Heretics Anonymous

by Katie Henry

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I really liked the book and I'm all worried to talk about it, because I'm waiting for someone to pop out of the woodwork and tell me I'm a blasphemous sinner and that I'm going to Hell.

Seriously. I'm jumpy. I wrote a really long version of this review for my blog on 10/22, and half of it was trying to explain my perspective and why I feel the way I do about this book and for people to please not yell at me. Religion is complicated like that - or maybe it was just the corner of religion where I was raised.

Heretics Anonymous is a slice of life in Catholic School where, on the edges of social cliques, five not-perfect Catholics build a support group. Lucy is a staunch Catholic, but she wants to be a priest. Eden is a Celtic Reconstructionist. Avi is both Jewish and gay. Max I ... is Max, not quite fitting in with the strict rules and traditions. And in comes Michael the atheist. Michael mixes everything up - not because he's an atheist (because I want to make that SO clear - Michael’s actions in this book are so emotionally driven and not related to religion or lack thereof) but because he's angry. Michael is angry at his family and the stupid tie he has to wear and his LIFE. In general. And because of that, he makes some stupid choices.

I think given the plot of this book, Katie Henry was pretty respectful to the religions she chose to represent, and it's refreshing to see so many in one place. I think it's really important to have these varied perspectives out there, and we should be able to talk about our beliefs without judging one another. The themes and content of Heretics Anonymous are really refreshing.

The overall plot, which I'm just going to summarize as “Michael falls and love and learns (the hard way) how to express himself" is not overly impressive, but I'm willing to forgive it because I like the place where it is set and all the little subplots. Most the characters are fantastic - Michael is a jerk, frankly, but you can't love every protagonist. And I think Max was a bit of a flat character at times, as well as Theresa (there was a moment where she ALMOST had depth, but basically she became Marianne in Easy A. But GENERALLY, I thought they were a good group that rounded out one another, and I really liked the side characters of Father Peter and Jenny.

I really, really want to encourage people to give this book a chance, and to do so with an open mind. I think it's interesting and it's SO IMPORTANT to get some religious discussion and diversity out there. I really hope people give it a fair shot.