Name: Whitney Nicole's review of After the Fire by Will Hill
Item: After the Fire
Rating: 4
Author: Whitney Nicole

Will Hill

Deep in the Texas desert, Moon lives with her Brothers and Sisters. They're safe, protected by the Fence and Father John. Because Father John knows what's right and what's wrong. But then Nate arrives from Outside, stirring doubt...and suddenly Moon's world is on fire. But what happens after? What happens when you lose everything you've ever known? Powerful, gripping, and beautifully told, bestselling author Will Hill's After the Fire is a novel about love, hope, loss and, ultimately, courage. The courage to ask: Who can I trust? What is the truth? And is there any way back when everything you know is gone?

After the Fire

Juliet

Moonbeam, seventeen, survives a devastating confrontation between government forces and the cult she grew up in, but will need a lot of help to heal mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Whitney Nicole

As a Christian, I went into this book with some slight skepticism on how this would play out. Is it going to be an attack on religion as a whole? But no, that wasn’t the case. As Hill mentions in his authors note, the Lord’s Legion is extremely far from the Christianity practiced by over 2 billion people. It WAS however loosely inspired by the Branch Davidians and the Waco Siege.

For me, this book was a good reminder about how dangerous my own religion can get when either A.) people are easily manipulated or B.) people are themselves manipulative charlatans grasping for power. There’s a fine line. And it’s easy to judge everyone who participated in cult activities like the Lord’s Legion as either fools or sadists or both. But Luke’s character called me on this. Even Moonbeam, who had every right to curse his name ended up feeling pity and amazingly guilt for how his story ended. 17 years old is still a child, but Honey was even younger and wasn’t fooled by Father John for a second. So who was really at fault here?

Finally, the splitting of “before” and “after” really have insight into just how much Moonbeam had to unlearn. And even thought she was physically *out* of the cult, the hits just kept on coming. I was disappointed to find out that not everything would be a glitter and rainbows ending, but the ending was what it was: realistic. As Dr. Hernandez would say, healing is a process.

trixie

Megan O’Connod

Kacie bulpitt

The book is a powerful story of survival, it is split into two parts of before the fire and after the fire. This is done through moonbeams therapy sessions and the unveiling of the story is shared through these. With this being the structure of the story it can feel like the story is all over the place a bit but once you get used to how it is structured it is easier to go through it a lot quicker. There are a lot of characters in the book but I feel this is only because it emphasises the cult and how many people were involved more because you hear about some characters more than others. 

I found myself loving moonbeam and hating father John and this book really shows how difficult it is to understand your own strength and beliefs when some people are already programmed into a set path that they are forced to take. Moonbeam showed great strength and power as a 17 year old girl and this was shown through the endless amounts of therapy sessions that she had. I also felt like I could relate to her a little more than other characters because we are a similar age.

It did take me a while to get into this book but I think it was mainly because it is nearly 500 pages long and I don’t read chunkier books that often so I am so used to reading smaller books, but I did thoroughly enjoy the storyline and I am really surprised I did because it isn’t a book I would normally go for. This is why I gave this book 4 stars because even though the story line is great it took me a while to get into it because of the length and the structure of how it is written.

Alexa M

Kailey Rios

this was a very intense book and dealt with some less than pleasant matters but i still really enjoyed reading it.

i liked the way it was broken up into before and after the fire, it really kept my intrigue level up.

i think it was a little longer than it needed to be but that’s just me nitpicking.

moonbeam and honey and the rest of the kids just deserve all the happiness in the world thank you!!


  4 stars

Lucy

** spoiler alert **
           4.5

Wow that was intense. 

At first this book was difficult to get into. The constant back and forth between times took some time to get used to. After around 150 pages when we start reading about Luke and his actions toward Moonbeam and Honey, this book starts to get gripping. 

The portrayal of Moonbeam as a protagonist is key to continue the momentum of this book. The constant voices she hears telling her she is a at fault and she won’t Ascend because of her actions poses a strong question of religion and the affects it has on people. Her indoctrination of such stark black and white good and evil allows us to delve into her and her beliefs. Her consistent refusal to talk to Doctor Hernandez about what happened in the Big House makes us speculate what she actually did. Could she have actually kill Father John or is what she thinks she done wrong was actually something as minor as calling the Sheriff’s department to report child abuse? 

I am not going to lie I CRIED with Moonbeam throughout her recovery. When she finally got her letter from her mother. When she finally saw her mother again. When she finally got everything off her chest to Doctor Hernandez and Agent Carlyle about the Big House and calling the Sheriff’s department for Honey’s abuse.

Ally Wagner

4.5 stars. Very intense book about the aftermath of being raised in a cult.

Jolie

When I started reading After the Fire, I was thinking that this was going to be a run of the mill Young Adult book. You know, a book where the plucky heroine saves the day. She solves the mystery and gets the bad guy. When I started reading After the Fire last night, I thought that I would get to 30-40% before going to sleep. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, I was up until almost 12am, devouring this book. I got emotionally invested. I needed to find out what lead up to the fire. I needed to know what would happen to Moonbeam.

After the Fire is Moonbeam’s story. Moonbeam is a survivor of a raid on her cult’s compound. Unlike the other children that were saved, she has secrets. Secrets that eat away at her soul. Secrets that need to come out. Recovering from the raid at a children’s psychiatric hospital, Moonbeam must tell what life was like inside the compound. She also needs to tell them the events that led up to the raid. But can she? Can she overcome everything that has been beaten into her? Or will Father John’s hold on her extend into this new life?

