Book Review: American Rapture by CJ Leede

 

 American Rapture by CJ Leede 

 384 pages, Hardcover
Published October, 2024 by Tor Nightfire

Full Podcast interview coming in November...

I have an unfair relationship with CJ Leede’s first novel Mave Fly. It was a massive success, and I saw plenty of excitement about it. Before I read it, I was selling books at the San Diego Book Festival and my fellow tabling authors were Chad Stroup (Secrets of the Weird) and Brian Asman (Good Dogs). They talked about Mave Fly for a solid twenty minutes singing its praises. They hyped it so much, and I respect their opinions that I think the novel could not possibly meet the hype. I might have been unfair to that book, I thought it was good but didn’t love it as much as my friends. You should probably trust them.

That said, American Rapture is right up my alley, in the weird apocalypse subgenre.  Any person following my reviews should know that is my absolute favorite. This novel appears to be a 300-page response to the inherent sexual repression issues that Catholics grow up with. As such the lust pandemic here is more social science fiction than this concept might suggest. You might think you are getting an exploitive violent fest, and there are intense moments for sure.  This is a hard read, brutal at times with as many trigger warnings as the most hardcore of horror novels.

To an outsider who is not Catholic and has not had direct interaction with the religion - the church has always seemed to have issues. The repression that children feel is one aspect, the sex abuse of the priests is another. This novel appears to be an angry reaction to that Catholic upbringing. I love novels that feel like the author has a rage inside they need to get out.

Sophie is our POV character, as always with first-person perspective I have to point out that it is not my favorite tool for narrative construction. That said, I quickly forgot about it as I got involved with the events of this weird apocalyptic tale. There are several characters like the young police officer Maro, a young friend named Ben, and very importantly the dog Barghest. Both Maro and Barghest take on the role of Sophie’s protector, but without spoiling the characters unspool in the story with interesting complications.

 This take on a subgenre with a lust plague makes American Rapture a slightly more frightening version of the 28 Days Later rage virus that includes a sexual component. An interesting component of the political subtext in this novel is the constant threat of sexual violence and fear creates for the reader that seemed to be a statement the feeling being in a hypersexualized rape culture. This is a message of great value for the men reading this story who have never experienced this and need something like this to contextualize what rape culture is.

The novel is about the sexual repression that many Catholics feel exploding into the wider culture.  This to me is a powerful hinge of the novel, but also a reason for those serious trigger warnings I already mentioned.

Forget about those heavy issues for a moment. The characters in this novel are also a strong aspect of the overall piece. Sophie as our narrator comes of age in the events of the novel. She starts off sheltered, hidden from experiences, deeply concerned for her brother Nick who has recently come out as gay. The brother is mostly off-screen, but his presence is felt throughout.  Maro is still a young man, but old enough to make his relationship with Sophie uncomfortable for readers. Very interesting. Sophie and the reader essentially have to suspect everyone as the whole thing spreads across the country…

“I am out the front door I don't feel my legs. They don't feel anything. My head is spinning, and nausea threatens to overwhelm me. They are possessed, they have to be it wasn't them possession would be preferable, anything would be to … that.”

“It doesn't kill everyone, does it?"

I feel desperation in my voice. He must hear it too, see it on my face. It gives me the most terrible look of all. Pity.

“I'm sorry, kid. I don't know About your family, or … it's…” he clears his throat and takes a deep breath “What we know is if they get to the comma you know, sexual stage ellipse they die. People aren't surviving. It's why there's a quarantine, I mean do you know how much it takes for the government to step in like they're doing? And this fast? This is massive.”

The chapter 'infection' is about her parents being infected and attacking her and it is a disturbing chapter, especially in the context of the Catholic nature of the main character. This moment of horror and tension only works because of the character work throughout.  That said CJ Leede did great with the action details…

“Try to push up onto 1 elbow, but it too slides out from under me. The same substance I slipped in. I've fallen in something wet and sticky. Globs of it. On one of my legs, under my arm, seeping into wet my side through my shirt. The room smells heavily of chlorine and a little of human waste. Bile rises in my throat, and I will myself to breathe. Probably soap. It's just soap. I press myself up with one hand and feel the substance there as well vicious, that tangy acidic smell.”

I got the feeling this was a work long in process. But there are smart twists inspired by the events we all went through in the pandemic.

“St. Michael’s crusaders,” Helen says.

Headache subsiding, the world still spins by. We’ve been driving for only five or ten minutes, the smoke just starting to lesson;

“The Reverend Ansel people?” Ben asks

“Yeah.”

“What are they doing? Why do they look like that?”

“It’s like I said before. They’re burning all the vax centers down. Don’t want anyone impeding God’s work to rid the world of sinners.”

American Rapture is a fantastic sophomore effort, one that I personally enjoyed a lot more than Leede’s debut. You’ll hear that this novel is not as transgressive as Mave Fly, but that is not true. It is more subtext, but this novel is a smart live wire of political speculative horror. I am all about it.