star read for me. 4 neon Jesus stars from me:)

Two words that I think sum up C.J. Leede’s “American Rapture” — Holy hell.

Major thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this ARC. Especially because this is one of my new favorite novels.

In “American Rapture,” 16-year-old Sophie has lived a sheltered life with her staunchly Catholic parents. When a virus breaks out, causing unbelievable symptoms, Sophie begins to fight to get to her twin brother. She questions her faith, creates a small found family and faces the apocalypse.

I am absolutely a sucker for a good virus story. Give me “The Stand,” or “Flu” by Gina Kolata, or “The Hot Zone,” and I’m a happy camper. I unintentionally went from this, to two more virus novels: “Wilder Girls” by Rory Power and “Run” by Blake Crouch.

I have to say, “American Rapture” was astounding. The detail, the pace, the action, the characters — everything was so well-executed. Leede does a fantastic job of sucking us into Sophie’s head, letting us pick through her thoughts as she tries to stay alive. There were so many times when I thought to myself, “What could possibly happen next?” I love a book that keeps me on my toes, and this is it.

And I have to say, as someone who was raised Christian and still is religious, I appreciate the care for and knowledge of the faith it’s evident Leede has. She calls out the hypocrisy of so-called “good Christians” while acknowledging Sophie’s struggle to reconcile what she has been taught for her entire life, and what she begins to learn as soon as she leaves home.

I’ve already recommended this book to three people, and I just finished it yesterday. I find myself wanting more. The story feels complete, but if Leede ever decided to take readers back to Sophie, I would eagerly read whatever she writes.

American Rapture was one of my most highly anticipated releases for this year, and I'm happy to report that CJ Leede has yet to disappoint! This was full of all of the brightly detailed gore and dark narrative I loved in Maeve Fly, but with the extra element of religious guilt to pack an extra punch. Having grown up devoutly Baptist, I probably should have seen that coming, but WOW Sophie really resonated with me. So much of this story I probably shouldn't have laughed at, and even more probably shouldn't have struck such an emotional chord. And that really is the best kind of horror.

With Maeve Fly being my favorite book of 2023, I was so excited when I heard about American Rapture. I expected Maeve Fly 2 with some religious trauma but instead found a post apocalyptic coming of age, incredibly sad story. While nothing like Maeve Fly, I loved American Rapture in a whole different way.

CJ Leede's writing is a total gut punch and I love it. Not in the jarring violent slasher fun way, but American Rapture had me feeling the dread and unease and terror and anger right to my core. The generational Catholic shame and guilt came rising back up while reading.

And Sophie! I want to protect Sophie at all costs but that girl can hold her own.

If you are into horror or dystopian or women vs. the void or coming of age or have a tumultuous religious background, I can't recommend this book enough

CW for lots of traumatic things but especially for a horrific animal death.

Teenagers Sophie and Noah are twins being raised by their deeply devout and pious Catholic parents. When their parents catch Noah with a gay pornographic magazine, he is sent away to a Catholic boarding school for “troubled” teens. The novel follows Sophie as a flu outbreak sweeps across the US, and she rushes to save her brother Noah.

Sophie lives in an extremely small, rural, and isolated town in which the church members make up almost the entire population. Sophie hates her parents and her religion so much, she barely wants to live, feels like she’s not even living. The town librarian secretly funnels her novels to read, as her mother has strict rules about what books she’s allowed to check out. There is a strong emphasis on virginity and the danger of women’s beauty. Sophie’s mother became deeply devout and ascetic after being sexually assaulted, because she believes she invited the assault and that her piousness will protect her moving forward. In this way, American Rapture explores how religion can turn us against ourselves.

The flu eventually makes its way to Sophie’s town, and she’s sent home from school one day when a student tests positive. Sophie returns home to find her parents having sex on the living room floor, an almost unthinkable experience considering their devout piousness. When Sophie tries to flee the house, her parents begin to attack her. This culminates in Sophie’s dad sexually attacking her, which she is able to escape from. She steals her parents’ car and heads toward the facility where Noah is being held. On the way, she gets stuck in unmoving traffic. A man in a nearby car becomes infected, breaks into Sophie’s car, and also sexually attacks her. At this point, it becomes clear that the virus is driving people to sexual violence. I realized that American Rapture is a book about a teenage girl surviving a sexual violence epidemic. Considering this is essentially my actual life, I did not feel the need to continue reading this book. This book needs some major trigger warnings for incest and sexual assault.

CJ Leede’s sophomore novel American Rapture ended up being so much more than I expected it to be. I was anticipating a horror novel - one that was gritty and gruesome - and this book certainly has those qualities, but it is also more than that. This incredibly nuanced and complex novel is part coming of age, part pandemic horror, and wholly a can’t-put-down read.

It all starts when a virus sweeps the nation, infecting people with a fever that rises a person’s temperature in all sense of the word. Infecting them with an unquenchable lust, “Sylvia” as it is called, makes people manic with desire for anyone within arm’s reach. Protagonist Sophie lives a sheltered life entrenched in Catholic schoolgirl guilt and shame, and knows nothing of Sylvia or the behaviors it causes, so when people around her begin acting strangely, she is caught completely off guard.

