Cemetery Dance is proud to present this special review/interview combo from Bram Stoker Award & 6x International Latino Book Award winning author Cynthia Pelayo.
“Well, we don’t know everything. I mean, we know basically nothing,” a character says in American Rapture, and in a way this is the major question explored by CJ Leede’s main character in her highly anticipated sophomore novel — “What do we know?”
CJ Leede is the Splatterpunk Award-winning, Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award-winning, and Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Maeve Fly.
Leede moves from a delightfully maniacal princess employed at a theme park in Maeve Fly to a religiously sheltered young woman, Sophie. Sophie was raised in the rural Midwest, Wisconsin, in a conservative Catholic household. Having been raised in the rural Midwest, in a conservative Catholic household and having attended Catholic schools at certain points, I found that Leede was able to accurately capture the isolation, and confusion one experiences from this type of upbringing. Particularly as a young woman growing up in this type of environment, shame and guilt are very often felt and experienced, and launched at young girls — for being young girls. There is a very early scene in which Sophie is made to feel ashamed by her father because she has outgrown her clothes and they’re now too tight. To Sophie, her mind didn’t initially process that too tight clothes were sexual in nature. Sophie was just existing. It was her father who placed the inappropriate meaning on the fit of her clothing. In this household media is restricted, human interactions are restricted and monitored, and young women and young men are not to interact with one another. Our young Sophie is required to remain quiet, obedient, in service to God, family and the Church.
As Leede writes, “Beauty is dangerous.”
Although, what happens when those systems are eliminated in chaos? How then does one navigate the world, and pressing horrors?
Many writers have explored the anxieties of sickness and a dismantling society after Covid-19. The pandemic was just a few years ago, and many of us still recall what it was like to lockdown, wipe down our groceries with antibacterial wipes and celebrate birthdays and other milestones virtually with family and friends. While I argue that society has yet to fully process the traumas of those years, what I do know that’s certain was that it was shocking to witness how many people responded to an outbreak, and that is what Leede does effectively in this novel — showcasing the horrors of a deteriorating society, falling apart due to sickness.
This illness that’s spreading starts off like any normal flu: aches, pains, chills, runny nose, fever. There’s a moment after a few days in which one thinks they’re getting better, but then there is an aggressive relapse, followed by headache, confusion, and mania that I don’t want to give away in this review as it’s so central to the novel.
I also want to say, this is a very American feeling novel, and I very much appreciate that Midwestern identity throughout the landscape, the people, America’s dairyland — Wisconsin. Leede mentions Wisconsin Dells and I laughed to myself, because we all went to the Dells growing up in the summer. It’s just what we did in the Midwest — farm tours, tractor rides, and cheese curds. It was a jolt of joy to see someone outside of this region knew what the Dells is and shared it in their work.
While American Rapture is brutal, violent, and gory — an excellent charm of Leede’s powerful writing talent — it’s also very introspective and philosophical in parts, examining organized religion, its anxieties and the very real cruelties caused by some of its positioning; the question of a strict religious upbringing with regard to family dynamics and the long term psychological and emotional effects of forced behaviors; the shaming of women for existing in their bodies; and the cruel and dangerous ostracization and punishment inflicted on heterosexuals, and more.
Sophie is forced into this unknown secular world, on her own, amidst a raging deadly virus and she works brilliantly to challenge the ideals she was raised with in order to save herself, and others.
I was lucky to ask CJ Leede a few questions about American Rapture, which I recommend you pick up as soon as you can.
CYNTHIA PELAYO: Why did you choose the American Midwest for this novel for the setting? What is your connection to this area? Have you done research about the area? Visited it? Did that inform the work?
CJ LEEDE: I love writing about this country, and my real goal and mission as a writer is to work my way through America city by city and state by state trying to showcase all that’s special about each of these places. I first visited Wisconsin in my early twenties, and I’ve been going back ever since. I’m so in love with the supper clubs, bars, cheese curds, rolling green hills, architecture, and roadside attractions (House on the Rock is forever my favorite place!). I grew up in Texas, and I wanted somewhere with that middle of the country feel and a really strong cultural identity to be the backdrop for this story, but a place that wasn’t the exact one I grew up in. And the particular landmarks of Wisconsin ended up making it so perfect for the story. It’s a really beautiful place with wonderful people, and I hope that came through in the book.
There is a lot of sadness and hope and beauty in this. How did you come up with the character of Sophie? What did you do to research her background and upbringing?
These characters are always fictional, but there’s so much of younger me in Sophie. I was an only child and spent a lot of time alone as a kid with books, dogs, how-to projects, and my own thoughts. Like Sophie (and Maeve, too), I will do just about anything for the people I love. I grew up Catholic, and while I was much less sheltered than Sophie is, and given way more choice as to who I got to be, a real sense of guilt and shame developed in me from church. I was scared all the time, and most of that fear came from stories of demons, of the crucifixion, of possession and the dangers of having a female body or any body at all, of sitting in the confession booth with the priest and having to name a sin, of the idea that wicked thoughts are sins equal to wicked actions, and God and the devil and the demons could hear all of mine at every moment, forever, and would judge me for them, even as I was just figuring out my place in the world.
What are you hoping readers take away from this work?
I thought for so long that the feelings I experienced of fear, shame, and guilt were mine alone, and I thought I had done something to deserve to carry them. In putting this book into the world, I hope that if maybe one day someone else comes across the story who has experienced something similar, maybe that person in some small way might feel seen and validated, and know that they are not alone in feeling these things. And in that shared experience, maybe we can all take one step closer to ridding ourselves of anything that seeks to diminish us. This life is short and fragile and miraculous, and to waste it on hating any part of ourselves is, to my mind, the true sin. We all should be able to be who we are, love who we love, joyously experience this earth in kindness and adventure and life. That’s what I hope readers take away from this book.
