I just reread this and remembered how much I liked it. Some of my favourite themes – cults, college – and the ties to Korea that I found much more interesting this time around than I remember from my first read. The writing is good, too – it's a bit distanced, in a way, but that in itself gives such an unsettled feeling throughout that adds to the feel of the plot.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, but it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it’d be. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but I just...didn’t get it? And I also strongly disliked all three protagonists. All in all, there wasn’t much about this novel that encouraged me to read it (hence why it took 20 days). It’s alright, but not anything to write home about.

It's hard to find the words to explain how I feel about The Incendiaries, because I'm very much on the fence about it. This is primarily because it reminds me a lot of The Girls by Emma Cline, which was one of the best books I read in 2017. I'd been hoping for a similar read from The Incendiaries, but because the majority of the story is told through Will's viewpoint - a step removed from the Jejah cult - it didn't have the same intense plot as Cline's debut.

However, The Incendiaries has its own kind of intensity. The characters of Phoebe and Will are realistic because they're flawed, both consistently performing misguided actions. Will's love for Phoebe ultimately drives her away, while Phoebe's guilt over the death of her mother sends her running into the arms of John Leal, the Jejah leader. While I was rooting for Phoebe to find redemption from someone other than John, it felt like a futile wish throughout the story: I won't tell you the details, but I will say that you shouldn't reach for The Incendiaries if you're looking for a book with a happy ending.

I don't often read literary fiction, and I did find R.O. Kwon's writing style difficult to gel with at first. The speech is reported, which I've never been a fan of, but I know people who have a marked preference for that style so I'm sure that will come as a recommendation to a few of you! But because The Incendiaries is literary fiction the focus is on the way that the story is told rather than the events taking place, meaning that I did find my attention wavering at points throughout the novel. The blurb that I've featured above is taken from Goodreads, but I actually feel as though it needs to expose less of the tale: most of the events featured in the synopsis don't take place until the last quarter of the novel. If my expectations hadn't been so high it's likely that I would have given The Incendiaries four stars, but unfortunately it just didn't quite hit that mark.

For a book which is just over 200 pages, The Incendiaries squeezes as much as possible into its short length. Primarily discussing religion, obsession and grief, there's also an exploration of first love. Although I found the ending frustrating I was impressed with R.O. Kwon's attempt to deal with so much in such a brief novel. I'm excited to see what she produces next.

Nothing wrong with this but it just didn't hold my interest somehow. I think I wasn't curious enough about the protagonist. The voice isn't distinctive. DNF

Grief, guilt, vulnerability, unclear thinking, longing for some version of faith to hold onto, lean on, take the responsibility and pain of your life off your shoulders - perfect prey for cults and more conventional religions alike.

'The Incendiaries' shows extremes of faith from different angles - and it matters not one jot what religion or which ties (either geographical or ideological) were indicated in this story, it could have been extremist followers/believers or anything, any one or any god.

I've read in more than one review that the root of the problem in this novel is a lapse in faith, that religiouscreaders might like it better. I strongly disagree, I think organised religion of any kind, faith of any strength, comes across as looked upon negatively in this novel. Will is the character who thinks most rationally and sees most clearly and he has walked away from his own heavy indoctrination into another sect of faith.

A good, challenging, thought provoking read. I will look for more of the authors work.

Will Kendall is a fraud. An imposter student at a posh college, stealing bread rolls from the dinner hall to make ends meet. He waits tables at a mob-lite Italian restaurant where the owner’s never been out of the US. He longs to be noticed.

Then, he is. Vibrant, cool, mysterious Phoebe engineers a meeting at a party and grooves her way into Will’s life. Their relationship is intense and, told from Will’s perspective, fragile and at the mercy of his own insecurities.

He does well at school and is accepted for an internship abroad, and in that time he and Phoebe grow apart, and he is increasingly worried about he relationship with John Leal, a Christlike figure around campus who seems to be building a cult following, with Phoebe as his Mary Magdalene.

