Books: The End is Now

The End Is Now by Rob Stennett


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was sold on this book from the comparison to Tom Perrotta, who is one of my favorite authors, and for the most part, this book lives up to that comparison. It takes the modern domestic situation and adds a theological spin: what if the rapture had a “test market,” say, in Goodland Kansas?

This story is about a boy, Will Henderson, who gets lost in a cornfield and then has a vision/dream/hallucination--it is never really clear which--that a face in the cornfield appears and tells him the three signs of the impending pre-rapture, which will take place in his town. When he relays his experience to the town, and the first of his prophecies comes true (that his school will be destroyed) the people begin to lose it. The town is already the home to a “Rapture Museum,” and all people really seem to need is a good push toward hysteria, dividing themselves into various camps of believers, doubters, and those who just want to be ready, just in case. The fact that it is Kansas and the school being destroyed by a tornado is not an unusual occurrence has no rational effect on the true believers. Caught in the middle of all this is Will’s family: Jeff, his father, who was obligated to marry his mother via shotgun wedding and now is doing his best to protect his family; Amy, his mother, for whom Will’s prophecies are no doubt the Word of God; and Emily, his sister, who wants nothing more than to become Homecoming Queen, and just wishes Will’s Prophecies would just go away.

The End is Now is thoroughly enjoyable. It takes fantastical leaps that are never quite explained, which would usually be a big detriment to me, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. It is a novel rooted in the ordinary, everyday domestic situation of a family held together by the reality of an early unplanned pregnancy, then strengthened by the bonds of responsibility and love, who are tested by supernatural circumstances. Seeing how Jeff struggles to save his family feels as real as anything, and Emily’s simple desire to be Homecoming Queen getting sidetracked by her brother, the Prophet, is believable within this context.
All in all, a great read that comes to close to being perfect, except for a minor disappointment of an ending: an epilogue that was somewhat confounding. Unofficially I’d give this 4 and a half but go ahead and call it a 5 star book.

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