Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by 24hourlibrary
Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry
4.0
When atheist Michael finds his parents moving him to yet another new town, it means another new school. But this time, it's Catholic school. Confronted with a new culture and set of rules, Michael is convinced he won't fit in. In fact, he doesn't want to. Until one girl speaks up in class and what she says makes a whole lot of sense -- even if she is Catholic, too. After finding his people, Michael and the other so-called Heretics Anonymous start taking a stand against the school in -- what else? -- anonymous acts of protest. But then one action goes too far and Michael must consider what it is he really values.
I picked up Heretics Anonymous at a used bookstore, excited to get my hands on another Katie Henry after reading This Will Be Funny Someday (and loving it) a few years back. Though I can say I enjoyed TWBFS slightly more than this one, Heretics Anonymous no doubt hits many of the same funny notes Henry achieves in her latest novel. If you're coming to Henry's novels craving humor, cleverness, wit, and thoughtful -- but not to heavy -- discussions around important issues, you'll find it. Such is the case with Heretics Anonymous, where Henry takes up the tricky task of both condemning and celebrating Catholicism, Christianity, and religion more broadly. She does it to great success, employing characters with different perspectives on religion to illustrate how religion can be weaponized and a tool for healing.
Henry's characters are fun and interesting, but most importantly, they are also flawed. Michael frequently acts and thinks in ways that are objectively unsavory. He can be rather singular-minded and often has trouble imagining others have valid opinions. However, Heretics Anonymous still makes him a sympathetic character who struggles especially with his relationship with his father and who wants to impress a girl and treat her well. Other characters are slightly more exaggerated and caricaturized, likely for the sake of making the points about religion and so on as well as for secondary character simplicity, but not to the extent that their storylines and how they intersect with Michael aren't interesting.
There were some pacing issues that I had especially in terms of the club taking action. This piece of the plot seemed to take too long to arrive and it didn't quite make up as much of the story as I had anticipated given the jacket copy. Fair enough to say this is a failure of the jacket copy and not the book itself overall, though I do think it's also indicative of some pacing issues regardless. Michael's larger emotional story moves along meanwhile but feels a bit unbalanced in terms of how much of the word count it takes up if you enter the book expecting it to focus primarily on school hijinks.
I could have done with a bit more chemistry between Michael and his love interest, as well, though there was something refreshing about the more mature take on relationships even in the context of high school student romance. Michael's love interest plays a vital role in his development independent of the love story, which makes for interesting dynamics, but I think sometimes prevents the chemistry from fully blooming.
But Heretics Anonymous is fun, it's thoughtful, it has the right surprises for this kind of story (making them less of real surprises, but still satisfying). Plus, I really love the design theme across her books. It's subtle yet distinct, absolutely eye-catching, relevant to each novel (how many times have you heard about Jesus's image heated into toast by divine intervention? and the banana peel for a book about stand-up comedy? genius -- I could go on, but I digress) and so very clever. This would make a great book club selection. Read this one if you enjoy a bit of philosophy without getting too complicated.
I picked up Heretics Anonymous at a used bookstore, excited to get my hands on another Katie Henry after reading This Will Be Funny Someday (and loving it) a few years back. Though I can say I enjoyed TWBFS slightly more than this one, Heretics Anonymous no doubt hits many of the same funny notes Henry achieves in her latest novel. If you're coming to Henry's novels craving humor, cleverness, wit, and thoughtful -- but not to heavy -- discussions around important issues, you'll find it. Such is the case with Heretics Anonymous, where Henry takes up the tricky task of both condemning and celebrating Catholicism, Christianity, and religion more broadly. She does it to great success, employing characters with different perspectives on religion to illustrate how religion can be weaponized and a tool for healing.
Henry's characters are fun and interesting, but most importantly, they are also flawed. Michael frequently acts and thinks in ways that are objectively unsavory. He can be rather singular-minded and often has trouble imagining others have valid opinions. However, Heretics Anonymous still makes him a sympathetic character who struggles especially with his relationship with his father and who wants to impress a girl and treat her well. Other characters are slightly more exaggerated and caricaturized, likely for the sake of making the points about religion and so on as well as for secondary character simplicity, but not to the extent that their storylines and how they intersect with Michael aren't interesting.
There were some pacing issues that I had especially in terms of the club taking action. This piece of the plot seemed to take too long to arrive and it didn't quite make up as much of the story as I had anticipated given the jacket copy. Fair enough to say this is a failure of the jacket copy and not the book itself overall, though I do think it's also indicative of some pacing issues regardless. Michael's larger emotional story moves along meanwhile but feels a bit unbalanced in terms of how much of the word count it takes up if you enter the book expecting it to focus primarily on school hijinks.
I could have done with a bit more chemistry between Michael and his love interest, as well, though there was something refreshing about the more mature take on relationships even in the context of high school student romance. Michael's love interest plays a vital role in his development independent of the love story, which makes for interesting dynamics, but I think sometimes prevents the chemistry from fully blooming.
But Heretics Anonymous is fun, it's thoughtful, it has the right surprises for this kind of story (making them less of real surprises, but still satisfying). Plus, I really love the design theme across her books. It's subtle yet distinct, absolutely eye-catching, relevant to each novel (how many times have you heard about Jesus's image heated into toast by divine intervention? and the banana peel for a book about stand-up comedy? genius -- I could go on, but I digress) and so very clever. This would make a great book club selection. Read this one if you enjoy a bit of philosophy without getting too complicated.