As we know from the blurb, Phoebe is sucked into the world of that, cutting Will out completely and leaving him searching for answers.

I was disappointed, to be honest. I expected an interesting, layered look at faith and obsession from a neutral or at least, balanced perspective. Ostensibly this is what you get, as some of the chapters are written from John and Phoebe’s perspectives, alongside Will.

However, I found Will to be such a whiny, pathetic character that it was difficult to be on his side. He’s got no ideas of his own, he acts like his problems are the only ones in the whole world and he cries when his lies are uncovered. [Spoilers]

One incident is a retelling of an encounter between him and Phoebe at the end of their relationship, where he rapes her, but never acknowledges that is what happened, and never takes responsibility for that being the ending of their partnership.

If it was supposed to be arch, or satirical, or knowing – I missed it. I wanted Will to get his comeuppance, his punishment, and I did not condemn Phoebe for her actions, which I don’t think was the idea.

There are better cult books out there, if that’s what you’re after. “The Circle” by Dave Eggers, “Whit” by Iain Banks or The Girls by Emma Cline.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy. As a fan of university campus stories and cults, I was really drawn to the premise of this book, and I wasn't disappointed. If you're a fan of The Secret History or The Girls then I'd recommend this to you. It draws you through a relationship as it is subtly affected by the influence of a cult figure. This is a strong debut and I will definitely be reading any future books by R. O. Kwon.

I don't know quite what to think about this book. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and the characters didn't really pull me in, but something kept me reading. The plot was pretty meh, but that's not a surprise because its a character driven story. I think I was expecting more from the characters. They were all supposed to be people who were incredibly passionate who were searching for something to fill the hole that was left by the absence of the piano or religion, etc, but I didn't really feel that passion. The characters just felt lacking, and in a character driven book, it makes the book a bit of a letdown.

A really fantastic, though provoking read. I heard this recommended on NPR's 'Fresh Air' and knew I had to read it. Utterly compelling on the power of love, obsession and the drive we all have to discover who we really are (as well as examine the avenues where this leads us.) One of the most assured debut novels I've read in years.

This was a brilliantly interesting read, and one like I haven't read before. With a slow meandering plot, the uncomfortable feeling sticks with you throughout. You and Will can see what is unfolding but yet are unable to prevent Phoebe from making these dire choices.
Written in the third person with alternating choppy sentences, it is hard to believe that this is a debut novel. It perfectly captures the quiet unsettled nature of the read, making it compelling from start to finish.

Plot: Will meets Phoebe during his first month at a prestigious university. Feeling like a misfit, he’s in disbelief that the beautiful girl he’s dreamed of is interested in him. Phoebe, however, has her own problems she keeps hidden, including guilt over the recent death of her mother. This makes her the perfect candidate to be drawn into a cult which is ultimately named as responsible for a bombing that kills several people. Will is still drawn to Phoebe though, to the point of obsession.

My thoughts: The premise of this book, talking about cults tied to North Korea, a misfit boy and love, faith and loss had me intrigued, but sadly, it lacked the spark of a very good book for me.
I struggled with the lack of speech marks in dialogue – I know it can be an effective technique, and I can understand why it’s used here, to make the confusion of what happened even more vague, but it really doesn’t help me gel with characters. I enjoyed Phoebe’s backstory, the way she’s brought up, and the way it’s seen only through Will’s eyes – a very unique viewpoint where he tries to understand her but doesn’t really – but this technique also made it hard to identify with her as a character and I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to be disliking her for her actions so far or falling in love with her through Will’s eyes.
I just didn’t connect with this book, and it didn’t quite deliver on the promises of a scary cult for me – in fact, everything that happened in the book seemed to be told in short in the blurb and not much extra added! I found we just weren’t seeing enough of the cult to understand the threats it posed with a slow introduction which could have shown how easily it could build to something dangerous, but it seemed to continue slowly to a bang, then back to slow again. It was interesting but not done well enough to really intrigue me.

