Starred review from June 20, 2022
Noone’s (Layoverland) laugh-out-loud novel centers four white teens’ unconventional scheme to topple their Violet, Mont., town’s glitzy Christian megachurch. Holly, Zoe, and Genesis feel as if they have nothing in common. Prep school student Holly is spending the summer in Violet with her estranged father after an incident back home in L.A.; dry-humored Zoe’s financial precarity prevents her from running away from Violet’s closed-minded environment with her secret girlfriend; and influencers, lured by the neighboring Hope Harvest Church run by affluent Pastor Reaps and his wife, have turned reserved Genesis’s once blissful New Age commune home into a crowded social media hot spot. But when the Reaps’ son, ministry golden boy Dustin, tasks the girls with faking his kidnapping to escape his controlling parents, the teens find themselves biting off more than they can chew, and what begins as an eccentric disappearing act evolves into an over-the-top megachurch takedown. While the premise is largely satirical on the surface, Noone capably employs alternating perspectives—and a smattering of romance—to explore faith, societal pressures and expectations, and the sometimes-all-consuming fear of impending adulthood. This riotous caper, and its similarly hilarious cast, is a joy. Ages 14–up. Agent: Dana Murphy, Book Group.