Reviews
“A bold, fiercely sharp, and deeply unsettling reimagining of the zombie apocalypse genre, which Leede crafts with equal parts anger and unwavering empathy.”
—Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus
“A riveting, sprawling, staggeringly brilliant novel about the horrors of shame and repression and sexual violence and moral panics. American Rapture is a riotous scream and an emotional ode to anyone who has ever hidden their true self under their mattress. Blood-soaked, heart-wrenching, grim and glorious. CJ Leede is a singular talent.”
—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep
“With a heart as innocent as that of its heroine, American Rapture is a brave book, a daring book, and most of all, a timely book. It’s terrifying because it’s true. Kudos to CJ Leede.”
—Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor
Praise for Maeve Fly
“An apocalyptic Anaheim Psycho, a guidebook to the dead spaces of Los Angeles, a Hollywood black mass, an occult ritual that cracks the earth, Maeve Fly oozes enough anguish, alienation, and angst to drown the world.”
—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How To Sell a Haunted House
“A firecracker of a book that explodes in your hand before you realize you’ve lit it.”
—May Cobb, author of My Summer Darlings
“Maeve Fly by CJ Leede is so damn good. Follow Maeve on a mad dash through an alluring LA that’s both seductive and soaked in blood. Highly recommended.”
—Richard Kadrey,New York Times bestselling author
“[C]ynically fun tribute to perverse literature, Halloween, music, and bizarro Los Angeles … You can see [Maeve’s] pain and stand aghast at her behavior all at once, making for that moralistic head trip every horror fan craves.”
—Fangoria
“Our collective Hollywood fantasy gets the chainsaw autopsy it deserves in this deliriously indecent feminist slasher.”
—Daniel Kraus, author of Whalefall
“Leede’s bloody and gory debut will make readers clutch their metaphorical pearls in the best way possible.”
—Booklist (STARRED review)
“Maeve Fly is a revelation. It hurt to turn these pages, but I couldn’t stop. Maeve is every beautiful nightmare you’ve ever dared to dream. An unforgettable read.”
—Richard Chizmar, New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Boogeyman
“[E]qual parts trenchant insight and pitch-black humor. The result is a gore-soaked love letter to Los Angeles that fans of American Psycho and Samantha Kolesnik’s True Crime won’t want to miss.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Maeve retains just enough humanity to make her the year’s most compelling anti-anti-ANTI-hero.”
—Neil McRobert, Esquire
“This is gory and brutal and beautiful and painful and terrifying and a pure delight. Child of God has nothing on Maeve Fly. But I think they might be cousins. Just, let’s not let them Mickey and Mallory across the world, ok?”
—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of My Heart is a Chainsaw
“I can’t tell if I devoured this book or it devoured me. Either way, it was delicious. A dark, disturbing, devilishly funny peek inside the mind of a murderer that also dares us to examine the darkness behind those bright L.A. lights. I loved every blood-soaked minute of it.”
—Josh Winning, author of Burn the Negative
“Full of glamour and gore, this genre-rejecting debut is unlike any I’ve ever read.”
—Jean Kyoung Frazier, Lambda Literary Award Finalist and author of Pizza Girl
“Maeve Fly is a real trip of a book, and definitely not for the squeamish—but if you’re able to put on your big girl pants and look the nastiness of life in the face, you’ll find something special and sparkling here.”
—Tor.com
“Leede presents us with a delicious anti-heroine. Her biting commentary on modern day life will suck you in immediately. Keep an eye on this rising feminist voice.”
—Tori Amos, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter
“Leede is actively working every angle to disgust and disturb her readers, balancing extreme scenes with obvious dark humor and Maeve’s engaging narration. Obvious comparisons will be made to American Psycho, but this illicitly alluring tale pairs even better with current voices in the extreme-horror subgenre.”
—Library Journal
“Thoughtful, wild, frightening, and fun. Leede’s anti-heroine makes for a heroically refreshing read.”
—Rivka Galchen, author ofEveryone Knows Your Mother is a Witch
“A shocking, wild, and sinister addition to LA literature.”
—Liska Jacobs, author of The Pink Hotel
“Maeve Fly is one of those books that is many things at once: sensual, brutal, sly, joyfully unnerving, and a blood-soaked love letter to LA. But at its core it’s a horror novel, and it scared the hell out of me.”
—Keith Rosson, author of Fever House
“Sexy and gory all at once, Maeve Fly is a feminist masterpiece.”—Mina Seckin, author of The Four Humors