In the Incendiaries RO Kwan braves the thorny issues of faith and fanaticism and the intersections between the two. She approaches her subject from three directions through its three narrators, Will, Phoebe and John. Will is floundering having lost his strong, teenage faith in Christianity, guilt-ridden Phoebe is drawn ever deeper into the mysterious cult-like group called Jejah and John manipulates and inspires faith as Jejah’s charismatic leader.

It’s a brave attempt but it failed for me on a number of levels, most dramatically in the conception of Jejah that lies at its heart. The beliefs and goals of the group are so ill-defined that it’s difficult to fathom their appeal or how they could establish such a powerful hold even over its most vulnerable members. Even the most heinous beliefs have that visible and compelling spark that allows outsiders to glimpse their power but this was entirely lacking and made it virtually impossible to empathise with many of the characters beyond a superficial understanding that sometimes people need something to believe in.

Part of the problem is that while the sections purport to give us the viewpoints of Will, Phoebe and John Leal, they are actually viewpoints as imagined by Will alone. This reveals Will’s unsettling attachment to Phoebe and his dependency on HER faith to fill the void left by his own. While this is an interesting subject in its own right, but when it is combined with Phoebe’s growing connection to the cult and Will’s vague, undeveloped ideas of John Leal it fails to create meaningful pictures of any of the characters. It set up a jarring remove between the reader and Phoebe so that it became even more difficult to engage with her and to understand her motivations and therefore the dramatic consequences of her fanaticism.

There’s a string current of obsession throughout, obsessive faith and obsessive relationships as the characters attempt to fill the holes within themselves with external substitutes. Phoebe’s obsession leads her down a sad, dark path as Jejah and John Leal spiral into violence while Will is unable to detach himself from their relationship. One problem is the starkly unemotional nature of the writing, the characters tell us (or rather, Will does) of their powerful feelings but I found it difficult to believe them.

In the end Kwon attempts to do two quite different things. Portray a deep and complex picture of one man’s relationship to faith, both its presence and its loss and his attempts to grapple with the world through both. This is done through the focus on Will and our understanding of events through the prism of his experience. On top of this is the exploration of a deeper fanaticism based on guilt and vulnerability and (presumably) the idea that in the right circumstances any one of us could find ourselves in Phoebe’s shoes. I believe that this is true, but I didn’t believe it in the story because I could only see her through Will’s eyes, her voice was lost and so was any real possibility for empathy. The idea is that these different but related strands will shed new light on one another but instead they tend to obscure the very points Kwon is trying to make.

It has taken me a bit of time to get round to reading this one. The blurb really excited me, the cover looks great and I had read some pretty good reviews for it (it was always on Buzzfeed lists of books to read!) but for some reason I really struggled to get the motivation to pick it up…que reading a ton of other books first (*cough* I guilty pleasure re-red Twilight *cough*). So I am a little bit proud of myself to be writing this review now.

This story covers so many interesting themes that had the potential to either make or break the book and thankfully, it made the book. It made this story compelling and thought provoking. It can be so challenging when a book tackles religion especially when it is the more radical, extreme religious beliefs that are at the core of a cult, but I think that Kwon tackled this wonderfully. I will say however, that it has made this book slightly hard to review, I am interested to see what people from all walks of life thought of it because for me I drew a lot from my experience growing up in Northern Ireland and seeing the impact of new avenues of religions gathering almost cult like followings (not that I was ever part of them but they were are a large component of the town where I grew up).

<i>The Incendiaries</i> is not an overly comfortable read, I would not recommend it for a lazy Sunday reading in a coffee show but it is a beautifully written and profound novel. The characters do not fit into the boxes that the reader is used to, all of them are flawed and there were times when I sat there thinking, who am I meant to be rooting for. But I think that really made the novel fascinating, it gave me that uncomfortable feeling that I get when reading about real life indoctrinations into cults and showed the how did they fall for it side. All in the most eloquent and beautifully constructed prose.

<b>4 stars</b> for <i>The Incendaries</i> and I will definitely be watching R.O.Kwon with excitement to see what she comes out with next.

