Whew buddy. So this is basically a sexual awakening/coming of age tale where the setting is your fairly standard apocalypse (add in a touch of super advanced syphilis brain damage). Sophie has grown up majorly sheltered (plus Catholic) and has so little knowledge of just about anything outside of the books she sneaks, the Bible and the various non fiction books she reads.

I struggled a bit with Maeve Fly (that one scene 😅) but found this book less extreme. Leede again does an excellent job with her portrayal of a female protagonist who is struggling to fit into a society not designed to accept her. There’s quite a bit of religious commentary and also about how religion has negatively impacted women in so many different ways. I really enjoyed the story. It’s dark, well written and Leede is fantastic at creating scenes that are so unique and vivid.

It’s a dark, sad book and PLEASE check trigger warnings if sensitive to certain content. The characters were almost all affable. It was a struggle for me to understand Sophie at times but her character arc is flawless. Obviously Barghest is the goodest throat ripping boy ever, and I loved the whole clan of Ben, Maro, Cleo, Wyatt and Helen. Noah was also fantastic.

I could definitely use a sequel to this one. Apocalyptic fiction has always been my jam and Leede interjects a fresh perspective and also keeps it fairly grounded with how an outbreak would be handled in the US. I enjoyed this book immensely and would recommend it to those who appreciate darker horror that’s well written. The prose had excellent flow and the book is a definite vibe.

This novel is paced incredibly, with just enough lyricism to the prose to keep it interesting. Each allusion is used to the fullest and creates strong repetitive motifs that enhance the narrative.

While I do not share much of the protagonist's experiences in life it didn't make it any less poignant.

It's visceral and disgusting but real and relatable. The only critique I have is I feel like it leans a little too into tropes and can occasionally get too obvious with symbolism in its imagery but other than that it's a remarkably solid read.

I grew up in western NC and knew of some kids who went to fundamentalist churches - no celebrating Halloween, no dancing, no rock music, no wizard school books, etc. My family was pretty mellow though, especially to me, the youngest child, who never had to go to Catholic school despite passing comments through the years (yay!)

I don't know if any kids at my school were sent to homes or conversion therapy programs, but I also didn't know a single person who was openly gay until I moved away. And YEAH, that certainly messed me up a bit.

Sophie, the protagonist in our story, is less lucky. She's traumatically separated from her twin at a young age, and singled out at her Catholic school for being even more sheltered than her fellow students. When a virus that causes lust and violence rapidly spreads across the US, she must quickly figure out the world for herself and decide who to include in her new life.

I loved the different settings and characters throughout this novel. It's very fast-paced so I finished in two days because it was hard to put down. The story is grim but retains heart and will probably be a surefire book for fans of found family, female coming-of-age stories, and folks recovering from religious trauma. I really enjoyed it, but I also think it would have been *the book* for me at age 16. I can't gift it to her, but I know it'll reach some people who really need it. I'll definitely be reading Maeve Fly soon!

Content warnings: there's a lot of sexual violence, which should be predictable from the book description, but it can be graphic. There's also animal death.

Thank you for the eARC NetGalley and Tor Nightfire! It was sincerely enjoyed.

This book was heartbreaking. I saw this coming but I still felt unprepared. It was a super unique look at a zombie apocalypse in a time when I thought we'd seen it all. Nope! To be honest, I'm a huge Rachel Harrison fan and will read anything she recommends, and that's how I got here. That's why I've decided to read this book, which is so far out of my comfort zone. Religious trauma? Very not my thing. This book did it so well though! It starts very slow paced with the character not knowing anything is even going on due to her parents. I think her fear of being disowned by the only people she knows is very real and relatable to a lot of people today, and made me think of the LGBTQ+ community. Overall, this book was very good and I would recommend it to someone who wants a unique zombie apocalypse stories with stakes where everyone doesn't make it. I will put a spoiler trigger warning after this part though, because I wish I'd known. SPOILER: the dog doesn't make it. I have a low tolerance for this in any kind of book so that greatly decreased my enjoyment but I know that's just me.

5 ⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review purposes.

