Book Review

Alice LaPlante : Coming of age at the end of days.
Holy cow !

What’s more interesting than a teenage girl ? An intelligent teenage girl ; and even more so : an intelligent teenage girl growing among religious nuts.
Anna comes from an ordinary family, if it can be said that there is such a thing as a normal family. Father is an earthquake scientist. Mother is just there, playing the piano a lot. They are both quite nice, but not very affectionate. Anna misses their concern for her problems. She also misses their affection, but doesn’t even know she does. What Anna’s parents never realized was that their beloved Anna happened to be an exceptional girl, thirsting for an exceptional destiny : an ideal prey for religious fanatics and sect members.
Then Anna’s parents die in an automobile accident.
Like so many other nutcase religions, the one that snares Anna believes that the end is nigh. But first, they must rebuild the Jerusalem temple. But before that even, they must breed a pure red heifer who will announce the coming of the Messiah. Would you like me to explain ? Not a chance !
Just as the novel is threatening to go round and round, analyzing Anna’s feelings and those of her new friends (not all of them mentally deranged), the story becomes a lively and refreshing road movie.
The final twist is also the novel’s main weakness : a deus ex machina intervention hiding a powerful symbol : an earthquake that flattens the sect’s headquarters, as if Daddy, the earthquake scientist, had intervened from beyond the grave to save his little girl.
Anna will pull through in the end, and find what we call ordinary happiness : i.e. a husband and a job.
In spite of these reservations, I just loved that story, especially as it is sensitive, poetic in parts, and extremely well written.