CJ Leede, as The Maeve Flies during the American Rapture

CJ Leede is a horror writer, hiker, and Trekkie. She is the author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture. Her debut novel Maeve Fly won the Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award and Splatterpunk Award, and earned a Bram Stoker Award nomination. When she is not driving around the country, CJ can be found in LA with her boyfriend and rescue dogs.
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CJ Leede, as The Maeve Flies Through the American Rapture

Your new book American Rapture is coming out on the 15th of October. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about it?
Yes! American Rapture follows a very sheltered 16 year old Catholic girl living in the Midwest who starts to come into her sexual awakening, and at the same time, America kind of explodes with this very violent, sexually propagating virus epidemic. And she has to cross the state of Wisconsin to try and find her family and hopefully stay alive and also grapple with some big ideas of sexuality and self and shame and belief.
Sophie from American Rapture is very innocent and sheltered, and almost the complete opposite character to Maeve, the violent anti-hero from your wonderful debut novel Maeve Fly. How did you find that experience of writing such a different character?
I found it really thrilling. Maeve is a character I’d like to return to, and I think she has more stories still. I hope that there are certain themes and ideas and motifs that come through in all of my work. I really love America, in all of its neon dive bar roadside attraction glory. We interact with place in a very particular way, and I want to always show that in my work. And I want each book to be like a little snapshot of a different place, cataloging this country bit by bit. But within that, I would like to really switch up what I’m doing.
My third book has a male protagonist. I just kind of want to feel what it’s like to be in the head of every type of person, and I didn’t feel there was any success to be gained from trying to write another Maeve who wasn’t Maeve. She is what she is. And I think Sophie’s strong in her way, and she’s learning to be strong. But I needed a break from being a sledgehammer for a little bit. Sophie’s like, “Oh, do I have a blade component to me?” And the book is kind of sharpening it.
American Rapture deals with that very American strain of religious fundamentalism in the way in which Sophie is brought up, and the way that her parents isolate both her and her brother from the outside world, and the way they react to Noah’s sexuality…

I grew up religious, but not in any way cut off from the world like Sophie is. I had a very progressive Catholic upbringing. But even so, this country is founded on puritanical ideals. And whether we think we’ve come a long way from that or not, look at things that are happening in the news. We really haven’t come that far from that.
And without getting too political, a woman’s bodily autonomy is just not really a given all the time. But I think the big thing for me was that growing up, I had this feeling that we were told all the time that our whole value was in how attractive we were and how much attention we could get from the opposite sex. And it was always the opposite sex.
And at the same time we really needed to be not only afraid of our bodies and our sexuality and any kind of power we would have in that, but also feel deep shame about it. I grew up in a church where it was made very clear that it was a girl’s responsibility not to do anything or flaunt anything in such a way that would incite desire in somebody else. That is a very damaging and dangerous way to raise young people.
Additionally, that kind of repression and pressure cooker created from it does lead to a lot of really unhealthy relationship dynamics as people get older.
I just think this world is full of all kinds of stuff that we should be looking at, awful things and ways that we need to show up for each other. And we also are mortal, and everyone we love is mortal, and everyone’s gonna die, and we have to live with that no matter what. So why are we wasting our time talking about someone’s sexual orientation, or them entering into a loving relationship with somebody that doesn’t hurt anyone? Or why are we talking about supercharging sex in general? The only conversation should be, is there consent? Everything else is very uncomplicated. And yet that idea of making sex uncomplicated upends a lot of those hyper-religious hierarchical structures.

