Read: Vivian Versus The Apocalypse, by Katie Coyle
A few things, first. I had been following Katie for a while (here in Tumbletown and on Twitter, too) before this book came out, shortly before she won the Young Writer’s Prize (though, I think, a while after she entered), so I was already predisposed to like the style of the person writing it. Seriously. Katie is brilliant - go follow her.
Also, I wrote a manuscript when I was 15 about an alternate version of the UK transformed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland by evangelical Christianity. It feels stupid to say “manuscript”, because every paragraph was utter unsalvageable dreck, but it was about 40,000 words of unsalvageable dreck. I say all this because although I think I’ve gotten better at writing (and matured emotionally, hopefully), I’m still fascinated by dystopias and the effect religion has on society, and given that (in addition to so much more) Vivian Versus The Apocalypse has a liberal dose of both of those things, this already felt very close to home.
But. Even conceding both those things, this is magnificent. It’s an incredible novel that is not targeted at my age range, but never suffers for it. It has a female protagonist who was so realistically and honestly drawn that I had to stop myself every once in a while and just allow the character to sink in. There’s a love story, but it never overruns the rest of the narrative - every concern has just the amount of importance it should have, rather than being cynically, artifically weighted to sell more copies. Vivian is a strong female character without being a Strong Female Character, which is to say that the way she’s written demonstrates far more understanding of how human women operate than Steven Moffat and the entire AAA games industry could ever muster.
The Church of America that looms over this book is a nightmarish hybrid of Jonestown, the Church of Scientology and the Latter-Day Saints, and the fact that it takes real-world organisations and spins them out of control rather than inventing ideas about religion from scratch works massively to its credit - often, I’ve found that religion in narrative is used to create the sense of something alien and otherworldly, and it can feel a little overdone, but here the overarching rule of thumb is that it puts people first and doctrine firmly in second place.
What I’m still wrestling with is whether or not you could call this book anti-religious - there’s definitely a point to all of this, and while there’s a strong pro-human message I think it has something darker to say too. I think maybe the thing to take from it isn’t to condemn the idea of personal salvation, which can come from anywhere, but to be wary of cults of popularity and personality. It’s worth keeping in mind that those can be religiously-motivated, but not always. When you think about the fact that kids are going to be reading this, that’s a pretty fantastic message to be sending, I think.
There are too many things to list here. The supporting cast of characters is wonderful, and one in particular is going to be stuck in my mind for a long time. The story is gripping and heartfelt in equal measure, and makes for a road novel unlike any I’ve ever read. Really, though: while the plot beats fell at exactly the right moments, and packed a punch until the end, so much of this felt like a character study. The Vivian at the start of the novel is not the Vivian at the end, but her development creeps up on you. Nothing about the character feels forced, and given the dramatic twists and turns the book takes along the way, that’s quite an accomplishment.
So. Um. Buy this, basically. The book is currently absurdly cheap on Amazon. I’m trying to think of who to recommend this to, because usually I can identify potential audiences pretty quickly by singling out the people to whom this wouldn’t appeal, but I’m struggling with this one. Even if you’re a terrible human being, I feel like this book might stoke some tiny ember of decency; and if you’re craving books about women that aren’t Twilight clones or borderline-abusive erotic fantasies (so, Twilight clones), this is just about as perfect as you’re going to get.
Sorry, Katie. I’ll stop now.
(Just a formatting note - I’m stopping this format, in part because I sometimes abandon what I’m reading, creating some discontinuity, and also because I want to devote more space to what I’m reading and artifically following on to the next book creates pressure to get whatever I’m writing over and done with. There was no way I could finish writing about this in a couple of paragraphs.)
