Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams

She’d always wanted, more than anything, to be good. But some sound-or dark intuition-had woken her sister tonight. It was an act for which she could be banished, and she never would’ve risked it if her brother’s life weren’t at stake. No one would ever suspect that such a sweet, hardworking girl regularly broke one of Red Creek’s strictest Laws- no contact with Outsiders. Such an obedient daughter, the matrons always said. She’d been sneaking out the last Saturday of every month for two years, and she’d never been seen before. It was a quarter to midnight, and her fifteen-year-old sister was sitting bolt upright in bed, staring hungrily at her.Īgnes’s pulse throbbed in the hollow of her throat, beating a single word: Caught. Agnes froze with her hand on the trailer’s doorknob, her backpack slung over her shoulder. The question startled her like a rifle’s crack in the dark.

Sickness is punishment for your rebellion. But in a world where faith, miracles, and cruelty have long been indistinguishable, will Agnes be able to choose between saving her family and saving the world? Read Excerpt As Agnes ventures forth, a mysterious connection grows between her and the Virus. But it isn’t safe Outside, either: A viral pandemic is burning through the population at a terrifying rate. Is she a sinner for saving him? Is her sister, Beth, a sinner for dreaming of the world beyond Red Creek?Īs the Prophet grows more dangerous, Agnes realizes she must escape with Ezekiel and leave everyone else, including Beth, behind. Her younger brother, Ezekiel, will die without the insulin she barters for once a month, even though medicine is considered outlawed.

Then Agnes meets Danny, an Outsider boy, and begins to question what is and isn’t a sin. What she doesn’t know is that Red Creek is a cult, controlled by a madman who calls himself a prophet. There, she cares tirelessly for her younger siblings and follows the town’s strict laws. A Bank Street Best Book of 2021 The Handmaid’s Tale meets Wilder Girls in this genre-defying novel about a girl who escapes a terrifying cult only to discover that the world Outside has succumbed to a viral apocalypse.Īgnes loves her home of Red Creek-its quiet, sunny mornings, its dusty roads, and its God.

Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams