I venture to say that this is not the best landscape for a coming of age saga, at least for Sophie, that is.

I enjoy C.J. Leede’s work quite a bit. It’s bleak and occasionally pretty intense. And has a lot of heart too.

Even though this one lulled a bit for me in a few parts it was still paced well enough to keep me engaged throughout. I even enjoyed most of the religious imagery which is sometimes difficult for me to take. It wasn’t too heavy and handled very deftly.

3.5 Stars! Looking forward to more from C.J.

American Rapture is a wild ride through a plague/zombie apocalypse told through the eyes of a teenaged girl raised in an extremely repressive Catholic household. It explores the mysteries of faith and anguish of teen desire. The build-up is slow, like any good zombie horror setting, and the payoff is terrifying. Imagine a flu that could mutate and turn you into a super strong sex-craved demon. The sin! The guilt! The violent assault! We follow Sophie, just shy of 17, as she tries to survive amidst the ongoing and increasing mania around her, and search for her twin brother who was whisked away in the night several years ago to a Catholic conversion center for wayward teens. Sophie and a small group of survivors must deal not only with the fear of infection and attacks from the infected, but also the evil machinations of religious Crusaders who believe they must help God's plan for the end times along by attacking vaccination centers. American Rapture is timely, thought-provoking, heartbreaking, and horrifying. A perfect read for the upcoming spooky season.

Moniqua Plante's narration is quite breathy, which I don't necessarily love in an audiobook all the time. However, it did feel appropriate for our narrator Sophie, who was a scared teenager.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2024, and it also happens to be one of my favorites as well. I went to all Catholic, private schools growing up, and since I've stepped far away from that culture, I feel like I was drawn right back in while reading this. I truly felt as though I was inside the story with how well she described the religious culture in the Midwest. I also had a true appreciation for how well she wrote about the places in the Midwest so well, especially The House on the Rock. It was like I was on a tour of that insane place again.
CJ Leede took an apocalyptic phenomenon to the next level at the height of religious chaos. This atmospheric story will have you connected from start to finish with not only the story, but with the characters; the emotional connection I had with them was top notch.

This was such an interesting and thought provoking book! I absolutely loved the chaos of it all and really enjoyed how the story played out. My biggest issue was not even an issue at all because it’s just a “me” thing - as someone who is not at all religious and never has been, I had a hard time relating but that truly didn’t stop me from enjoying the story at all be she’s the way CJ told the story was still very entertaining.

3.5 stars!

American Rapture is my first book from CJ Leede. I went into this book blind. I really enjoyed the first half of the book then it started to feel repetitive to me. I didn't hate the story at all. I was thoroughly engaged until the last half of the book. I've read amazing reviews about her previous book, Maeve Fly. This one was ok though. Not my favorite but definitely worth a read!

I really enjoyed this! I especially liked the setting being in Wisconsin because we don't often see that, and I knew most of the locations referenced which was fun to relate to. I thought the characters had great development and the premise is very unique.

An emotional and harrowing coming-of-age tale, CJ Leede’s second published novel is less insane and disgusting than her first, but no less compelling. There’s a lot to juggle here - a pandemic zombie survival story about sexual awakenings and oppressive religious shame probably shouldn’t work, but this absolutely does. The writing is swift and evocative - specific in that Stephen King way that’s all about the characters instead of getting bogged down in the details themselves - and I enjoyed spending time with Sophie and her inner turmoil a great deal. In particular I appreciate her willingness to take her destiny in her own hands: there’s a more passive version of this character being carried upstream by the forces around her, but this journey of self-discovery is very clearly about a girl who had this in her all along.

I also had the privilege of experiencing this both through eARC and audiobook, courtesy of NetGalley, Tor Nightfire, and Macmillan Audio, to whom I’m extremely grateful. I found both experiences great, but also think that Sophie is the most different of anything across the two versions: she’s desperate in both iterations, but on the page she’s angrier, while in the audio I found her more scared and confused. An intriguing difference.

A great book! Reminded me a lot of Andrew Joseph White, who is also consistently unafraid to write nasty, dark horror about teenagers escaping the shackles of their trauma and discovering What It Is To Be. I continue to love Leede’s interest in exploring both the liberating power and horrifying potential of lust. I found her endnote legitimately moving and quite wonderful, too. While I didn’t love this the way I loved <i>Maeve Fly</i>, I still find her to be one of the most impressive new voices in horror and am so excited to see where she continues to go from here.

