American Rapture

By: CJ Leede

Narrated by: Moniqua Plante

Long-listed, CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2024

Long-listed, Esquire Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2024

"Blood-soaked, heart-wrenching, grim and glorious.”—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep

From CJ Leede, the author of Maeve Fly, comes a scorching new apocalyptic novel. American Gods meets The Last of Us in this epic and sweeping story about the end of the world as we know it.

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…

The end times are coming.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.

©2024 CJ Leede (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Leede masterfully eases readers into a taut horror plot in her standout sophomore outing...plenty of page-turning suspense, and this proves hard to put down.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“A bold, fiercely sharp, and deeply unsettling reimagining of the zombie apocalypse genre, which Leede crafts with equal parts anger and unwavering empathy.”—Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus

“A riveting, sprawling, staggeringly brilliant novel about the horrors of shame and repression and sexual violence and moral panics. American Rapture is a riotous scream and an emotional ode to anyone who has ever hidden their true self under their mattress. Blood-soaked, heart-wrenching, grim and glorious. Leede is a singular talent.”—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep

Deep

I hope Ms.Leeds keeps writing! She's good! After reading Maeve Fly(which I absolutely loved), I kind of assumed this to be written in the same way. It has its startling moments but it also have everything else a true writer gives. 🙌

Speechless

What can I say this book kept my attention and I couldn’t stop listening. So many ups and downs and the never ending twists

Unnecessarily Long

The essential plot was good with much potential. However, the book seemed overly long with unnecessary, repetitive details.

Horrific and Beautiful

This book gave me everything I needed and wanted with a heavy theme. A gorgeous and horrifyingly realistic story of trauma and religion. Feminine Rage embodied. One of my favorite books of the year. Heartbreaking and beautiful.

A unique perspective..but

Having listened to Maeve Fly prior to this, and experiencing a sort of vague horrific interest in the author, I decided to give CJ Leede another go and tried this one. I like the idea of an inner monologue from an ultra conservative teen who knows nothing of the world, navigating through a sex ridden zombie apocalypse. I could have loved this audiobook, but the narrator ruined the experience for me. I will be honest, I usually read my books and enjoy the tactile experience. I have listened to a handful of audiobooks and have never paid attention to the narrator's voice unless they are spectacular. This book's voice narrator is breathy, whispery and quite frankly, distracting. I am struggling through the last 2 hours, hoping that this poor girl's inner monologue will show some sort of emotion. I would probably rate this higher if I had read the book instead of listened to it.

Lord, let's survive the apocalypse as a horny teen

Look. Being 17 is hard, being raised in a cult is hard, a zombie apocalypse is hard. Everyone is hard in this book. (Read it and see what I did there.) Sophie is a teen being raised in a strictly biblical home when the zombie flu hits. Added spice to this is that the zombies are rape zombies! Sophie is having sexy thoughts as this is happening.

The thing about this book that I really didn't love was that we were stuck inside of Sophie's brain for hours that were really minutes. Hours. And hours. And hours. During action scenes that took minutes we were listening to Sophie's every brain synapse until whatever was going to happen happened three days ago in listening time. At the end of the book, we had 18 minutes left and it was 18 minutes of Sophie waxing on about... whatever she'd been circularly waxing on about the whole time.

And TROPE ALERT Loved by all, even the girls want her, doesn't know she's pretty.

All of that said, I finished it and the last sentence was devastating.

sooooo wonderful

a tale that moves smoothly along, clean and clear writing that allows the characters and action freedom and room to breath and live authentically. narration spot on. listen read and listen again.

Amazing!

I don’t normally review things but this book is amazing. I loved everything about it. You really feel what Sophie is going through, the struggles with her faith and the loss all around her. Simply amazing.

Another hit from CJ Leede

This book was so good. It makes you think and question things. Highly recommend this

Fireside Story and then some….

During and after the listening, I had to spend a few days to process what I had mentally and emotionally absorbed. First off, CJ Leede’s stunning writing is sublime and this coming of age horror story is so metaphorically prescient for today. I got lost in the story as Moniqua Plante brilliantly performs all the characters. Their voices became palpably relatable in the struggles of self-discovery in a world of survival. Guilt. Sin. Sex. Love. All these human themes are smartly intertwined in a satisfying adventure. Excellent work not to be missed!