STARRED Book Review: Hell Is a World Without You

Reviewed by Warren Maxwell

Joyous and sobering, this coming-of-age story from deep within America’s megachurch community examines the realities of love, faith, and apostasy.

“I didn’t know know whether my dad had spent the past 2,360 days in eternal conscious torment, but I knew I wanted to play pickup football.”

Isaac Siena Jr. is caught in a maze of religiosity, secularism, and raging hormones as he enters high school. The temptations of public school clash with his mother’s end-of-days obsession, his older brother’s fire and brimstone preaching, an endless series of religious camps and programs, and the churning voice in his head that thrashes him for so much as being attracted to a non-believing Pokemon player in the cafeteria. Moving chronologically through the four years of high school, this novel riffs on the intense bonds, doubts, and discoveries that young adults make on the path toward maturity.

“It’s been a month, and I haven’t ignited a single global revival. If I’m such a crappy Christian that I go this whole semester without leading any classmates to eternal life, I don’t deserve my temporary life.”

This story reveals the cruelties of indoctrinating children and insisting their obedience to an ideology they don’t understand while also championing the many possibilities and salutary models of spirituality. The young adults in this book attend church events thousands of times before turning thirteen, memorize enormous tracts of scripture, and compete to be the most righteous, humble, and obedient. In the case of Isaac this creates a volatile dissonance that sees him fantasizing about self harm and punishment in order to live in accordance with the harsh moral universe of his community. In a way, the essence of faith becomes this novel’s subject. Does hell exist, and if so why? What relationship do we have to our loved ones after they have died? What role does fear have in the education of children? All these questions are urgently brought to the surface during the course of the narrative. 

“Longing to be strangled by lesbians, I loudly recited Psalm 24 beside my school’s deeply anti-Christian HOME OF THE CRUSADERS: STATE CHAMPS ’89 sign.”

Thematic depth and intensity are balanced by fluent, humorous language, slipping readers into a high school boy’s mind. There are familiar high stakes dramas surrounding first crushes and quests to impress older boys as well as the more unique challenges of living in two different cultural universes that demonize one another. Any hint of his Christian upbringing earns derision in school, while secular excess is cause for ostracism among many of his church friends. At the center of these absurd conflicts, Isaac’s genuine curiosity about everything makes him a brilliant, taboo shirking narrator who candidly speaks about abortion, sex, self-hatred, and an overpowering need for love and family.

Subtle changes and developments track Isaac’s growth from a terrified, God-fearing, thirteen year-old into a courageous young man more concerned with the well-being of others than with judgements and strict doctrinairianism. Searing emotional honesty imbues the growth of Isaac and the characters around him with rare depth and verisimilitude. Dialogue has the fresh, organic ring of a conversation overheard. Asides in which Isaac sends instant messages to friends on AOL (this book takes place between 2000 and 2004) with the handle “SHARKSWITHRABIES” have the same authenticity and charming youthful naivety.

Among the novels’s greatest strengths is its ability to engage polarizing subject like religion and sexuality as well as its attendant political implications without pushing any sort of agenda. Complexity is embraced and dogmatism is rejected. And while the book doesn’t forward a set of beliefs, it does promote inquiry, bravery, and the importance of forging strong bonds. As Isaac’s moving story arcs towards surprising conclusions, readers will be swept away with its poignance and intellectual rigor. A wonderful novel.

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