American Rapture is a a remarkable sophomore effort for CJ Leede. It has deep rooted themes in shame, guilt, faith, and religious repression. It has characters and dogs to fall in love with, a unique spin on a pandemic/zombie apocalypse, and more heart than you'd expect in a horror novel.

Also, this is not Maeve Fly. I wasn't quite as shocked by things in this book like I was with Maeve. Maybe I'm numb to it and a lust-inducing virus that creates sex-crazed zombies will shock most readers. Instead, I think this books shows off Leede's writing and story telling prowess. She spins Sophie's coming of age tale in the lust-zombie apocalypse with grace, style and heart. Maeve Fly announced CJ was here, but American Rapture announces CJ is here to stay.

The audiobook had a listener's note at the end, I think narrated by CJ, that I really loved and resonated with. It gives you a little extra context and history of the book that I think added to its impact on me.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing an ALC. All opinions are my own.

I was not a fan of the book. It just keeps going and going. I was engaged until about halfway through, and it got very repetitive. She got somewhere safe, and then she had to run for her life while wanting to run off on her own to find her brother when she had to be saved by everyone around her. Sophie was somewhat insufferable except for her dated How-To knowledge. One character dies, which made me so angry that I almost DNF the book because I had it. I felt like I dragged myself through the whole story, and the ending was so anticlimactic. I am a fan of the body horror and the writing itself. The audiobook was performed perfectly. The narrator did a great job creating voices for the characters.

Wow! The author's note absolutely gutted me about why she wrote this book. A strict Catholic girl trying to understand the world that has been kept from her, including sexual urges when America suddenly has an outbreak of a virus that makes people become overly sexualized to the point of killing. Sophie has to navigate this new world without dying, and she encounters new friends along the way. This book absolutely broke me in one part that CJ Leede discusses in her Author's Note. This book discusses friendships, love, and religion. Such an amazing book. In fact, the narrator gave me an anxiety attack by the way she portrayed Sophie. I could not imagine being in Sophie's shoes, being scared all the time that she is a bad person and having to worry about what is right and wrong.

Just when I thought I couldn’t love a @ceejthemoment book more than Maeve Fly…AMERICAN RAPTURE came and said, “YOU THOUGHT!”😂😂😂

…AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE PHENOMENAL AUDIOBOOK 1000/10 recommend!!! @moniquaplante killed it!!! The 14+hr audio literally flewwww by and I was entertained the entire time and was legitimately sad when it was over!

This book has everything, including an apocalyptic level contagion, sexual awakenings, a Midwest setting, religious trauma, and moments that are equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious (which @ceejthemoment has a special talent of doing like no other!!)

5⭐️

✨Synopsis: A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin.

⭐️AMERICAN RAPTURE, out OCT 15th⭐️

Thank you to @macmillan.audio for the review ALC of this book! #MacAudio2024

#americanrapture #cjleede #macmillianaudio #tornightfire #torbooks

CJ Leede continues to serve. She strayed away from gory horror and brought back the epidemic (both physical and religious) horror. She created a great character who broke the walls built around her under the name of religion and with power of youth opened her mind to what life really is. Forget about the plot, I was in it for the arch Sophie went through. And CJ Leede - your note to reader wasn't lost on me!

Sophie had little too much fear of God in her. Her parents not even blurred the lines between having faith and following an organized religion but they thought those were one and the same. Sophie was stuck in a very thick jar and her only solace was library. Meanwhile, world was getting traumatized with a new epidemic making people go crazy with lust. Didn't matter how protected they were, Sophie's household was hit with it to Sophie's horror. After that moment. Sophie was a girl on a run trying to find her twin.

I'm looking forward for more Leede books. I was very impressed by her debut. This book showed me the different side of her. I hope her next books give me different faces of her.

This book is just…wow. It broke me, in the best way. For me, a five-star rating is a perfect book, one that I wouldn’t change a thing about, and this is that.

It’s the end of the world, in the form of a pandemic that makes people lustful to the point of violence. We follow Sophie, a teen girl from an ultra-conservative Christian family who was raised in an extremely sheltered environment. As she’s navigating the weird apocalypse hellscape to try to reach her twin brother, we learn about her life, her family, and her shifting morals and ideals.

I love horror as a means of processing trauma, and it seems that this is what CJ Leede has done with this book. I was raised Catholic growing up and so much of Sophie’s questioning of her religious views reminds me of myself at her age. Sophie proves to be an extremely capable, knowledgeable character (despite her parents’ efforts to quash that). I also love pandemic horror, processing our collective experience of the past few years.

