Agnes at the End of the World

By: Kelly McWilliams

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Handmaid's Tale meets Wilder Girls in this unique, voice-driven novel of a small town with sinister secrets, dangerous laws, and frightening leadership.

Agnes loves her home of Red Creek - its quiet, sunny mornings, its dusty roads, and its God. There, she cares tirelessly for her younger siblings and follows the town's strict laws. What she doesn't know is that Red Creek is a cult, controlled by a madman who calls himself a prophet.

Then Agnes meets Danny, an Outsider boy, and begins to question what is and isn't a sin. Her younger brother, Ezekiel, will die without the insulin she barters for once a month, even though medicine is considered outlawed. Is she a sinner for saving him? Is her sister, Beth, a sinner for dreaming of the world beyond Red Creek?

As the Prophet grows more dangerous, Agnes realizes she must escape with Ezekiel and leave everyone else, including Beth, behind. But it isn't safe Outside, either: A viral pandemic is burning through the population at a terrifying rate. As Agnes ventures forth, a mysterious connection grows between her and the Virus. 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?

©2020 Kelly McWilliams (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"A powerful story, exquisitely told. Agnes is the antidote we need in our own dystopian times. She filled me with hope!" (Bill Konigsberg, award-winning author of Openly Straight and The Bridge)

"A truly unique gem of a book. Set during the apocalypse and featuring a disturbing virus and terrifying cult, McWilliams's tale is ultimately one of hope. Agnes is a fascinating heroine-determined, selfless, and brave. I was rooting for her from the very first page." (Erin Bowman, Edgar Award-nominated author of Contagion)

"In Agnes At The End of The World, McWilliams has created a female protagonist whose strength relies, remarkably, not on brute force but in her deep sense of spirituality. From the lyrical prologue to the satisfying climax, young adults will enjoy the journey that transforms Agnes from an oppressed child into a leader fighting for the survival of her world. In these difficult and divisive times, I find it particularly important to read stories explore a protagonist's inner strength and so I was intrigued by McWilliams's plot." (Padma Venkatraman, author, The Bridge Home, winner of the Walter Award and the Golden Kite Award)

Beautifully written

Such an odd-timed story during a pandemic. It was interesting, beautifully written and kept me engaged from start to finish. The love story was sweet and innocent enough for young listeners. The messages of hope and faith are poignant, but not hokey or forced. The family bonds and fierce love between siblings and “chosen family” were my favorite points.

Glorious, Elevated, Graceful

This is a wonderful story. It's a little strange to read about a fictional pandemic during a real one, but it is worth it. This story is graceful, transforming a tale of toxic, patriarchal religion into something beautiful, divine, and hopeful. Well worth a read.

Surprising

Since we are currently facing a pandemic ourselves, this story gives me a sense of hope that it will be okay. The performance was stellar. The chapters are short so it’s very easy to binge in one sitting. The ending is a little muddy but didn’t kill the enjoyment of reading it. If your still bored at home, give it a shot!

Religious

Lately I’ve wished audible would label religious/inspirational fiction. Also they previously had rating on how explicit romance scenes are and that’s gone. This book is teen appropriate in romance department. Definitely inspirational/religious story.

I wish I’d read more reviews. The move away from a cult went into more religion with tons of bible verses and spiritual soul-searching.

I appreciate the author representing type one diabetes fairly accurately. Most people don’t realize that it’s an autoimmune disease and is not caused by poor diet or lack of exercise. It’s a very different disease from type 2 diabetes.

Religious Propaganda

First, the description of the book is utterly inaccurate. This is nothing more than a religious story and it should have been labeled as such, or, at the very least, described as such in the "description." Provided you are interested in reading a story with heavy religious themes, this may be enjoyable. While I did not enjoy the content, I must complement the performance, which was outstanding.

Boring and predictable

I will start by saying that the narrator is amazing but the book is lacking. I thought the story line was ridiculous and predictable. I generally love dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels so had high hopes for this book. I think the book was trying to go in so many different directions that it didn’t do a single one justice. One of the central plot points is this virus that is destroying humanity but it doesn’t describe the virus very well. You are not filled with horror and dread when the main character encounters infected people and animals. There are two main love stories and although the stories are chaste enough for young readers, there is not a lot of depth to the interactions. They feel forced and you end up not caring if the characters end up together or not.

I don’t think this book is worth a credit.

Unexpected

This was exceptional! Worth a credit. Great post-apocalyptic story for our times and the twists in plot kept the pace moving. Unique in genre.

this was awesome

honestly amazing story and fantastic narration.
so cool to read about a completely different kind of pandemic during our own

Hard to Put This Down

Setting in this book takes place in a communed community where men have more than one wife, there is no use of medicine and everyone listens to the word of their leader the ‘Profit’. They are self sufficient and are not to mix with anyone outside their community. But now the world is struck by a pandemic and it is moving towards where they live. Agnes is 16, she does most of the housework for the whole family and found out her young brother has Type 1 diabetes and needs close monitoring. He also needs insulin which is forbidden in their religion. She has to sneak out at night monthly to get his insulin supplies. But life changes during the pandemic... Very good storyline and narration.

I'll add this as one to my best books list

Loved every part of it!
Although the beginning was just a bit slow, after that (around 20-30 %), I was almost listening to it in a session or as much as I could.
Myself, I'm a religious person of Christian faith, even as some aspects of God might be portrayed not as imagined, expected or depicted by most of Christians, it's still very, very good, sensible and I wasn't hurt in any way by the depiction in the book.
Even more, I was touched so much by some of the later sections, I even cried a couple times at the end.
The whole story, idea and principles are so nice, so good, I have nothing to object or dislike.
The book has my prefect 10!
Narrator also didn't have any points or moments to dislike or object. Very good and powerful narration, even with some studio accents which make it even better!