The Line Between

November 5, 2018
In chapter one of this moving dystopian thriller from bestseller Lee (First Born), 22-year-old Wynter Roth is expelled from the New Earth cult for disobedience after living in its rural Iowa compound for 15 years. Years before, Wynter’s mother fled an abusive husband and sought a new beginning in New Earth, a “community of like-minded souls bent on worshipping the Creator,” founded by wealthy entrepreneur Magnus Theisen as a haven and outreach ministry. Magnus’s followers must abide by a set of strict rules, including what they can eat and wear. Wynter’s return to the outside world coincides with an outbreak of rapid-onset dementia, which is beginning to become an epidemic, and power outages, which are possibly the result of foreign cyberterrorism. These developments seem to confirm Magnus’s apocalyptic prophecies. Wynter’s quest for a cure for the epidemic involves some minor plot contrivances. While this isn’t as powerful as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Lee gets readers to invest in the characters, particularly her well-defined and sympathetic lead. Agents: Dan Raines and Meredith Smith, Creative Trust Ventures.

November 1, 2018

Wynter Roth was kicked out of the New Earth cult, a doomsday community in the farmlands of Iowa. Now living in Chicago, she struggles to adjust to a life inundated with technology, devoid of structure, and bereft of her cult family. As Wynter relives harrowing memories from inside the compound, the world around her seems just as insane. Reports of violent acts are increasing, which may be related to a contagious form of Alzheimer's. When her sister shows up on her doorstep with a possible link between the madness of the cult and the madness of the country, Wynter embarks on a death-defying journey to try to save a world she's not entirely sure deserves saving. Lee (The Progeny; Firstborn; "Books of Mortals" series with Ted Dekker) skillfully blends the bizarre and the familiar to craft a scenario ripped from tomorrow's headlines. Watchers of the television series The Last Ship and readers of Carrie Stuart Parks and Jolina Petersheim will enjoy this doomsday tale with strong characters and fast pacing. VERDICT Lee's perfectly crafted dystopian thriller will keep readers up all night and have them begging for a sequel.--Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2018
A prion disease originating at an Alaskan pig farm is causing people to lose their memories. One young woman holds the key to a cure.It's a cold winter's day in rural Iowa when 22-year-old Wynter Roth is unceremoniously booted from the compound of apocalyptic cult New Earth as its founder, Magnus Theisen, looks on. Wynter is devastated, but luckily, Julie, her mother's former best friend, offers her a home beyond New Earth's formidable gates. Wynter was a small child when her mother brought her and her sister, Jaclyn, to New Earth, and she was never a thoroughly willing convert. Nonetheless, her faith in God has been inevitably shaped by the ravings of Magnus Theisen, a millionaire and self-styled prophet who has convinced his followers that the end is coming with all the fire and fury of a vengeful God behind it. Soon after Wynter leaves New Earth, people start falling ill with an affliction that causes a form of dementia, and society begins a slow, rolling collapse, helped along by cyberattacks by vaguely defined foreign threats. After Julie's husband, Ken, conveniently an epidemiologist, is called away to help, Jaclyn--who is married to Magnus--shows up with tissue samples and implores Wynter to get them to a veterinarian in Colorado and get her 5-year-old daughter, Truly, out of New Earth. So, Wynter sets off across a chaotic, increasingly deadly landscape where she eventually meets up with Chase Miller, a handsome ex-Marine who offers help. The book's strongest sequences, interspersed throughout, take place during Wynter's formative years at New Earth. Wynter narrates, giving us an eye-opening look at how cults groom their faithful masses, and her integration back into the outside world feels realistic. Christian novelist Lee (Firstborn, 2017, etc.) offers a pragmatic, down-to-earth approach to faith, and Magnus is creepy enough to rival anything that prion disease can throw at poor Wynter. However, Lee misses an opportunity to put a unique spin on stale societal-collapse tropes, and Wynter's travails will barely make seasoned genre readers flinch.Lee's smoothly competent writing can't save this bland, by-the-numbers race to save the world.

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