And the author’s note at the end makes it clear that THAT character death was her way of processing a personal loss, too.

If I’m being nitpicky, the pacing seemed to lag at times, but more importantly, I know it's a spoiler, but I think that this book would SERIOUSLY benefit from a big ole trigger warning for

***SPOILERS AHEAD***



<spoiler>the most horrific, prolonged animal death I’ve ever seen in a horror novel…and I’ve read a lot of horror, including extreme horror. That scene and the ending, I cannot stop thinking about.</spoiler>




Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC/ALC of the audiobook.

CJ Leede has done it again! I loved Maeve Fly so much so as soon as I saw this book listed I knew I had to request it. I went into it expecting similar vibes and while it definitely is still horror, this one has a little bit slower pace and you can feel the amount of love and effort put into this book. I think CJ is going to be a big name in the horror genre for years to come. She is totally unique and I'm obsessed with her work. This book gives me vibes similar to The Walking Dead.

The book's concept is totally insane to start with. If you read the synopsis and are still weirded out by the content, then why did you even pick this book up? The negative reviews were literally commenting on what it already says in the description. I have to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of the MC, Sophie but I do think she was extremely well written. Sophie is a 16-year old ultra sheltered Catholic girl and slowly over the course of the book she is having to rethink her entire belief system all while trying to survive. As a former Christian (although not to the same extent as Sophie) it is always comforting when you have characters like Cleo, Ben, and Noah who are not trying to persuade Sophie against her beliefs but to assure her that thinking and doing certain things don't make you a bad person. Sophie deals with a lot of internal shame and guilt that I feel like most people brought up in the church can relate to.

I expected horror but did not expect this to be as sad as it was!! CJ why must you insist on breaking my heart into a million pieces? I feel like it will be a long time before I stop thinking about this book. I need a sequel!! I am looking forward to more from this author in the future. If you are brave enough give this one a read / listen!

"American Rapture" by CJ Leede is a visceral, high-octane horror novel that tackles religious trauma, sexuality, and survival in a world ravaged by a disturbing, lust-fueled virus. The story follows Sophie, a sheltered Catholic teenager, as she battles to stay alive while questioning everything she's been taught. The novel's intense pacing and raw reflections on faith create an atmosphere of unease, enhanced by body horror and a critique of fundamentalist ideologies.

While the plot draws readers in with its chaotic zombie apocalypse backdrop, it is Sophie's internal journey that stands out, offering a deep dive into the damage of religious indoctrination. The writing is gripping, though its mix of YA themes and extreme violence might jar some readers. The audiobook, narrated by Moniqua Plante, brilliantly captures Sophie's emotional shifts, adding depth to the experience. This is a bold and thought-provoking read for horror fans, but it comes with a heavy dose of trigger warnings.

Last year, I read and LOVED CJ Leede's "Maeve Fly." It was one of my top 10 reads of 2023, and she quickly became an auto-buy author for me. When I read the synopsis for this book, I knew I had to have it, and I was lucky enough to snag an advanced galley and an ALC of the title. I devoured it in only a couple of days.

The book is set in present-day Wisconsin, and we spend our time with Sophie, a 16-year-old Catholic girl who is very sheltered and very naive. After her parents sent her twin brother away to a hospital for troubled teens, Sophie has been a bit lost. She goes to church and her private Catholic school, prays, reads her bible, and only occasionally sneaks in books that aren't on the approved list set forth by her parents, but she wouldn't exactly call herself happy.

When news begins to break of a disease spreading through the Northeast, Sophie only receives bits and pieces of the news at school, mainly because her parents shelter her from current events at home. They tell her there's nothing to worry about, but when the virus makes its way to her hometown and eventually into her home, Sophie finds herself doing everything she can to get out of the quarantine zone and find her brother. Along the way, she'll meet new friends and new enemies and question everything she's been taught about good and evil, all while trying to survive being attacked by lust-crazed zombies that will eat your face off while fucking you to death - for real!

Needless to say, with that last sentence, this one is one hell of a wild ride, and I loved every minute of it. There's a lot packed into this novel, and I was here for it! The first several chapters are pretty low-key as we meet Sophie and get a look at her life. She's very sheltered, and we get a ton of religious BS stuffed in our faces, but it's needed to set the tone. The book is told from Sophie's first-person POV, and this gets us into her headspace. Is all the talk about sinners and God annoying? Sure - especially for those of us who grew up in religious communities and had this same crap forced on us - but this is Sophie's life, and she doesn't know any better. This all sets the stage for Sophie's journey, and these first few chapters before all hell breaks loose are necessary to help us see things from Sophie's sheltered and narrow perspective.

