As the Prophet grows more dangerous, Agnes realizes she must escape with Ezekiel and leave everyone else, including Beth, behind. But it isn't safe Outside, either: A viral pandemic is burning through the population at a terrifying rate. As Agnes ventures forth, a mysterious connection grows between her and the Virus. But in a world where faith, miracles, and cruelty have long been indistinguishable, will Agnes be able to choose between saving her family and saving the world? 4/5 STARSI wanted to start off by saying thank you to Kelly for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was definitely one of the most unique i've read this year and I was excited to get my hands on it. To start off with, the book itself is gorgeous; I'm obsessed with the cover design, it was what first drew me to it. The combination of the dark colours with the red? Stunning.
This review contains spoilers for the plot and character arcs. Continue at your own risk! Our two POV characters are Agnes and Beth, sisters who have grown up in Red Creek with their younger siblings and their parents. I really liked the contrast between the two POVs too, which is rare for me but it just worked really, really well in this book, especially as the sisters went down different paths. I was rooting for them both as people and as sisters from the start. The girls are very different people, and their relationship and character arcs for me were one of the best parts of this book. My favourite character was Beth because I couldn't really identify as much with Agnes' level of faith and self sacrifice. She felt too otherworldly to me whereas Beth, with her ache for a tattoo, for freedom, for love, was a character I could really get behind and understand more. I liked Agnes too, but Beth was definitely my favourite. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of the other siblings and of their mother too, I don't remember much about them because the focus was mostly on Agnes, Beth and Zeke. The plot was a great take on an end of the world type situation, i've not personally read anything like it before, and it was interesting to see it unfold from the POV of someone in a cult that had been expecting the end of the world. The first half of the book was definitely my favorite, when Agnes and Beth were struggling with detangling themselves from the cult in Red Creek. I felt like this is where most of their character growth took place, and where we got to know them most and the second half felt like it was a little too tidily wrapped up considering what had gone on over the course of the book. Overall, this book is a feminist, uplifting ode to a better world. I've had a lot of bad experiences and associations with religion so the last third, where things become less about Agnes breaking away from the cult and more about her and her relationship with God, were a bit uncomfortable for me to read but I could tell that the intention was of love, and caring and moving forward to changing the world to be a better place and I 100% support all of that and I'm happy that people, especially those who are religious, can find themselves in this book and see a positive figure who is religious. I recommend this to anyone who loves female lead stories about breaking free from oppressive situations, especially if you like a bit of dystopia/end of the world thrown in. The uniqueness, the plot, the characters, they're all interesting and attention grabbing, and I think the message of love is important.
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Reviewer26. Capricorn. INFP. Hufflepuff. Archives
October 2020
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