Caleb's mother believes that her son is the second coming of Christ and that together, they will lead the chosen into the Kingdom of Heaven. Every natural disaster, every incident, makes her believe more and more that they are living in the end times. Taking Caleb, the two run away from their home to join a group of other religious people living in a trailer park. After a hurricane hits, they are left to fend for themselves. Weeks go by without help, until one by one the small group begins to fall ill. When the National Guard finally arrives, the small community refuses them entry, leaving everyone in a dramatic stand-off.

SPOILERS. 5 years later, Caleb is let out of juvie and witness protection has given him a new name. His mother is on death row for murdering the congregation.

The first part of the book was an interesting build-up of how a cult can form and how a stand-off can occur. However, there were several things in the second part of the book that made absolutely no sense. I can't imagine any scenario where 13 year old Caleb was imprisoned for five years because of the actions of his mom. It was also unbelievable that Caleb was in witness protection, and when his cover was blown that he wasn't relocated and given a new identity. Based on these things, this book was a complete bust.

I really enjoyed this book! It explored both the promising light side of religion, and the dangerous delving too deeply into it side of religion in a way that really resonated with me. I found myself feeling for Caleb as he was thrust into the "my son is the chosen one" spotlight by his mother, who whisks him away to live on a commune and prepare for the end of the world as the seals in Revelation are showing up - according to her.
To me, this book really takes a look at how powerful religion is, and the divides it can cause. I was brought back to the David Koresh Waco cult situation and how sadly it ended for them.
Overall, this was a very solid read, great writing and powerful characters. It will definitely make you think!
Thank you for the ARC!

Into Captivity They Will Go is both a testament to radical ideology's potential to blur morality to the point of confusion, as well as a post-trauma coming of age story burdened with questions.

I loved the first 1/3 of the book, highlighting and annotating ironies and lessons. To me, the development of Caleb's mother's radical religious observance was fascinating --to me, it highlighted how psychological trauma including grief and loss can accompany a desire to believe in something greater than ourselves. That we have purpose.

However, I found Caleb's immersion into the commune, and the development of the commune, rushed. I was hoping for more plot on the recruitment and maintenance of the commune.

Similarly, I wish that the last portion of the book dove deeper. (To avoid spoilers, that's all I will say.)

Ultimately, while Milligan's writing was enjoyable and powerful, I wish the plot details and inner workings were beefed up.

My husband and I often have conversations about how religion is one of the best tools we have at building communities. It provides a place for people to gather who hold a common belief. We also discuss how dangerous that community can become if the leaders within it start to use fear and shame to dictate the actions of its members. This book does an amazing job at showing both sides and just how dangerous it can get when the leaders become too powerful. It reminds me a lot of what it might have been like with the followers of David Koresh and the tragedy of Waco. We follow the life of a young boy who was led to believe he was the second coming of Christ by his mother and how he copes with the aftermath. There were parts where the main character seemed too passive, too peripheral to the story. I would have loved to have witness more of an internal battle that I’m sure he would have experienced but it’s a minor critique. Overall, I felt the story was captivating and strong.
Thank you #netgalley for ARC of #intocaptivitytheywilllgo

This book is beautifully written and deeply disturbing, an exploration of faith - in the bigger sense of religion but also in the personal sense of family and friends.

Although the action is centred on the boy Caleb, I spent much of my time thinking about Evelyn’s character, the boy’s mother. It is a gap at the centre of the book that affects Caleb’s life enormously and that we never fully understand her background and what drove her to the actions she took and devastation she created.

From the young Caleb’s blind devotion to her as much as his religion through to a heartbreaking final scene with her, we see the impact on Caleb more clearly than he does.

The book describes beautifully the passage of Caleb’s childhood, his frustrations and adaption to new situations and his growing sense of responsibility for his church.

His adulthood is also full of vivid description of a less than satisfactory lifestyle, as he seeks connection with other people to help mend his past.

The book has a deep impact on the reader, it doesn’t judge its subjects but presents a complex set of relationships in a thought-provoking way. It stays with you after reading and prompts you to rethink some of your own opinions as well.

Really worth reading- my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing an advance copy with me in return for an honest review.

Initially, I was interested in Into Captivity They Will Go by Noah Milligan because it’s set in Oklahoma, my home state. The book centers on Caleb Gunter, a preteen who is told by his mother Evelyn that the world is ending, and he is the second coming of Jesus. Even in the buckle of the bible belt, such a pronouncement doesn’t sit well, and the First Baptist Church in Bartlesville excommunicates the Gunter family. Leaving her husband Earl and older son Jonah behind, Evelyn takes Caleb to a rural religious community run by her stepfather’s friend, Sam Jenkins. The people there are more accepting of Evelyn’s message, and Caleb, speaking in tongues, lost in the spirit, and lifted up by the other congregants, finally feels at home.

Evelyn’s homilies, however, grow more extreme, and as her prophecies darken, she views the outside community with more and more suspicion. Meanwhile, Caleb struggles to accept what it means to be the savior who will lead the chosen people after the end of the world. After a series of cataclysmic events, Caleb loses everything familiar, including the foundation of his faith.