<i> A big thank you to Netgalley and Virago for the copy in exchange for an unbiased review. </i>

The Incendiaries by Korean-American author, R.O. Kwon has been called one of the most highly anticipated debuts of 2018 and rightly so.

In this small but razor sharp book, three Korean-American students' lives are intertwined while attending a university on the East Coast. Will has recently transferred from Bible College, having rejected both religion and fundamentalism, and Phoebe is a campus sweetheart still grieving the loss of her mother. Both come under the influence of John Leal, a charismatic former Edwards University student who was previously captured and released by North Korea and is now the leader of a religious extremist cult known as Jejah. What is fascinating about all three characters, is that we never really feel like we can trust them, as they are all hiding something: Will is embarrassed by his poverty; Phoebe's exuberant, popular-girl persona masks a deep grief and fierce battle with depression; and John's magnetism is highly questionable given his extreme methods of recruitment and leadership.

Will is in love - and mildly obsessed - with Phoebe. When she slips under the influence of John and his disturbing cult we really do appreciate how upsetting his predicament is. Will's situation is brilliantly portrayed, but it is his struggle with his own religious identity that captures our attention. To Will, his old faith is like something he cannot shed entirely:

“People with no experience of God tend to think that leaving the faith would be a liberation,” he says, “a flight from guilt, rules, but what I couldn’t forget was the joy I’d known, loving Him. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing — the old, lost hope revived. I was tantalized with what John Leal said was possible: I wished him to be right.”

This is a story about religious intensity and how it functions in America. Religion can provide comfort, it can unite, and it can energise, but sometimes it can explode. This book is also a deep meditation on loss, of which Kwon is extraordinarily sympathetic. With her elegant, staccato prose, we are brought on a journey to the depths of places people can go when they are suffering from great loss; to the dark places and the extreme insecurities, where we witness the truly vulnerable side of millennial youth. We watch how these characters try to find meaning in tragedy and fill in the empty gaps in their lives.

It is also an imagination of the mind-set of a particular type of religious fanatic, and it questions notions of violence as a reaction to religious belief versus a response to a lack of belief.

The Incendiaries comes to us with an different structure; as a series of memories pieced together in the aftermath of an act of terrorism. With it's obscure narration style, we are not entirely sure who is doing the remembering and who is actually piecing together the series of events for us. In short chapters it moves from Will, to Phoebe, to John, but it appears to be Will's imagining of all three perspectives, so it is a struggle to bring the story into focus. However unsettling or disorientating this is though, Kwon does an excellent job of balancing it all, meaning we are never frustrated by the fogginess.

This is an ambiguous and masterful book. It is unique, powerful and utterly enticing, and it has arrived at a key moment in our time.

The Incendiaries is a slow burner, but when it catches fire, it's electric. It, in itself, is incendiary. 4.5 stars.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group, and the author, R. O. Kwon.
I'm not sure if 'enjoyed' is the right word to describe how I experienced this book, but I was totally gripped.
It is beautifully written and the tension and suspense throughout is palpable. It covers some darker themes of terrorism and extremism that are incredibly relevant to today's society, and spends a great deal of time on faith/belief, and it's subjectivity.
Overall, I'd have to give this book 3.5 (rounded up to 4), happy to have read it and experienced Kwon's eloquent prose, but conflicted as to the book's overall offering.

I wanted to grab a copy of this book as it sounded so, so good, but I somehow managed to not download it time, and it was archived on NetGalley before I could get it. I knew I still wanted to read it, so I decided to purchase it, and having now read it, I am pleased I didn't just move on. This book blew me away. One of the best books of the year, in my opinion. I absolutely loved it! Because of that I didn't mind purchasing my copy, it will take pride of place on my bookshelf! An astonishing debut!

