American Rapture is a pandemic horror novel about a sheltered teenage girl trying to find her last remaining family member in a rapidly changing America.

Sophie is a sixteen-year-old private school student in Wisconsin when a pandemic that turns its victims into violent sexual aggressors starts spreading across the country. However, Sophie is severely insulated by her conservative Catholic parents, and with no exposure to television or news, she has no idea how bad it is. The pandemic quickly reaches her own community, and Sophie finds herself alone on the road, searching for her brother, who was sent to a church conversion school years before. By teaming up with other adults and teens, Sophie finally has to confront her own religious beliefs and fears while trying to survive a horrible new reality.

This is a deeply moving novel about what it would be like to be a teenage girl struggling with her own femininity in a modern world that sends women mixed messages about their value. There are some devastating losses on her journey, which are difficult to read, but I found the story oddly hopeful.

Rating: 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Audiobook Notes: American Rapture is narrated by Moniqua Plante, who does an excellent job with Sophie’s youthful voice and conveys the tension and drama of the story.