A review by jaykoopah
Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle

4.0

As a Christian, I was definitely skeptical about reading this book at first.I remained skeptical for the first couple of chapters. I even looked into some interviews the author did to try to get some perspective on who she was and what her motivation was in writing this book. Then I realized that the religion described in the book is not my religion. Without giving too much away, the religion in the book is more of a cult than Christianity. In an interview the author even mentions some of the cults that she pulled from and she mentions that she didn't study any religion that much in preparing for this writing. With that being said, it was honestly a bit refreshing to get an outsider's perspective on the state of the church and how those lines can blur between cult and religion (there were quite a few times where the cult and Christianity are confused and the reactions on both sides are always interesting.) I really liked the book as a reminder that non-Christians don't need to adhere to Christian rules. Evidenced by the way Jesus treated the Pharisees vs the way he treated tax collectors and the like. I loved the references to everyone being human and treating them as such. Regardless of what your personal beliefs are, you're dealing with real, human, people with emotions and a brain so treat them as such. Finding out what others believed and sharing what you believe (what you really believe. not what you think they want to hear) was another aspect of the book that I really liked.

Outside of all of that, I really enjoyed the book. The author did a very good job of working in the gray of the world. The concept of black and white and right and wrong are often brought up and I really liked the way the author navigated that.

All together, an excellent book and a pretty good series. I liked the second book less, but it's definitely worth the read.