The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon – Visceral and Mysterious (Blog Tour)

The Incendiaries bagged a place in almost every list of anticipated releases of the year by bigger digital publications.  News about the book was everywhere. I was keen to read this debut that had a dizzying cover design and an attractive blurb and thrilled to be a part of the tour for the release of the book.

In brief

Will Kendall and Phoebe Lin meet at Edwards college. Will has given up his faith in Christianity while Phoebe is drawn to a secret extremist religious cult called Jejah, founded by a former student, John Leal.

Faith and fundamentalism

Religion and devotion towards faith is an important theme in the novel. While Will has lost his faith in God which makes him shift from Bible college to Edwards college, Phoebe finds comfort in the religious beliefs she is exposed to. While there is no right or wrong, it is interesting to compare their individual reasons for their choices as well as the consequences that befall them. Will struggles to understand how the girl he loves is drawn to the religious cult while he himself had run away from his Christian upbringing. Also in retrospection, Will realizes he does not really feel liberated, as he hoped, after abandoning his faith. John Neal, the man behind the cult, does not get enough of a mention in the novel but does give a peek into the psychology behind religious fanatic ideas.

Short and sharp

I was surprised at how short the book was, when I received it. Kwon’s extremely short phrases in the book added both a discomforting agony to the plot and an ecstatic pleasure at different sections of the novel. I loved the different perspectives to Phoebe’s character. We see her as a glamorous, happy girl through Will’s eyes first. Later we are introduced to her as someone who hides the guilt and trauma accompanying her mother’s death in a car accident. Her yearning towards perfectionism makes her give up playing the piano. Later we see her drawn to the religious cult whose members do not shy from taking some extreme measures to protect their faith.

Hiccups

A large part of the book was from Will’s point of view which made me feel disconnected from the Jejah cult as Will was not a part of it. As a result, I felt no deep connection to the characters in spite of the prose being acerbic enough to strike the right chord. While I was able to understand Phoebe as a complex character, I was unable to feel the same way about Will or John even though the book addresses all three points of view (sometimes direct and sometimes imagined).

Final Verdict

The Incendiaries, at its heart, talks of religious fervour and hidden personal traumas. It is a love story explored through obsession and grief. The prose is mysterious and disorienting sprinkled with sharp phases, a jig saw of memories and a lot of secrets. R. O. Kwon has put forth a commendable debut.

Trigger warning : rape, extremism

Title : The Incendiaries
Author : R. O. Kwon
Publisher : Virago
Publication: 2018
Language : English
Pages : 224
Rating : 3/5
 

PS : Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who are talking about the book today.Add to your Goodreads shelf