Once the shit hits the fan, it's on, and this one doesn't let up. It's a mad dash across Wisconsin as Sophie and her newfound friends fight to stay alive, searching for safety. What I loved about this book was how closely it mirrors our current scenario here in the good old U-S of A. Religious fundamentalists are great at screaming at us and telling us we're sinners and going to hell and that drag queens and gay people are ruining the country - precisely what they do in this book. But this book also illustrates how it's actually these zealots who are ruining the world, and it's their ignorance and the way they force their ideals on everyone that is literally destroying everything.

I had the pleasure of receiving both an electronic galley and an advance listener copy of this book, so I double-fisted the entire thing. This was great because it was a book I couldn't stop thinking about, and it helped me tear through it even faster. The narrator of the audiobook perfectly captures Sophie's innocence, and she changes as Sophie changes. She delivers everything with a lot of emotion - perfectly hitting all the marks along the way. If you're into audiobooks, definitely check this one out!

If you loved "Maeve Fly," then you definitely need to have this book on your TBR. This one may have cured my zombie burnout - I want more! It's action-packed, intense, scary, and has so much to say about the current messed-up ideals of the USA. I can't wait to get my finished copy so I can put it on my shelf right next to Maeve. I can't wait to read what CJ Leede comes up with next.

This book is a masterpiece and is great as an audiobook as well. This is one of the best books of the decade and will be a standard in the Apocalyptic genre for years to come.

Another absolute BANGER by CJ Leede. As an ex-catholic lesbian, I loved the queer representation and the relatable new twist on the typical zombie dystopian concept. Definitely needs some content warnings because I think it’s an easily triggering concept, but it didn’t make the story completely unreadable. It took me a few tries to get into, but once I did I was HOOKED and devoured the story very quickly. I loved how whimsical and it got towards the end and can definitely see this becoming a movie or tv show eventually! Also the author’s note at the end made me tear up. American Rapture has been one of my favorite books of the year thus far

Propulsive. Intoxicating. Bloody.
“I am adrenaline. I am fire. I am a girl desperate to stay alive.”

The flu is making its way through America but this isn’t your average flu. Sophie, a sheltered and well-behaved Catholic girl, is just trying to make it through the awkwardness of her teenage years; feeling ashamed and embarrassed when faced with the secular world. But when this “flu”—causing manic and lustful behavior in the infected—makes its way to the midwest, Sophie will have to do more than just face the secular world… She’s going to have to fight it, causing her to question everything she believes.

I love books with religious themes but they make me shake with rage because of their insanity and how close to reality it is sometimes. Very dystopian/apocalyptic which isn’t usually my cup of tea but alas, I loved it. Leede’s storytelling is distinct and refreshing; it’s hard not to gobble up her stories even if they tend to be slightly repulsing at times.

Compelling reflections on faith, sexuality, identity, mortality, and the freedom of choice.

A dark but brilliant novel brilliantly narrated by Moniqua Plante who was the perfect fit for our MC. The audio was mixed well and Plante helped add even more life to this twisted story.

Thank you Macmillan for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Out 10/15/2024!

This book will make you want to pray for salvation while running straight into hell.

We're following the very sheltered existence of a sixteen year old Catholic girl, when a virus kickstarts the apocalypse and she must run to survive.

I have some conflicted feelings about this story.

👉The body horror is on point.
👉The way the apocalypse rolls out with a focus on feral lust is amazing.
👉The pacing is solid
👉The writing is compelling

That said, our main character is so sheltered, and is discovering the world outside of her Catholic community, which reads very YA. So to have this YA coming of age story on a backdrop of not-YA horror was a confusing reading experience. Additionally, I was hoping to take away some new insight or commentary on religion or about organized religion and I didn't get it. I expected/hoped for a wildly different [much darker] ending.

Let's take a moment to celebrate the amazing work by narrator Moniqua Plante. Since this story centres on a group travelling together through the apocalypse, it's important for the narrator to differential between all of the characters clearly, which Moniqua does brilliantly here. I actually like when she does men's voices more than I think I like the actual voice of men. This is my first book I've heard her narrate and will definitely be looking for her in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

This book is best read before going to confession, you're going to have a lot to say.