Book Review: "American Rapture" by CJ Leede

This was brutal. I was seeing this book everywhere and I kept avoiding it. I avoided it and avoided it over and over again until one day I just snapped. It's late-July 2025 and I'm not going to lie when I say I was pulled in by the Amazon Recommendations machine. It would be on my main recommendations list, it would be on my Kindle "recommended for you" lists and then, when I would get a book on my Kindle, it would appear after the 'thank you' screen when you go to the next recommendations page. After a week or so - I just cracked and now here we are. This is what I thought about American Rapture by CJ Leede.

The house is not just Catholic, it is painfully Catholic. Sophie Allen is not allowed to consume unrestricted and secular media, she's not allowed to do normal teenager things and she has to say prayers multiple times a day. With a family that is obsessed with purity, a mother who is akin to a religiously-inspired monster and nothing but a Bible as her guide, this household is a horror in itself. Sophie lives a terribly sheltered life which is littered with stories about Eve's sin, blaming women for the failures of men, as religion usually does - even though the reader can tell that Sophie wants to grow in her own mind but is not allowed to.

Then we have the close twin brother, Noah. Noah is queer and therefore, after a while he is 'sent away' which is just a extremist Catholic way of saying they sent him to an institution. It is horrific how these people will treat their own children. When Sophie then starts to go to the library, she discovers that there is literature beyond the Bible. One thing I really enjoyed about CJ Leede's writing is that secular literature is usually seen as something revolutionary, which it definitely is. There is something quite beautiful in that message. Whilst Noah is away, Sophie is often obsessing over his wellbeing with a deep sense of guilt and shame. She is traumatised by the way he is being treated by his own family for something he cannot control. All of this is slowly opening her eyes.

This is where it gets weird. A virus breaks out. It's called 'Sylvia' and sends people into fits of sexual violence. It obviously infects Sophie's parents and spreads across the Midwest. But again, this is twisted by the religious nutjobs and they blame the LGBTQA+ community, those who want women's rights, those who want reproductive rights for women and other liberal/progressive folk for the disease in the form of red rashes on the hands - for the disease spreading in the first place. Sophie sets off - she runs away. CJ Leede brings us into a world that is basically eating itself alive and thus, Sophie has absolutely no other option than to exit it like someone running away from Jonestown, the fear of being shot hot on their heels. It is honestly surprising how interesting this book truly was.

She first goes to find Noah. She tries to avoid the infected. She tries to avoid the religious nutjobs. She tries to avoid the military folk who have been employed to help out. As the only civilisation she has ever known collapses around her, billboards burn and things go to shit, there is little left for her in her "home". CJ Leede writes a brilliantly delicious and dark apocalypse, one that is almost too satisfying to read. I cannot believe I was actively avoiding this book. It is a brilliant critique of what is going to happen to the religious nutjobs who want to supress women's rights across the USA. It is quite funny and it is glorious.

Sophie needs to find her brother, build a new family and get away from the apocalypse as soon as possible. The liberation and learning comes at a new point of awakening for Sophie and honestly, I actually feel for this girl. There is something really brave about escaping a literal cult-like family who consults the Bible on quite literally everything in their lives. CJ Leede writes this effortlessly in the first person - making the recount seem almost too realistic. Again, Sophie seems to have her own voice - one that is almost sarcastic at times.

All in all, this book is written brilliantly. I really wish I didn't try to ignore it for so long and I definitely think that if you enjoy any critique of Trump's America or if you just despise JD Vance, then this is definitely the book you want to read. I think I am definitely going to be on the look-out for more CJ Leede books in the future.