American Afterlife
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
An earthquake, a cult, an infection . . . A lone teen fights for survival in the shadows of disaster in this unflinching thriller set in a near-future Pacific Northwest, for fans of Chuck Wendig.
The Pacific Northwest lies in ruins in the aftermath of the 9.2 Cascadia earthquake. There is a tsunami at the coast, annihilated infrastructure in all the towns and cities, and failed dams in the Oregon river valley where 15-year-old Cielo lives with her mother, a fearful evangelical who’s become caught up in a fearsome cult called The Collection of Redeemed Souls. Cielo and her mother, Mexican citizens without U.S. papers, have always had their status teeter on the edge—and now it’s about to plunge into the abyss.
When the earthquake hits, Cielo’s mother hasn’t been home in days, but Cielo suspects that she’s holed up with the cult and might even be dead. When the National Guard arrives to evacuate survivors, she stays behind in the flooded city to find her body. Members of The Collection of Redeemed Souls have also chosen to stay, and their disciples are capturing anyone still left behind and converting them to the cult by force. Entering a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Cielo tries to evade the cult at every turn as she desperately searches for her mother’s remains.
With gunfights and mass killings engulfing the city, Cielo is one step away from her own demise, but the bonds of blood drive her on toward a confrontation with pure evil—and a final chance for her mother’s redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A powerful earthquake in Eugene, Ore., has left Cielo, the teenage narrator of this impressive thriller from Hoffmeister (Too Shattered for Mending as Peter Brown Hoffmeister), scrounging for food and supplies in demolished and abandoned homes, steeling herself against the sight and smells of the ubiquitous human remains. The initial absence of any relief efforts and of any adults she can trust makes even a minor injury life-threatening. Cielo is also bent on finding her missing Mexican immigrant mother, who has allied herself with a cult, the Collection of Redeemed Souls. Her mother was drawn to the group's halcyon promises that its followers would be raptured before the world's tribulations into a new Earth, whose streets would be paved with gold. Cielo must search for nutrition, water, shelter, and her mother while dodging members of the Collection, who are searching through the devastation for people they can compel to join them. Hoffmeister doesn't pull any punches as he gives new life to the familiar premise of a lone protagonist struggling to survive in an apocalyptic landscape, and expertly uses first-person present narration to convey a sense of immediacy. This is a masterful, intelligent page-turner from a talent to watch.