Looking at the book in conversation with Maeve Fly, that book also explores a lot about how Maeve interacts with the world as a woman and the expectations that puts on her. Maeve often subverts and uses this to her own advantage, but Sophie is much more on the receiving end of it, at the beginning of the book at least she’s not in a position where she’s able to gain any agency over it.
Definitely. And I think that’s how I felt as a young person. I’m not trying to be a role model or fix anything in society. I think I’m just saying with each book, this is something I’ve struggled with, and this is something I’m working through in my mind and on the page.
And if you, reader, are somebody who resonates with this, maybe that’s all I’m really after. If you were ever that young person – and not just young girl, any type of young person – and you felt like you were given this great responsibility, while at the same time just having to grapple with how to grow up. If it didn’t sit well with you, or if you were taught truths that just didn’t seem like they could possibly be it, maybe I’m just saying, I’m with you. I hear you. Let’s cosmically or literally work through this together.
American Rapture features a zombie sex plague. How did living through COVID-19 influence that aspect of the book?
The crazy thing is, I started this book in 2013, and all of that – the cops, the vaccine backlash, the religious response – that was always the book. And to me, it was crazy during COVID to see this idea that I had had playing out in real life.
That was surreal! I didn’t anticipate things like toilet paper shortages or Tiger King’s existence.
What I did add in, I think I had a mask mention initially, but I added in a little bit more of that. I actually spoke with a doctor about potential ways that this virus could actually function, and we named it NARS – North American Respiratory Syndrome – COV-3. But, we’ve had coronaviruses before covid. Mostly what shocked me during the pandemic that I ended up adding was the internet response. When I started this book, Social Media wasn’t what it is now, and that was very shocking, that assault online of everyone’s opinions. Suddenly everybody was an expert on this thing, but also nobody knew anything, and everyone was so angry at everybody else.
And I think I anticipated the idea of a religious few ,or a very politically conservative group turning on everyone else, but I did not anticipate individuals turning on each other the way that I saw during COVID. And I think that definitely found its way into the book. But I do feel, ultimately, both through the pandemic and this book, a strengthened sense of humanity in us coming together. So I don’t want to sound like I’m saying that we don’t band together in the end! I mean this book is a found family narrative. I really do believe that we always can find our people, and when we’re lucky enough to do that, just to show up for each other and be there however you can – that’s one of the most beautiful parts about being in this human, mortal existence,
An interesting similarity between Sophie and Maeve is that they both read a lot. Maev reads American Psycho, and Sophie discovers A Wrinkle In Time and the Jean M. Auel books through the librarian character and her son.
Totally. I imagine a lot of writers are writing because we were readers first, and for me, that was definitely the case. I’ve read 100 books a year, probably since I was a little kid. And I only know the number now because of Goodreads! I used to fake being sick to stay home from school and read. I was an only child, and my parents worked, and I spent a lot of time on my own with my dog siblings. And I really had pretty free access to books through the school library.
Also my parents would take me to the indie bookstore and Barnes & Noble, and I’ll shout out Book People in Austin, that was my indie spot. But I remember just it blowing my mind, starting to understand that we at all times, do have access, and not just access, but free access through the library to almost infinite stories. The number of books that exist is so shocking, and each one is its own world that you can inhabit, and that might expand your mind in every way, and might make you learn some new, beautiful truth that you never would have encountered otherwise. And I think I can’t imagine writing characters who don’t read, in the same way that I’m so music obsessed, I can’t imagine characters who don’t listen to music.
Even Sophie doesn’t quite, but she has the first moment with a song that really resonates with her in this book.
And I think those things, the books we love, the music we love, can really help us, like, form an identity and also express an identity and connect with others. And specifically, those Jean Auel books, and A Wrinkle in Time, those were hugely important books for me in learning how to be a strong woman, really capable and independent and flawed and messy, but like at the end of the day someone who steps up and takes care of things and takes care of the people that you love. I think that those were really important books for me. And not enough people know about Clan of the Cave bear series now, and I think everyone should forever!
Yeah, it’s definitely one I remember from the library system when I was a kid.
Yeah, it’s a very sex positive, female empowerment story, ultimately. The first one, there’s a lot of assault, and there’s a lot of rough stuff. But then it becomes, starting with the second book, this really epic journey of a woman figuring out all of the point of being here, and has this really great relationship. Great books!
You’ve written two horror books now. What is your relationship to the genre?
I never read horror, but when I was in grad school, every story I handed in, I had a professor who was like, these are all horror stories! I was like, No, there’s no way, because I don’t like that stuff. And he was like, these are horror stories! At the time, I was dating the guy who now has become my partner, and he got me my first Stephen King novel. I think he got me The Shining and Misery around the same time. And I read them, and I was like, oh my god, I’m a horror writer, and I want to be just like this guy! And then I read every Stephen King book – I’m still working through!
With Nightfire, my editor, Kelly specifically, but all of Nightfire, they had this really visionary purpose, to create a horror space in a more mainstream part of publishing. And they were the first ones to do it. Now, I think we have a few more coming, which is awesome, but I feel so lucky to get to be a part of that wave. And I learned so much all the time from the other horror authors I meet and my friends in this community.
And I feel very, very proud to call myself a horror author and to get to be a part of it all.
I think it horror in general – more than lit world, I’m gonna say! – it’s a an incredibly welcoming, open armed, anyone and everyone welcome kind of community, and that is remarkable. It’s kind of like how anyone who listens to black and death metal are often the sweetest and gentlest people you’ll ever meet. I think there’s something very cool about it. So I think I’ve got a lot of horror in me. I do love sci fi and fantasy. I’d love to write sci fi fantasy one day, but it’ll probably skew darker. I am currently soft pitching some dark romance novels, so hopefully I’ll have something to announce on that at some point soon
What’s next for CJ Leede?
I’m working on a Colorado book. It’s got cannibals and ghosts, and it’s a dual perspective, but really, the main character is this male detective. And I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but it’s my darkest book that I’ve written yet, and It is my favorite book I’ve written yet. It’s gonna be, Rocky Mountain winter nights, lots of strange goings on. I’m very, very excited about it. It’s going to be about as long as American Rapture, too. So it’s a longer book.
That sounds excellent, and I’m super excited for it already!
Thank you. I think spring ‘26 is what we’re tentatively planning on
Thank you CJ Leede for speaking with us!
Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

A provocative, blood-soaked slasher about unsung villainesses – a nightmarish blend of Eric LaRocca meets American Psycho.
By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.
By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes.
But when Gideon Green – her best friend’s brother – moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet.
Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.
American Rapture by CJ Leede

From CJ Leede, the author of Maeve Fly and a new voice in the feminist horror space, comes a scorching new apocalyptic novel.
Blessed are the meek, Sophie was taught; blessed are the pure of heart. Blessed is the good Catholic girl who honours her father and mother, who renounces the sins of pride, greed, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth, for she will inherit the earth.
But nothing in her strict religious upbring could have prepared Sophie for the arrival of the scorching winds that sweep through the Midwest – not the righteous breath of God, but an evil gust that delivers an ungodly, fevered lust unto the virtuous and the wicked alike.
Separated from her family in the chaos of the apocalypse, Sophie is overcome by an unfamiliar fire from within, a steady pulse from somewhere beneath her belly that draws her toward the boys her mother warned her against: their eyes, their lips, their hands, their skin. The hellscape around her is foreign and strange, but so is the frantic desire that blooms in Sophie, tempting her away from the light. Though her own body has become a carnal battleground, she must somehow find her way through the ravaged world to rescue her brother, hoping the fever hasn’t taken him; hoping he can still be saved.
‘Keep an eye on this rising feminist voice’ Tori Amos
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