Agnes at the End of the World
By: Kelly McWilliams
I’m a little torn on Agnes because for most of this book I was honestly LOVING it. Yes capitalized I was that into it.
It has everything I love in books. Two strong sister POV’s struggling with their place in the world and each other even though they ultimate do love each other. Religious cult fanatics. And a creepy ass “zombie” like plague ripping through the world creating all kinds of atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere.
And then it went off into well I’ll call it magical realism so as not to give too much away or potentially insult spiritual beliefs here.
Agnes is our main characters she’s trapped in the cult she grew up in basically playing mother to her siblings while her own mother is depressed in bed. The women in the cult are treated like servants and no medical care outside of prayer is allowed so Agnes is technically “rebelling” when she gets outside help to control her brothers diabetes and that’s how she learns about the plague.
Her younger sister Beth yearns for freedom and love.
But as things go on the prophet is about to lead his followers into a tomb from which Agnes, who believes she can hear the voice of God, knows they likely won’t emerge alive and her brother definitely won’t.
So yeah about 75% of this book- aces. Good characters, good atmosphere, good end of the world vibes even if that part of it stays relatively simple. And I do think Agnes holds important messages about forgiveness and acceptance not just of other people but of your own thoughts and feelings.
It’s just the end and hey some people might love it it might just depend on your level of acceptance for magical realism and it’s never been big for me.
But there is a cat and cat’s make everything better 🙂
Recommend: Yes.
Overall despite not loving where it ends up I did enjoy the ride.