While the first two thirds of the book recount Caleb’s childhood and are told in third person, the final section gives Caleb a first-person voice and more insight into his reactions to the events surrounding him. I couldn’t help but think how damaged Caleb must be and how tempting it was to fall into old patterns of behavior, substituting one false god for another. He’s calm and accepting of his past, which is hard to understand, but Atchley, a character he later becomes close to, may provide the reader’s perspective wondering how he isn’t angry and resentful.

Throughout the book, I wondered why Evelyn had taken this religious path, but then I also asked myself if it mattered. Whatever the cause, Caleb was left to cope with the impact of her beliefs and actions and how they affected him; they also rippled into the family, changing the lives of Earl and Jonah, and beyond, so that others in the community were never the same.

One of the triumphs of the book is that Milligan writes with such compassion and empathy that is impossible to write any characters off as one-dimensional, fringe, or unbelievable. I thought that I would immediately feel anger and contempt for Evelyn. Instead, while I did feel some of that on behalf of Caleb, even more, I considered her with empathy and curiosity. Caleb’s general placidity evokes an air of forgiveness and acceptance, and despite the travails of his childhood, it seems that attitude serves him well. Furthermore, I loved the subtle Oklahoman references Into Captivity They Will Go such as the primacy of Dr. Pepper, the references to concerts at the Blue Door, the constant calibration of weather, and the love of Sonic and Braum’s.

Even though I did grow up in Oklahoma, I went to a relatively liberal church (for that state anyway), and I wasn’t familiar with the biblical passages from Revelations. I had to look up the seven seals to fully understand Evelyn’s references. I also wish that some of the characters, like Earl, had been more developed. The shift from third person to first person was a little jarring and unexpected, and Caleb seemed like such a different person, also with time passing and experience gained, the change did made sense once I reflected on it. Finally, some details concerning spatial and time relationships were confusing, but that may be a function of the advance copy I read and will be corrected in the printed version.

Readers who enjoy literary fiction, coming of age stories, narratives about extreme religion, and of course, books set in Oklahoma should read Into Captivity They Will Go.

Thank you to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was completely engrossed in this book from start to finish. Caleb lives in Oklahoma with his parents and older brother. They attend the First Baptist Church, but Caleb's mom begins to become a bit more "zealous". She starts talking about the end times, the book of Revelation and basically scaring all the Baptists out of their pews. She tells Caleb that he was born of a virgin birth and that he is Jesus. Next thing you know, Caleb and his mom leave his dad and brother (they are heathens) and they go somewhere out in the middle of nowhere to join up with some other folks like them. (Think Branch Dividian). As you might suspect, the government becomes involved and bad things happen.
As a Christian, I understand and believe the Bible and the book of Revelation; however, I also understood how her interpretations of the Bible and her overzealousness moved that belief from faith to just plain crazy. The line was tightly drawn in the beginning of the book and as you read more, you see her slide down the slope of reality. A great book that will probably make me think about it for a long time.

13 year old Caleb’s mother believes the end of the world is near (as it is told in the bible) and that her son is the second coming of Christ. However, this belief leads to tragedy and catastrophe for both her and her son. A former English student, this book, whilst interesting, reminded me a little bit too much of the sort of symbolic text you might read in an American Literature class - not necessarily a bad thing, and certainly very memorable.

Heavy, harrowing and satisfying to the morbidly curious. This story stuck out to me as I was browsing for titles on NetGalley as I was intrigued by a story that follows a child's perspective in a fanatically religious environment. I thought it was really powerfully done and was surprised how effected I was by it (there may have been some ugly crying in the last few chapters).

Without giving too much away, this story is divided into three sections: Caleb's early adolescent years (pre-cult) which he spent with his family, the time he spent in the cult (after his mother essentially kidnapped him) and what happens several years later. I thought the story may have been a little slow in parts, but it definitely picked up in others and I ended up forgoing sleep to finish reading it. It was very heavy in subject matter, as it is a sad and harrowing story. I don't mean to say this is a bad thing, and I thought the ending was particularly powerful (there may have been some bawling), but I did need to go for a wee walk afterwards to clear my head. 

This story did a really good job of illustrating the impact a parent's influence can have on a child and the consequences that come with religious indoctrination. It is the trust and love between Caleb and his mother that makes her fanaticism so problematic for Caleb. She manipulates the world in a way that makes the prospect of the world ending seem almost comforting to him, because it's something he can rely on. When she drags him away from everything familiar to him, she alienates him from the world even further, cutting him off from his family, his routines and his mostly comfortable lifestyle. Caleb is a sympathetic character as he is essentially of victim of his mothers behaviour and yet very few people in the story seem to offer him any sympathy or help. He also struggles to see himself as such. His mother's behaviour as a whole is abusive in parts and neglectful in others, but she justifies it all in the name of a extreme belief system she believes is 'the right thing to do'. This pushes her story into a bit of a grey area: to what extent can we forgive her for her good (but badly expressed) intentions. Milligan inspires a sense of empathy with these characters, such as the mother, which I found to be unexpected and complex. I particularly liked struggling with these questions throughout the novel. It left me thinking about it long after I'd put it down.