Before she knows it, the community she has grown up in is ravaged by the disease, evolving into an unrecognizable hellscape that Sophie is desperate to escape. As she sets off to find her twin brother, who is locked away in an institution for “sinful thoughts,” she traverses across a wasteland far worse than any of her darkest nightmares. Teaming up with a group of newfound friends, including a fiercely loyal and protective dog, Sophie must find a way to navigate this new world with the innocence of someone never allowed to step out into the old.

American Rapture is both a heartfelt and heart wrenching read. Having lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, we all know just how much a virus can change all of our lives in an instant. But Sylvia is something even more horrifying than anyone could imagine. Sixteen year old Sophie is written incredibly well, encompassing what it means to be a teenage girl growing up in a religion that has no room for wanton thoughts or actions. Telling this story through Sophie’s eye was a brilliant choice on Leede’s part, as it allowed for much self and societal discovery and discourse, making the world-building effect of this novel all the more real and vibrant.

A sharp, heart-wrenching and nightmarish apocalyptic horror that I’ll never forget.

This book follows a teenager in a verrryyy conservative catholic family amidst a virus outbreak. She feels alone in life due to her parent’s strict rules, sheltering, and constant reminder that they kicked out her twin brother as a young boy. Once the outbreak hits her town, she has to learn how to both survive, think for herself, and understand the complexities of religion, beliefs, and modern horrors all while searching for her brother.

Now, this virus causes people to be sexually abusive and it’s insanely disgusting, but CJ Leede somehow balances that out perfectly with the coming of age, found family, and a variety of lovable characters. I felt so many different feelings from start to finish and I couldn’t ask for more from an apocalyptic horror and story in general.

My heart melted, broke, and mended, and I would do it all again. 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley & Tor Nightfire for the ARC!

American Rapture - C.J. Leede

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This completely blew me away. The grotesque visuals, the painful subject matter, the immersive writing style kept me completely enthralled from page one. I was not expecting such an inventive twist on the typical “zombie apocalypse” that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was not expecting such a beautiful portrayal of the healing that follows religious trauma- trying to release the shame that surrounds being a woman, and the guilt that always lingers. I was not expecting a found family aspect (something that Sophie so desperately wanted and needed) that would bring me to tears.

Ultimately, I did not expect to be so moved by a horror novel. This quote from the author’s letter to the reader at the end of the book puts my feelings into words so perfectly:

“Horror looks the darkness in the eyes. Horror dances with the absence, the loss. Explores ways for us-you, the reader, and me—to take it in our arms and spin around together. Ways to embrace the centrifugal force that is human striving, human searching. Mortal life.”

American Rapture is without a doubt one of my new favorite books & if you see this, I hope you’ve been convinced to pick this one up if you haven’t already! Thank you Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the eARC— My friend and I were loving this so much that we had to go get our grubby little hands on the physical copies before we even finished!!

Although I didn’t love this one as much as Maeve Fly, CJ Leede has solidified herself as an all time favorite author. CJ is so skilled on building characters you love and is exceptional with endings that feel hopeful a like an emotional gut punch. Reading from the point of view of a very sheltered and religious 16 year old girl was so interesting and made the horrors going on feel that much scarier. Absolutely loved this

I loved Maeve Fly , the author's debut. And then she comes out with an apocalypse book!? Come on, like I would ever not! And then bonus, one of the best covers ever? How would this live up to the hype I made up in my head?! Idk friends, but it did. It somehow did. Know what else I love? That the synopsis tells you almost nothing. This is good, more of this please, publishers! I love to go into a book without anything given away, except the bare essentials. So here, we know a couple of things: It's a bad time for Americans, specifically our main character Sophie, and also, her family and background is pretty batshit.

Now, Sophie and the fam in this book are Catholic. I feel like there are several varieties of Catholic folks, one of which is the nun who taught at my high school and told us about how she got felt up at the movies, and one of which is Sophie's parents with the shame and guilt and purity rings. I also assume there are a ton of levels in between, but reading has expanded my Catholicism world view, as I thought Catholic people were more chill than your run of the mill evangelical nutbag, but see, this is why we read!

Anyway, this apocalypse is so delightfully messed up, just as I knew it would be from the author's previous work. I did not expect how very heartfelt and emotional it would be, too! I ended up falling in love with the characters, and of course could not stop reading because of the intense plot and excitement, either. And the commentary? Absolutely ::chef's kiss::.

Bottom Line: You don't need any more of my weird digressions, but you do need to read this book. It is one of my favorites of the year!

CJ Leede is quickly becoming an auto buy author for me, so when I saw a dystopian novel coming out I was excited. Maeve Fly was one of my top reads last year. American Rapture did not disappoint. Will continue to pre-order CJ Leede's titles.

this so good! it hooks you in and never once lets go until the very end. this was perfect amounts of horror and thriller with a bit of insanity that i needed this fall and will not be forgetting it anytime soon!

