Armageddon Summer

Authors: Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville
Published: 1999, Graphia
272 pages

Told from the alternating points of view of two teenage narrators, Marina and Jed, this book is an account of a couple of weeks they spend camping on a mountain with a Christian religious group ("the Believers") who believes the world is going to end on July 27.  Both Marina and Jed are dragged up the mountain by their Believer parents, and while Jed is skeptical from the start, it isn't until Marina gets there that she begins to see what is going on around her and questioning her faith.  That's when things really start to get interesting... NOT!

For me, you can't really go wrong when you put religion, cult psychology, and the apocalypse into one story together, but this book somehow ended up being one big miss.  The narrators are far too mature to be even remotely believable, and the rest of the characters are just annoying.  The most likable character is actually the one who is supposed to be the most crazy, the leader of the pack Reverend Beelson.  I was expecting the narrative to be more about cult dynamics or psychology, but Yolen and Coville don't ever go there.  Instead, we just follow these unrealistic characters around as they internally debate their faith, experience a two-week-long camping trip, and a brief and completely unrealistic teenage romance.

I kept reading only because I thought the world was going to end eventually.  Honestly, that is the only way this book could have redeemed itself.  Instead, nothing ever happens except a bunch of people break into the camp and another bunch of people die in the ensuing riot.  Then everybody else just packs up camp and goes home.  Thrilling!  I wouldn't normally completely give away an ending, but I am advising you to never read the book yourself, so I don't think it matters much.

If you're interested in cults or cult psychology, I recommend watching the National Geographic special "Inside a Cult."  If not, then there are plenty of other things you can do that would be infinitely more entertaining and worthwhile than reading this book.