There are so many difficult themes addressed in this book - love, loss, faith, terrorism and violence, to name but a few. I happen to appreciate books that are compelling, but that also explore important themes, and 'The Incendiaries' does this extremely well! This is a powerful, heartfelt novel, that cements Kwon's status amongst the best writers out there today. I found some parts quite uncomfortable, but I expected that as the book really pushes the boundaries. Having had an interest in why people turn to terrorism/cults and the psychology behind it all, I was completely engrossed and found it impossible to tear myself away. There are many surprises within and, at its heart, this is a story about life and humanities compulsion to want to believe that there is a plan for us all, with the aim of bringing answers about life and its inherent meaning. It focuses in on many philosophical principles surrounding existence, reason and knowledge, and the belief that there is an all seeing entity who has the power to forgive us for our sins.

The three main characters - Will Kendall, Phoebe Lin and John Leal - are all flawed individuals, each with their own plans on what they want from life. When their paths cross, life will no longer remain the same for any of them. Leal, the leader of the cult Jejah, is a secretive person, who manipulates and controls everyone around him, much like all cult leaders past and present have done. These people will forever be connected by their actions.

This is one of those books I will reread and return to time and time again. Thought-provoking, emotional, and a book that vividly portrays both the prettiest and the ugliest traits humans have to offer. Although a short read, it packs a powerful punch and has the ability to make you question the world around you. The prose was wonderfully lyrical and of beautiful quality, and the use of unusual and complex perspectives contributed to the intrigue. An unforgettable tale from an incredibly talented author, I cannot wait to see what Kwon will publish in the future!

Many thanks to Virago for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. My apologies for mistakenly thinking i'd downloded it and only realising I hadn't when I saw it had been archived. As I feel I had committed to providing a review when I requested the book, I bought a copy in order to provide a review.

I'm very sorry to say I did not finish this book. I feel terrible for giving this response, but in reality, had I bought this for myself and got to this stage, I wouldn't continue then and feel this is a true representation of my feelings. I have made it to ~52% and will not be completing it.
My main issue was with the point of views. I was so confused throughout each chapter, when one name was at the top of the chapter and yet it didn't seem consistent in it being their point of view. Was it simply just a chapter focusing on them? I'm still unsure who the narrator is. There were parts that read like a first person POV but it was just a character telling the narrator something, but the lack of speech marks or defined layout made it so confusing to keep up with, and maybe I was just being slow or missing the point of it but it took away from any joy of reading it because I spent to long trying to figure out what was going on with what characters.
I also didn't care much for any character. I couldn't see any real reason for Phoebe and Will to be together, there seemed to be very little explanation for him jetting off to Beijing and it was down played to this really little thing, and I just wasn't following it very well. Also, not much had happened for being half way in, the pace was slow, there was no action or suspense or ever intruig, and the whole thing fell a bit flat.
I half felt obliged to carry on, but not finishing it, as I said, is accurate of what I would have done in real life, and there are too many other books to read.

The Incendiaries may appear to be a short novel but it packs a powerful punch in those pages. It's a tale of jealousy, religion, fanaticism, and love. The story of Will, Phoebe, and a man called John Leal, Kwon explores a man's loss of faith which has led to some life-changing decisions and his dismay as he watches the woman he loves being drawn deeper and deeper into a religious group named Jejah, by a charismatic man who may or may not be telling the complete truth about his past. As Will falls deeper in love with Phoebe, she, in turn, starts abandoning her friends, her studies, and Will.

The Incendiaries focuses on the character of Will, with Phoebe and John appearing as what feels like support characters. We get to know Will extremely well, about his life before Edwards, his mother's illness and get to explore the reasoning behind his loss of faith. Phoebe remains an enigmatic figure, and although we learn about significant events in her childhood, we don't know much about her as an adult and especially why she is so drawn to John Leal and his cult-like group. John himself remains a shadowy figure throughout the story, looming in the background and appearing at times when Will is feeling at his most vulnerable in his relationship with Phoebe. He claims to be a former prisoner of North Korea, goes barefoot all the time (Kwon's quite graphic description of the state of his feet turned my stomach! But I have a bit of a phobia about going barefoot...) and is charismatic to the point that people flock to him, take part in his group's initiation rites and become distraught if they're cast aside by him.