I wasn’t a fan of how the book was broken up at first. There was Before the fire and After the fire. Before detailed how life was at the compound. How Father John and his Centurions dealt out savage punishments. How everyone walked on eggshells because they didn’t want to be the next one in the box. It was a frightening and oppressive existence. After detailed, Moonbeam’s time in the hospital, recovering from wounds attained in the raid. But more importantly, she is being helped mentally to adjust to being Outside. They also want her to tell them about what led up to the raid and what happened when she went into The Big House while it was going on. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t a huge fan of it at first but as I read the book, I realized that there was a flow to the book. All Before scenes were told in therapy sessions. After I realized that, the book flowed nicely for me.

The characters in this book were layered. I like that in a character. I like being able to peel back the layers to see what made that character up. Take Luke for instance. When he is introduced, I thought that he was an innocent victim. But as the book went on and more of Luke’s personality was revealed, I realized that he had been 100% indoctrinated. That began when Father John took over. By the end of the book, I felt bad for him. Even though he did some atrocious things Before and After, he was still a child that had been abused.

I despised Father John. He was the epitome of evil. He took child brides (which disgusted me). He turned Luke into a fanatic that about flipped his wig when he wasn’t accepted into being a Centurion. I thought he got what was coming to him during the fire.

The secondary characters made this book what it was. They were very well-developed. I will say that I was upset with what happened to Nate. I actually groaned and said “Nooooo” when it was revealed what happened.

The end of the book filled me with hope. The author did a great job of wrapping up all the storylines. He did a fantastic job at letting the reader know that deprogramming from a cult takes months, not weeks. He showed me that those kids could go on to live normal lives. But most of all, he showed me what happened to Moonbeam. The afterword was worth the read.

What I liked about After the Fire:

Not your typical YA book
Layered characters
The end of the book
What I disliked about After the Fire:

How the book was broken up at first
Luke (even though I pitied him)
Father John
I gave After the Fire a 4-star rating. This is not your typical YA book and I liked that. It had layered characters (main and secondary). I loved the end of the book. What I disliked about the book didn’t have a huge impact on my rating. They were personal feelings. I didn’t like how the book was broken up when I started reading it. I didn’t like Luke or Father John.

I would give After the Fire an Older Teen rating. There is no sex. There is language. There is violence. The scene of the raid and of a man being almost starved to death in a box can be triggers. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 16.

I would reread After the Fire. I would also recommend it to family and friends.

Belle Ellrich

[I WAS SENT A PHYSICAL ARC COPY IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW]

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I am so thankful to Sourcebooks Fire for approving my request for this book.

After the Fire by Will Hill is a tough cookie to bite. It deals with religion in a way I haven't even seen, heard, or thought about before. After reading this book, I was out of breath. Hill definitely has a way with words, in a way that shocks you confused.

The characters in this book were marvelous, and I mean every word of that. There was fragility in their build-ups and fall-downs. There were emotions that gave shivers to me--the reader. I wouldn't have chosen to change anything different about these characters, as they were amazingly developed and thought out. 

However, the plot shocked me. I was surprised by every turned page, by every written word, by every planted period mark. Hill made sure that we couldn't guess anything, and I absolutely loved that. There were rise-ups and fall-downs with this plot, and there weren't any mistakes--not one. Everything flowed nicely together and smoothed out for the finale.

"You tell them nothing. You stay on the True Path, no matter what she says. The Lord is Good."

This quote was one of the most chilling I read from this book. I haven't ever thought about how some religions were back then, and this book brought to light what those times would look like in the modern era. Even after experiencing the real truth of the world, these characters still had trouble adjusting; still had trouble realizing what was right in front of them. And in the end, it cost one of them.

This will not be a book easily forgotten. It has made me question a lot of different things, and I've changed a few of my aspects because of it. If you haven't picked this book up already, I would highly suggest you do it soon. 

I rate this book 5/5 stars.

Esther Tricker

The best book I’ve ever read. Tore through it like the wind. Absolutely amazing and thought provoking.

Stefie 

Trigger Warning : violence, child abuse, suicide, gun violence, murder, death.

I have never felt as angry and broken as I did now after reading a fiction. I started this book not knowing much and not expecting anything, then suddenly BAM!! It breaks me. To pieces. As the story unfolds, I found myself angry, so angry, yet sad, helpless and broken. Andddd... speechless. 
This book truly makes me feel.. everything. From sad, to happy, to sad, to happy, to angry, angry, angry, scared, nervous, tense, sad..... but yet hopeful.
I don’t know, I don’t think my review can do any justice of how much this book tear me and ripped me apart. It feels too real. It’s like reading a biography.
It’s really really an amazing book. Even though saying “amazing” is just not quite right to express something like this story, which is inspired by a real event. 

I don’t want to say more, but I highly recommend you to read this book. But please be aware that this book contains some sensitive scenes.

*Arc was provided by the publisher. Thank you so much!

Catalina Petre

What an incredible and poignant book. A must read

Sarah Broome

esperanza 

An Edgar Award Finalist! The things I've seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade. Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences. But there are lies behind Father John's words. Outside, there are different truths. Then came the fire. "Genuinely different...thrilling and spellbinding!"—Patrick Ness, #1 New York Times bestelling author "The gripping story of survival and escape...It will keep you up late until you get to the very end."—Maureen Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Truly Devious

Juliet &
After the Fire by Will Hill

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