The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
on July 31, 2018
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A powerful, darkly glittering novel about violence, love, faith, and loss, as a young Korean American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea.

Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn't tell anyone she blames herself for her mother's recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe.
Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is increasingly drawn into a religious group--a secretive extremist cult--founded by a charismatic former student, John Leal. He has an enigmatic past that involves North Korea and Phoebe's Korean American family. Meanwhile, Will struggles to confront the fundamentalism he's tried to escape, and the obsession consuming the one he loves. When the group bombs several buildings in the name of faith, killing five people, Phoebe disappears. Will devotes himself to finding her, tilting into obsession himself, seeking answers to what happened to Phoebe and if she could have been responsible for this violent act.
The Incendiaries is a fractured love story and a brilliant examination of the minds of extremist terrorists, and of what can happen to people who lose what they love most.

Book Review: The Incendiaries by RO Kwon

This is a short 200 pages books that I should have DNF but finished because it was so short.

I will be honest I hated this book. I didn’t connect with the writing. I didn’t understand the role of the cult leader’s point of view. There are huge issues such as fanaticism, hazing, and grief that are easily dismissed. My biggest issue was a sexual assault that the main characters engaged which was not addressed. It was just dismissed as the reason why one character broke up and left the other. I am sorry but if one person says no then you need to stop doing what you are doing. You are not a good boyfriend nor the victim when she told you to stop. She has every right to stop talking to you and she should have gone to the police.

My feels: I will encourage you to skip this book.

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