Come November by Katrin Van Dam

Title: Come November
Author: Katrin Van Dam
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Series:N/A
Hardcover, 373 Pages
Publication: October 30, 2018 by Scholastic Press

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

Buy|Amazon|B&N|

It’s not the end of the world, but for Rooney Harris it’s starting to feel that way. It’s the beginning of senior year and her mom just lost her job. Even worse, she isn’t planning to get another one. Instead, she’s spending every waking moment with a group called the Next World Society, whose members are convinced they’ll be leaving Earth behind on November 17. It sounds crazy to Rooney, but to her mother and younger brother it sounds like salvation. As her mom’s obsession threatens to tear their lives apart, Rooney is scrambling to hold it all together. But will saving her family mean sacrificing her dreams—or theirs?

Come November isn’t the type of book I normally pick up. But I’m so glad I did. Come November dealt with a topic rarely seen in Young Adult, cults. It highlighted the interworking of a cult and the aftermath of leaving a cult (voluntarily or otherwise). Sure, we’ve all seen stories in the news about it but I’ll be honest, I never thought much of what goes on behind the scenes; especially what happened to the followers after their leader is taken away or goes MIA. The novel is centered on seventeen-year-old Rooney, her younger brother and their mother. Rooney’s mother is entangled with the New World Society, a organization that believes the earth is dying but they can start over elsewhere. That on November 17^th, an alien race will rescue the believers/followers and take them to a different planet to start anew.

Without going into too much detail, the choices that Rooney’s mom took greatly impacted her and her brother’s life and everyone they knew or came into contact with. The book was separated into months, months leading up to “The Departure” and months “After Departure”. I loved seeing Rooney’s growth and transformation over the months, as she learned to take care of herself and her brother, jumping into the parent role after her mom checked out of reality. Despite the hardship Rooney faced at home, she never crumbled under all the obstacles thrown her way or bailed like her mother. Instead Rooney did everything in her power to scrape together any semblance of a normal teenage life like: getting a boyfriend, getting a job, attending school functions and applying to college.

The book is clearly split into two halves, cult life and life after cult. While it was great to see both perspective, I thought life after cult was far more interesting. It showed that no matter how bad things got, when you think it’s literally the end of the world…it eventually does get better. It may be a slow progress but as the saying goes, when you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up. And that exactly sums up the last half of the book as we see the characters’ resilience and perseverance to do better, make the best of their situation, and ultimately forgive and heal. Overall an enjoyable and fascinating read. I highly recommend it.