Since I loved Maeve Fly, this had some high expectations to live up to and CJ Leede knocked it out of the park. In American Rapture, our main character Sophie is a teenage girl overly sheltered by her highly religious parents. But her parents can no longer protect her from the world when they catch the rapidly spreading infection that is turning people into sex-crazed zombies. Sophie must then venture into the world and try to survive in a world that is as depraved as she was warned. Or is it?

I absolutely loved this book! Sophie has such an interesting and complex journey as she tries to survive while unlearning what her heavily religious upbringing has taught her about the world and her own feelings and thoughts. All of the characters that Sophie meets on her journey were unique and brought such a rich depth to the book. As always, CJ Leede's writing is poignant and vivid. The only negative point I can make about this book is [spoiler and trigger warning] that the dog dies.

I absolutely recommend picking up this book for the horror season if you want a unique twist on a zombie story and for anyone who has deconstructed from a strict religious upbringing.

The fear, guilt and emphasis on purity that gets hammered into children by the Catholic Church is really well represented in this. It also does a great job at showing how much this focus on keeping people (mostly girls) naive for the sake of remaining “pure” is dangerous.

The horror and gore in this is great. I really liked the found family aspects. It was touching, upsetting, relatable and uncomfortable.

An incredible coming-of-age horror novel with lots of religious overtones (which definitely add to the horror story) incredibly unique and exciting!

"American Rapture" is CJ Leede's second full length horror novel, and a big departure from her American Psycho-esque first ("Maeve Fly"). We follow Sophie, a 17 year old Catholic whose family has disowned her twin brother for not following the faith. Sophie tries so hard to be the devout Christian that her parents expect her to be, but when a plague begins sweeping the nation, everything changes. The sickness colloquially called Sylvia, a COVID-like illness that also turns people into lustful killing machines, begins infecting folks in Sophie's small Wisconsin town. For the first time in her life, Sophie escapes her strict religious upbringing and begins to see the world with new eyes.

As someone who did not grow up with religion, this felt a little heavy handed for me. But as a librarian, the religious extremism of banning books, burning vaccination centers, and wreaking havoc in the name of "Christianity" hit so close to home. I think it will speak to a large group of people in an extremely personal way. Leede's "American Rapture" is a surprisingly dark coming-of-age horror, a tad similar Stephen King's "The Stand," but for the internet age. Peppered with Midwest landmarks like Wisconsin Dells and The House on the Rock, this emotionally complex tale that is sure to make you cringe and cry (in a good way).

QUOTE: In the zombie apocalypse, “sin is made up and stupid. It doesn’t exist”.

Where to begin with this review? ⋆.˚ ˗ˏˋ 🧟‍♀️ ˎˊ˗ ⋆.˚ It's the zombie apocalypse turned on its head. Talk about the most disturbing and dangerous virus to take hold; this is it.

FIRST OFF
Let's be clear that this story starts slow and gains momentum as any zombie story does. Sophie’s parents are part of an “extreme” religious community living in Wisconsin. They believe living for God will bring them closer to God (which most Christians believe). Let's pray the evils of the world away or completely ignore them because that's always worked right. LOL 🤣

People are aware of this “new” virus. It's been on the news, and the larger cities are starting to prepare by informing residents. Her parents are aware of the virus and ignore the warnings because (you guessed it)…living on the fringes of society and living for God will protect them. So they hide the newspapers, and Sophie isn’t allowed to watch TV or have a phone and no social media.

Sophie, however, is brilliant, so while she can't see the news, she reads everything from the library she can find. All those instructional manuals would be helpful.

*******
This virus is maddening, and much like a typical zombie Apocalypse, this is not. This virus affects the part of the brain and releases your sexual inhibitions. People are (literally) feverish and screwing themselves to death and trying to burrow into every graphic until there is nothing left. Sexual orientation doesn’t matter. Once the virus takes you. You desire everyone.

50% MARK
Wow!!! I don’t know what's more maddening, this virus and the hysteria surrounding it or Sophie herself. I didn’t think at this point she would survive because she knows nothing, but I’ll give her this: she’s learning quickly. Her only goal is to get to her brother, Noah. Who, of course, has been sent away because he’s sick. (not hardly) Let’s pray the Gay away, ladies and gentlemen, because, oh yeah, that works. 🤦🏾‍♀️ We’ll pretend we only have one child and drive that one crazy.