It becomes clear that the void left by his lack of faith and the absence of God in his life, Will is using Phoebe to fill that hole and his love becomes an obsession rather quickly. It was interesting to this happen as Will himself doesn't really realize this until the end but it's clear to Phoebe's friends, especially the colorful Julian who tells Phoebe to stay away from him.

Ultimately, R.O. Kwon has written a compelling and engrossing story that plays on the tropes of an obsessed man, whose memory is unreliable - at his own admission, and the sections featuring Phoebe could be either her actual memories or Will trying to fill in the blanks, trying to make sense of everything that happens, and the group's descent into extreme violence. Her ability to play with perspective is partially what makes this book so readable, and I think the most important thing for me was being able to read it in one go. It allowed me to immerse myself fully in Will's story, to try and understand exactly what was going on with Will. I liked that Phoebe was never fully fleshed out and that we never got to know her side of the story if we see her sections of the book as being Will's memories rather than her own thoughts. Kwon's writing is wonderful, her ability to draw the reader in from the first page is remarkable for a debut author and such a short novel. Some of her descriptions were so powerful that you can feel yourself in the actual presence of these characters, rather than just picturing them, and I think The Incendiaries fully deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it.

I first heard about "The Incendiaries" from US vloggers, and was really interested in the hype it received. I was very pleased when I was able to received an ARC from Netgalley to read it prior to its release in UK. It lived up to my expectations. The story follows Phoebe Lin, a Korean American student at a prestigious university and Will, who is far less well-off, on scholarship and newly transferred from a Bible college, after he lost his faith. Phoebe, driven by guilt and grief, is drawn into a religious group, Jejah, founded by John Leal, a former student with a mysterious past.. A terrible act of violence is committed and Will is trying to discover what pushed Phoebe towards an extremist organisation, "Incendiaries" is a novel in three voices about love, grief and obsession. Although not very likeable, Phoebe is an interesting character. Her pursuit of absolution in faith is depicted in a convincing (and chilling) way. It was also a beautifully written book, and I found myself being drawn into its narrative. However, I would have liked to see more insights into the cult that drew Phoebe in, and to have had a more definite ending. Overall, I thought it was a really good debut novel and I will be looking forward to reading more by R.O.Kwon.





The book is told by three main character's voices - Leal's chapters are told in third person, Will's in first and Pheobe's

I’ve been wanting to read The Incendiaries ever since it first came onto my radar. I’m fascinated by the psychology involved in cults and the people who are seduced by them so the premise of this book really appealed to me. I must confess after reading it that it’s not quite what I expected. Rather than being the thriller type book I was expecting – it was a more analytical look at the characters involved and the boundaries of faith, power and passion.
At first the book appears to follow three perspectives: Will, Phoebe and John Leal. However as the story progresses it becomes apparent that Phoebe’s narrative is actually Will’s explanation of what he perceived Phoebe’s thoughts and actions to be. This is a little confusing at first but it’s a fascinating angle to tell the story from as it adds a great deal of doubt to be cast upon what Will is telling the reader. The chapters don’t really follow one single thread but everything does eventually connect and becomes slightly more clear although doesn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow which feels much more realistic.
I found the characters hugely intriguing but not particularly likeable. This is not a problem for me at least because I often find ambiguous characters far more interesting to try and figure out – as was the case here. Another thing which really stood out in The Incendiaries is the beautiful quality of the writing. Pretty much every sentence was full of lyrical language which made reading it a joy. Kwon is clearly a talented writer and I will definitely be reading her next piece of work.
This is a short book but I wouldn’t say it’s a quick read. It requires thought throughout every page but I think it’s a hugely worthwhile read. The Incendiaries is an intense commentary on how religion can become obsessive or even fanatical and how similar it can be to becoming completely entranced by a person. I would definitely recommend it as a book that is both original and compelling.