It’s no secret that last year I adored Leede’s debut book MAEVE FLY. This year she’s back again and completely stealing my book-loving heart.

AMERICAN RAPTURE is one of those books that will just speak to some people. There’s also going to probably be a group of people that really hate it based on the subject matter, but the great thing about reading is that’s okay!

I grew up in a religious household and even spent several years of my life working for a Catholic non-profit, so when I say I have THOUGHTS on the church and religion, yeah I’ve got them.

Our main character, Sophie, has been raised in a very sheltered and very strict midwestern Catholic household. She has absolutely no idea what to do when a virus starts sweeping through America and destroying everything she has ever known. We watch as Sophie experiences so many things about the world that readers might deem as ordinary for the first time. I loved this aspect of the story almost as much as I love the found family storyline.

This book made me angry and it made me cry and I couldn’t put it down for a second.

Beware: There are a lot of triggering topics discussed throughout this book and as always, I recommend readers checking on Storygraph for a listing of them in advance.

Isn’t it fun when a book bamboozles you quite completely, evolving into new and different things as you read? When I started, American Rapture gave me Carrie-esque vibes, as protagonist Sophie is cosseted by her ultra-conservative Catholic family, raised to view her womanhood as sinful and sex as shameful.

This is zombie horror with a twist, as the contagion is spread via fluids, including sexual transmission. These are lusty zombies, and it's at once as campy and as horrible as it sounds. There was one scene as Sophie is fleeing her home that involved zombie parents and a large wooden cross that she uses to bar the door. It had me agog at the level of religious and psychodynamic symbolism, bizarre enough that I wondered if I could truly recommend this book. It was a Freudian extravaganza, with the id on full display.

Ah, but that’s the interesting thing. The book evolved, and I was captured by Leede’s admittedly sometimes over the top but pretty excellent exploration of Sophie’s burgeoning sexuality and her certainty that she will burn in hell for her sins. Sophie’s gradual ability to question her religious indoctrination felt genuine, and the fact that she has to do it in an environment where sex can be dangerous (a zombie STD, if you will) echoes this age-old historic struggle between healthy sexual expression and the view of sex as dangerous, both spiritually and physically.

Leede also manages to aim her prose at anti-vaxxers and the extreme religious right while maintaining some sense of balance and compassion for Catholicism in its less-extreme form, and I respected this nod away from hyper-polarisation.

In the end, I liked American Rapture a lot. Not only was it a thoughtful zombie novel, it was just super fun to read, full of vivid imagery and weirdness in a really good way. Also, it has one of the best last lines!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for a review copy!

2.5⭐️

Sophie was a raised a good Catholic girl, sheltered from a lot of the reality of the world. That is until a virus starts spreading across the country that makes the infected feral with lust. Sophie has one goal throughout this apocalypse: get to her brother that was being held at a treatment facility for his 'affliction.' Along the way, Sophie finds that dying a virgin might not be the worst thing to happen.

Trigger Warning for the most gruesome dog death. Seriously, what the fuck?

I'm conflicted on this. This story covered a lot of great topics, including found family, bodily autonomy, religious trauma, shame, guilt, and sexual assault. But the choppy writing style and and the dark subject matter, it was hard to get into. I was interested in the backstory of the relationship between Sophie and Noah and her brother more or less being sent to conversion therapy, but we only got glimpses of that mixed in with lots and lots of rape. There was also a very questionable relationship between an adult and a teenager featured heavily in this story. And while they never actually crossed the line, it just felt gross to watch this man who has all the power interact with a very sheltered teenager who knows very little about real life.

Thanks Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for providing this ARC to me!

"I wonder if maybe I have died, and this is Hell already..."
This book broke me, several times, and healed me, and I was hoping the death I was dreading wouldn't happen, even though I knew it was inevitable, and it still devastated me. Author's not explains it, and I think I already knew why it was needed.
I was so afraid to read this book, religious trauma isn't a joke, takes years to recover and sometimes we can't do it fully, but now that I've read this and I know how horrible and beautiful it is, I wish I had read my ARC sooner.
I don't know what C.J. put in this book, maybe her blood and heart, maybe her soul, probably all of these and more, because this is a masterpiece. It's brutal, it's disturbing and sometimes makes you see what you already knew but was afraid to admit. This is not an easy read, there's lots of gore and it might not be what you expect, but it will end up being more than you bargained for.
I read this in one day! I devoured it! The job was getting in my way but I read it every single free minute I got.
"No hate in the world like Christian love."
I think I'll stop sharing the quotes I saved, there's so many relatable and quotable moments, I wouldn't have enough space to post all of them.
This was a deeply religious experience for me, even though I am an agnostic.

Absolutely loved this one. CJ Leede is definitely an auto buy author after this sophomore novel. Different from her first but still just as consuming and layered. I expected to love this, but this surpassed my expectations. Can't say enough good things about it.