This novel, by far, is much more terrifying than any other zombie apocalypse I’ve seen (or read). And a new human threat has been introduced, killing off survivors in the name of Jesus. (really) For the record, the infected are not just trying to “eat your brains and steal your knowledge." 🎶

FINAL THOUGHTS 💭
5.00 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hands down the best zombie 🧟 apocalypse book I’ve read in a while that I finished.

It's gory, graphic, and violent. Friendships and bonds are made, and people you care about don’t make it. I loved it. This book is worth all the hype. Highly recommended!!!

Podcast review coming soon!
https://open.spotify.com/show/6vVz2Cu5zNYRskIjMAKwii

I have been trying to decide how I felt about this book for a while, and I think this is a case of me wishing I was more of the intended audience than I actually am. I didn’t have an even remotely religious upbringing so a lot of the imagery and references (and there was a LOT of them) went straight over my head. Also, as a Wisconsin native, Sophie’s journey across America’s Dairyland felt so explicitly written by someone from out of state and I’m so sorry to say it lol. I did ultimately enjoy the story even if I couldn’t connect with it like I wanted to though! It was violent and so deeply disturbing I had to put it down just to recalibrate several times and I appreciated the COVID-19 parallels and the commentary on religious extremism.

Thanks to NetGalley/Tor for providing me and ARC for this book!

This story was a true pandemic horror story with action that just never let up once it started. Sophie is coming of age and reckoning with her strict religious upbringing while the world around her is falling into chaos, and the result is about as emotional as you’d expect.

I loved the found family aspect of this book and feel that it was one of the strongest parts. The side characters are so human and give real emotional depth to Sophie’s journey. Even the dog provides a nice counterbalance to her characterization.

I also appreciate that the author pushed the horrifying aspects of this as much as possible. There is just so much devastation—it’s almost hard to catch your breath in the second half of the book. And I’ll admit there were scenes that were poignant enough to make me teary.

The only thing keeping me from giving this four stars is that I found the beginning of the book to be quite slow, and had a hard time getting into it. There was almost too much set up and character introduction in my opinion. But, like I said, the second half has a break-neck pace that kept me eagerly reading. I found it to be almost like two different experiences reading the beginning of the book vs the remainder.

Overall, a solid read with tons of action and a main character that I’m sure many who grew up in a similar background will relate to.

Oh, are we all talking about American Rapture?

Thanks @aardvarkbookclub for making (one) of our November choices easy. Those posts counted as a spoiler right? If not consider this conjecture.

This book has been everywhere for quite a while now. Months ago, even, @matts_books.and.drams hosted a zoom with @ceejthemoment to talk about it! (Thanks to you both.)

This book is clearly having a moment. I have talked to so many people about how this book made them feel seen. And from the author who gave us "I see you", that's pretty powerful stuff.
It's also some pretty vulnerable stuff. CJ has been really open with how personal this novel is; from the Catholic Guilt to the Crippling Grief.
It's really beautiful and inspiring to see.

I never thought I'd be grateful to have been raised Baptist instead of Catholic, but I guess I am. I always thought l'd like the Catholics better because of all that AESTHETIC and ritual but damn... are yall okay?

I'll happily stay unaffiliated with either.

If you're looking for more ways to love this book, CJ has merch and so does
@kayleighcreates_! This book has so much heart, support the creators whose work shows that.

Thank you @tornightfire and @netgalley for the early copy!

Happy Wednesday!

Thought this was an overall enjoyable reading experience. I love anything about Catholic folks acting out and this possessed no shortage of that. I have so many friends I’ve recommended this one to, and I can’t wait for it to publish so they can read it too.

