Coming of Age at the End of Days

A teen seeking to forge her own identity meets an apocalyptic cult in LaPlante’s (Turn of Mind) psychological thriller, a thought-provoking bildungsroman set in the ironically named Sunnyvale, Calif. Bright but troubled 16-year-old Anna Franklin is profoundly lonely and depressed when she meets her new neighbors, the Goldschmidts, whose son, Lars, is her classmate at school. The Goldschmidts belong to a group preparing for the violent end times they believe are rapidly approaching. Their ideology gives Anna the sense of purpose she lacks, and their admiration for the strange visions she has begun having offers a sense of belonging that her own preoccupied, conflict-ridden family can’t provide. As her inflexible new beliefs alienate her from her parents and peers, a tragic accident forces her to begin questioning her convictions, as well as her closeness to Lars and his fellow believers. But her deepening bonds with Jim Fulson, a young man scarred by his own troubled adolescence, and the enigmatic chemistry teacher Clara Thadeous, offer no easy solutions; ultimately, Anna must embrace the risks of charting her own course. LaPlante’s rich themes of faith and doubt, vision and blindness, emerge compellingly as the early parts of the story build. Though the second half is less focused and strains credibility, Anna’s dramatic journey toward authentic selfhood raises interesting questions. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenburg Agency. (Aug.)