The characters felt very believable and were interesting enough to invest in. Despite the story being told in first person, Caleb is not a largely reflective character and we feel kind of distanced from him for a while, taking our best guess at how he really feels about everything. Though he's telling the story, we're not in his head, and some of his responses to other people are filtered by his desire to please. However, the snippets of insight we're given also help keep the tension going and lend themselves to a more engaging narrative.

Overall, this was a really solid read and I'd recommend it if the subject matter seems interesting to you. It's not the most uplifting story but it will make you think and question and maybe even grieve a little.

Thank you NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. :)

The first parts of this book are interesting (and heart breaking) . Along with the story of Caleb and his mother, it outlines the step-by-step process of the creation of a cult. The action starts out slowly, but just as the tension builds, so does action, until the reader feels there is not even time to take a breath. However, I do feel the last section was overlong and told me probably more than I wanted to know. (STOP here if you are going to read the book and don't want to know what happens--even though you can probably intuit it) The book is interesting at the beginning, but when the cult is coming apart is absolutely terrifying. I have a hard time recommending this book as it is somewhat disturbing, but I think it does provide a real insight into Jim Jones and Waco's David Koresh--for that it i worthwhile.

I loved every part of this book. I enjoyed the first two parts better than the third one though, although it is hard to tell why. Perhaps I was hooked to the sence of adventure, guided into going with the cultish flow, just like Caleb. Now I'm thinking about it, the third part was just as good as the other two. It made me as a reader not only read about the deception Caleb went through, but feel it for myself. Plus, is there anyone else who believes this Cutco-but-fictionalized he got himself into had a cult-like vibe as well?

What a compelling novel... I found it especially relevant in an age where Christian extremism has gained a foothold in the American landscape. Noah Milligan crafted a novel that makes his readers ponder the fine line that many walk between belief and zealotry, between ideology and obsessiveness. These blurred lines have carried over into politics and everyday life, most visible in the exclusionary practices of some churches and private institutions, but even in our government and ordinary citizens' practices.

My heart broke for Caleb. From a very young age, his mother convinced him that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ. As he pondered his circumstances later in adulthood, he realized "I wasn't brainwashed - it wasn't like that because in order to be brainwashed, the person convincing you must realize they're telling you lies. In my case, it couldn't be any different - my mother truly believed I was Jesus Christ reborn, and so why wouldn't I believe her?"

Even as his mother promulgated this outrageous concept, she had no malevolence in her heart, but was merely a misled individual, who caused incredible pain for many. This is where Milligan excels. He can make a reader empathize with even the most dubious individual, humanizing them, and allowing us to see every angle. These individuals felt real, like one's own neighbor, even in situations that are anything but familiar. The author also explores very relevant topics, and enables his readers to reflect on very valid concerns, ones that wouldn't normally be at the forefront. For example, his novel brought to mind how incredibly malleable a child's mind can be, and solidified the great responsibility we, as parents, have.

I must admit, I was more enthralled the first 2/3 of the book than in the end. Somehow, the novel lost a bit of its fire as it culminated. However, I truly enjoyed Mr. Milligan's easy manner of writing and his ability to make a foreign concept very accessible.

Many thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for gifting me with this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This title will be released on October 1, 2019.

A powerful and engrossing story that will keep you hooked till the last page.
It's well written, the characters are fleshed out and the setting is fascinating.
The plot is fast paced and full of food for thought.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

In the years leading up to his mother's religious extremism, Caleb feels the church "wrapping around him like another skin" offering him a place of belonging in an empty world described as "a large balloon slowly leaking air." But as, over time, her commitment to the belief that "they were the chosen, the 144,000 righteous and devout priest-kings who would rule with Christ over the restored paradise after the apocalypse" intensifies Caleb is instead suspended in revered isolation: his mother convincing him (and many others) that he is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
And why wouldn't he believe her? : "She was, after all, my mother. She birthed me and raised me and fed me and taught me, and so why wouldn't I trust her?"
His world shrinks as, living in a disparate community of tongue-speaking fanatics, his debilitating loneliness is kept at bay by the force of his mother's conviction and preachings; "they filled their time reading the Bible and talking about things to come, the opening of the Seven Seals and the final battle between good and evil."
As a tornado hits and desimates the entire area, the community reaches breaking point and doubts invade until tragedy is inevitable. Caleb is marooned; stripped of all that he has previously been certain.

Reading at a time when I have recently listened to a podcast about David Koresh's Branch Davidians and the Waco siege (where his followers also felt protected by their certainty that their interpretation of the Seven Seals would ensure their transition into heaven), Noah Milligan's tale mirrors real-life events. The story recognises the human desire to predict and control the future and the security of standing amongst a number of believers but also the vulnerability of a child moulded and indoctrinated; where none of the choices are his own.

The real strength of the book for me, is in the first 2 thirds before Caleb develops into an adult looking for answers and explanations where there are few to be found. But what a 2 thirds.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing an advance copy with me in return for an honest review.