3.5 ☆
-
I don’t even know what to say about this book! This was strangely weird, uncomfortable, and a little cringeworthy. I don’t know if I liked it or not. I was highly intrigued by what was going on in this world, but at the same time, it was weird and uncomfortable. Yeah, this book will probably make you lose your mind, lol. Check the trigger warnings before reading this book.
The audiobook was good. The narrator did a good job telling the story and was super easy to listen to and understand.
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Thank you. Netgalley, MacmillanAudio, and Tor Publishing for the audiobook and ebook in exchange for my honest review.

First of all, WOW. This was my first book by CJ Leede and it will most definitely not be my last.

American Rapture is told as the recounting of 16 year old Sophie, a very sheltered midwestern girl brought up in an extreme Catholic household and already separated from her twin brother Noah as the story begins. Add in a pandemic, in which a virus mutates into a strain that turns people into sexually violent zombies before eventually killing them, and it becomes an apocalyptic coming of age tale as well as an indictment of religious indoctrination and guilt.

American Rapture is also just a damn good Zombie Apocalypse survival story (one of my favorite tropes) and I flew through it, couldn’t put it down. There is fast paced action with an awesome sense of place (Wisconsin) and a group of characters you come to really care about. I was horrified, grossed out, and it made me cry, but in the end the reader is left with a sense of hope. I loved it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read Leede’s previous debut novel, Maeve Fly, which just moved to the top of my tbr list. CJ Leede is a much needed voice in modern horror. I am a fan!

Listen, as an afab person raised in a conservative Christian homeschooling community, I was AGGRESSIVELY the target audience for this book. But I think even if I weren’t, I’d be impressed with the heart and care and complexities present in this story. CJ really has done something spectacular here for those of us that are trying to navigate a world that feels so fundamentally different than the one we were sure existed, and that, I think, is something everyone has to do at one point in their life or another. Or maybe at every point.

The characters were so quietly real and complex, each one grappling with their own questions and griefs. Even amidst the splashy, gory moments of violence, Sophie’s responses to the horror are the focus, how these moments inform who she is and who she is becoming. It does wonders to ground the book’s particularly bananas concept.

This book feels like an anthropological exploration of the apocalypse, in the same way Becky Chambers writes anthropological explorations of space. The question of how society reforms, who helps, who harms, and who is caught in between is so loud, and feels so true to the world we currently inhabit.

Plot is a little meandering but in a way that feels right for the genre. Apocalypse books aren’t a tight quest, they’re about survival. The emotional arc is ROCK SOLID in a way that allows for the ‘and then this happens’ parts of the plot to feel grounded. The prose is lovely, even if CJ is a bit of a fragment sentence girlie in a way I personally don’t love. I think her language is so simple yet perfectly evocative of what she wants to get across.

I will be recommending this one pretty hard.

This was somehow more upsetting than Maeve Fly and in different ways. Any pandemic-based horror hits harder and more personally now, understandably, and with the religious trauma and teen sexuality crisis thrown in, this was absolutely too close to home on multiple levels. I was physically tensed and cringing the entire way through. This was the best use of House on the Rock as a setting in a novel I've read (and I've read several). C.J. Leede's afterword helped contextualize the brutal dog death, but be warned that it's there.

Sixteen year-old Sophie Allen has lead a very sheltered life in Wisconsin, and particularly ascetic since the night her twin brother Noah was sent away for possessing contraband magazines. Sophie desperately misses her twin and only gets to speak to him once a week on the phone. Usually during these calls she recounts the plot from whatever library book she has managed to slip past her mother. Her home is cold and loveless and she has no friends at school.

Amidst Sophie's naivete and her awakening sexuality, a plague starts to break out across America. The virus causes manic, violent lust as it tries to spread itself from one host to the next. Alone and frightened, Sophie heads out to find her brother to ensure that he is safe. Along the way she forges a new family and questions what goodness and sin truly mean.

I liked this novel, I thought that there were some awesome horror set pieces and moments. As a woman who was also raised in the Church and taught that sex and sexuality were things of which to be ashamed, I appreciated the conversations that Sophie had with Cleo. So, with the big caveat out of the way that I liked the book a lot, I am going to be picky about the things that I felt could have been done better.

