May 20, 2024
A Texas teen tries to rescue his crush from a Branch Davidians–like cult in Johnston’s gripping sophomore novel (after Remember Me Like This). In 1993 Waco, rebellious 14-year-old Roy, son of the local sheriff, meets California girl Jaye Carroll and falls hard. Jaye’s mother, Marie, brought her there after meeting Perry “Lamb” Cullen at a gun expo and agreeing to join his flock of disciples in Texas. Jaye, who’s now living with Marie on Lamb’s compound, is skeptical of his doomsday prophesies and unnerved by his stockpiling of weapons. When she tells Roy about the obsessive attention Lamb pays to her, Roy enlists his dad’s help to rescue her, setting the stage for a Shakespearean tragedy of star-crossed lovers. The propulsive plot, which builds to a violent raid on the compound following the sheriff’s discovery of Lamb’s arsenal, is juxtaposed with colorful excerpts from a present-day podcast called On the Lamb, featuring interviews with former cult members and their loved ones including Jaye’s father, who rails about the “pissant pedophile” who “cost me a family.” Amid the plethora of stories about cults, this stands out.
Starred review from June 15, 2024
Young lovers struggle to overcome the powerful forces working to separate them. Inspired by the events surrounding the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, Johnston's second novel is a fast-moving and emotionally sophisticated account of the dangers of religious extremism and the tender story of two teenagers caught up in the tragedy that ensues when sectarianism collides with the larger world. Not long after 14-year-old Jaye Carroll and her mother move in early 1993 from California to the millenarian community near Waco controlled by Perry Cullen--known to his followers as "the Lamb"--she meets her contemporary, Roy Moreland, son of the second-generation county sheriff, at a gun show. Jaye is smart, self-aware, and under no illusions about Cullen's true motivations, while Roy is mainly smitten to discover his first true love. In the early days, relations between Cullen and the surrounding community are peaceful, if coolly distant, but as suspicions grow that he's accumulating a massive arsenal while sexually abusing young women under the guise of faith, the apocalyptic clash for which the Lamb has been preparing his followers gradually becomes inevitable. The brief chapters that alternate between Jaye's and Roy's points of view heighten this rising tension. Interspersed with their narrative are excerpts from a podcast three decades later that features interviews with surviving cult members, law enforcement officials, and others familiar with the tragedy at the ranch. Johnston adeptly shifts between mundane moments and episodes of vivid drama, culminating in the assault on Cullen's compound that rapidly turns nightmarish for both sides. Even as the bullets fly, a protracted standoff ensues, and the novel moves toward its devastating climax, he keeps his deeply sympathetic protagonists clearly in focus. He also gracefully summons images of the rugged Texas countryside that provides the setting for a novel that beautifully evokes "the hubris, the naivete, the irrationality of love." An evocative reimagining of the Romeo and Juliet story set amid the catastrophic collapse of a religious cult.
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Starred review from July 1, 2024
Thirty years after the FBI siege of a fictional religious compound in Waco, Texas, a key witness to the events is recording a podcast to document the experiences of survivors. This book, inspired by actual events that unfolded between The Branch Davidians and the ATF in Waco in the 1990s, alternates between podcast interviews and firsthand narratives from our protagonists Roy and Jaye. Roy is the son of the county sheriff, and Jaye is the daughter of a woman who had followed "The Lamb" all the way to Texas from California. She is trapped inside the religious ranch, but her presence and narrative humanize the situation inside. When the two meet unexpectedly, their star-crossed teenage romance ignites, just as tensions rise between The Lamb and law enforcement. Roy, Jaye, and the sheriff pray that the conflict can be resolved without violence, but history and common sense tell readers otherwise. Readers will root for young heroes Roy and Jaye through to the end. This gorgeously rendered novel asks many questions about humanity: Who do we follow and why? Who decides what we believe? Johnston allows curious onlookers inside the compound and the hearts of Waco in a perfect marriage of history and art.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.