Perhaps since the book is told from Sophie's perspective, I did not have a good sense of the other characters' personalities for much of the book. Helen and Wyatt just kind of existed for several chapters without really providing much value to the story. Sophie's character also could have been given more opportunity for choice. At the beginning of the plague, she chooses to leave home, but then her movements are dictated by Maro for most of the novel. I know her motivation is to find Noah, but I wish that had driven more of the action than it ultimately did.

Perhaps my biggest complaint about the novel has nothing to do with the author's work, and was likely completely out of her control. The blurb and cover for this book are a total tonal mismatch for the novel. The comparison to American Gods is limited to the use of House on the Rock as an important set piece. Otherwise, no commonalities between the two novels. The sexually-charged pun on the cover also feels out of place for the tone of the book. Yes! I swear! The violence in this book is never portrayed as sexy, or arousing, or funny. If Grady Hendrix had written this book, then that tagline probably would have been appropriate. But it doesn't fit here. Leede has written a truly terrifying exploration of lust, desire, sexuality, sin, and temptation. Please do her the favor of marketing her book correctly.

C.J. Leede is such an interesting author. Both this book and her debut Maeve Fly deal in sex, violence, and the treatment of women in society but they come at those topics from completely different angles. American Rapture is a story about a catastrophic virus turning people into murderous, sex-crazed attackers. But it’s also about Sophie, a good Catholic girl, coming of age as she’s learning the ways she’s been sheltered by her parents and having to interrogate whether her faith is correct. Instead of quarantining and sheltering in place, Sophie sets out to find her brother who her parents sent away years ago.

Religious horror isn’t one of my favorite subgenres when the religion is there to save the day. But stories where people are learning that maybe religion is the true horror can really appeal to me. Throughout the story Sophie is being exposed to the different ways that some people use religion as a tool of hate and discrimination instead of unconditional love. A major theme of the book is how sex and sexuality is treated differently for men and women. With women being called temptresses and having to conceal themselves or else men will lose control. A lot of that is made literal with the virus that causes people to become insatiable and sexually assault others to satisfy their urges.

This book is full of the threat of sexual assault, both from infected parties and just run-of-the-mill awful people. Sophie has been so sheltered that she is extremely confused about sex and what exactly is going on in the world. It was nice seeing the moments where she gets to learn about sexuality in a safe way. Among all the horror there are sweet moments of her connecting with others that she meets on the road and reflections of her relationship with her brother.

I was so invested in Sophie’s story, whether she was going to be reunited with her brother, what her ultimate feelings about religion were going to be, and what would happen with all of her new companions. This book is a brutal, wild ride from start to finish. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but if the concept sounds interesting to you then I definitely recommend checking it out.

I liked Maeve Fly but didn't LOVE it, mainly due to the stream of consciousness writing style, so when I started this one and saw a similar style, I was apprehensive. Somehow, I liked it better in this case, because it was more the questioning of life as you know it than the slow descent into madness.

Sophie Allen is a 16 year old girl who has been extremely sheltered all her life by her devout Catholic parents. Struggling with guilt over her twin brother being disowned for being gay and shame over her newly womanly body, fear enters the mix when a newly mutated virus sweeps the country, turning the infected into sex crazed demons. Her bizarre sect joins forces with other Christians throughout the country to prevent vaccination efforts, certain that this is God's will to bring on the Rapture. After her parents succumb to the disease, Sophie ventures out into the apocalyptic hellscape to try to find her brother, narrowly escapes attacks by several of the infected, and is taken under the wing of a young police officer who couldn't save his sister, so tries to save Sophie instead. This was almost a sweet found family story, complete with (violently protective) dog, if you just forget about all the rape and violence. Not for the faint of heart, this stirred up some pandemic PTSD for sure, and the sexual undertones between 16 year old Sophie and 24 year old Maro were ✨ uncomfortable ✨ I am BIG MAD that I made it to almost the end of the book and then saw someone trigger warning a major spoiler to the climactic end, which maybe I should have assumed because horror doesn't get HEAs, but also, if you need to trigger warning it, it's probably not the genre for you anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️ So unfortunately the ending did lose its impact for me slightly as a result, but the last line was perfection in its vaguery, and I savagely wanted it to be true.