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We Burn Daylight
An epic novel of star-crossed lovers set in a doomsday cult on the Texas prairie that What would you sacrifice for the person you love?
“Symphonic and suspenseful . . . In an epic act of empathy, Bret Anthony Johnston inhabits every point of view, from doomed devotees to perplexed law enforcement.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March
Waco, Texas, 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel—signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods—and his motives.
Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff, a fourteen-year-old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families. The Lamb has plans for them all—especially Jaye—and as his preaching and scheming move them closer and closer to unthinkable violence, Roy risks everything to save Jaye.
Based on the true events that unfolded thirty years ago during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, Bret Anthony Johnston’s We Burn Daylight is an unforgettable love story, a heart-pounding literary page turner, and a profound exploration of faith, family, and what it means to truly be saved.
“Symphonic and suspenseful . . . In an epic act of empathy, Bret Anthony Johnston inhabits every point of view, from doomed devotees to perplexed law enforcement.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March
Waco, Texas, 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel—signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods—and his motives.
Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff, a fourteen-year-old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families. The Lamb has plans for them all—especially Jaye—and as his preaching and scheming move them closer and closer to unthinkable violence, Roy risks everything to save Jaye.
Based on the true events that unfolded thirty years ago during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, Bret Anthony Johnston’s We Burn Daylight is an unforgettable love story, a heart-pounding literary page turner, and a profound exploration of faith, family, and what it means to truly be saved.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 30, 2024
246 people are currently reading
20596 people want to read
About the author
Bret Anthony Johnston
16 books236 followersBret Anthony Johnston is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Remember Me Like This, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the winner of the 2015 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns Prize. The book has been translated around the world and is being made into a major motion picture. Bret is also the author of the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent (London) and The Irish Times, and the editor of Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. His work appears in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere.
His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, The Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation. He wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and at Harvard University, where he is the Director of Creative Writing.
His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, The Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation. He wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and at Harvard University, where he is the Director of Creative Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 467 reviews
March 13, 2024
I watched the entire televised Waco siege of David Koresh (Lamb) and the Branch Davidians tragedy as it unfolded in March-April 1993. I was pregnant with my daughter, on temporary bedrest. Our technology was limited yet we thought it was vast. So what did I do? I read books and watched TV, and the Waco siege was the most compelling TV at the time. I was facing potential loss while loss was unfolding on our TV screens. Waco is 100 miles north of Austin, my home, a plain small city with not a whole heckuva lot going for it. Then Waco broke national and international news. That was huge then, in the 1990s, when not even Austin was on the "destination" map. Texas writer Bret Anthony Johnston says that this is not the life of David Koresh. Which, I'm going to interpret as--rather, this is the life of fictional characters, Roy and Jaye, and their friends and family. Or consider it as a re-imagining of David Koresh’s clone. I have read some of the non-fiction material on the whole damned catastrophe, and nobody has hit the right notes of truth more than this author.
It isn’t just facts that tell a story about an event. It’s emotional and psychological truth that matters, and that’s where it counts for me. The main characters are Jaye, a fourteen-year-old girl and beaux Roy, also fourteen. Roy and Jaye tell their love story in alternating narratives, certainly borne from Johnston’s imagination, but the setting/melding of the calamity in Waco is brilliant. Johnston’s muscular use of language is sizzling, simmering. He uses robust and ripe words and phrases, very physical and forceful and yet sinewy and lucid. No word is superfluous; every sentence is nimble and supple---all five senses engaged, and a memorable romance. It's a page-turner, dear readers!
A lot is said about the stars, in metaphor, personification, and just the boundless entirety of its space. This all happened before cell phones kept us connected without interruption, when we had to depend on being there in the room where the telephone rang. There was a lot more waiting, suspense, expectancy, or not knowing that went along with this era right before the explosion of iPhones. Time and space have been reclassified by mobile phones, and some of the magic and anxiety of being able to contact your most important person was wholly different then.
“…I imagined a universe where a person could rearrange the stars to relay a message to someone else, a night sky inscribed in cryptic code, an illuminated language of loss.” How much would you sacrifice for a faith or glory, the abstractness of a supreme being? What would you do to save the person you most care about---and what is the meaning of “saved” to these characters? Is it religious, spiritual, emotional, or literal? Would you save your one true love first, or would you save what a charismatic leader calls your “soul.”
David Koresh (OK, Perry Cullen in the novel), to some folks, was like Jesus, a prophet of the Seven Seals, a person who could probably quote the entire Bible. To his worshippers, he is inviolable, unassailable. He was also a pedophile, and essentially had babies with babies. But he twisted these people’s minds enough that they believed he was their savior, and everything he did was part of his God-given right.
The story progresses with a pacey rhythm and I was on edge the whole time. Does this novel have more impact if you are familiar with the Waco standoff and siege? I do think my knowledge of the event and the minutiae of its moving parts created a particularly ripe suspense for me. However, it is Johnston that held all these facts together and wrote a compelling love story that is superimposed and braided into the dark events of the time. Those of us that followed the story in 1993 will have that whole scenario playing in our heads while we read WE BURNED DAYLIGHT.
I also kept thinking of the Supertramp song, “If Everyone was Listening." At one point, I put it on to connect to the most moving lyrics. It’s from the album, Crime of the Century—“For we dreamed a lot, and we schemed a lot, and we tried to sing of love before the stage fell apart.” It was like a play, Koresh as the mad clown, the compound his stage. “You don’t know what you’ve done, the finale’s begun.”
The friendship/romance between Jaye and Roy was deeply emotional but held with subtle restraint. They must have been the two most intelligent, quick-witted people in Waco, their feelings for each other illuminated their vulnerability and their strength. Could it survive—one love on the inside, one on the outside? While Perry Cullen kept his flock close at hand—everyone on the commune had a job to do, there was no plumbing, and there were hard chores to be done—the drama of Jaye and Roy played out.
Jaye's mother hauled her to Texas from California to be with Perry Cullen and his nutty flock. Jaye endured, she loved her mother, but she also kept a cautious distance to Perry, at the very least spelling out her boundaries to him, with a cutting tone, if that’s what it took. She knew he tried to groom her, and all the young ones. She was only fourteen, an attractive age for Perry. Yeah, he's that.
Jaye did things like sneak in Cullen’s room when he was gone to use the only telephone in the compound, to call Roy, and to do a bit of sabotage, like pour out Perry’s milk and put the empty carton back in the fridge, or eat his cheese. Lots of people went hungry, there wasn’t sufficient food, but not Perry. He had everything he wanted and more.
The story is propulsive, irresistible. It engulfs me. You may break dates, disregard dinner, ignore everything else but the book. It’s so gripping, meaningful, and expressive that you’ll obliterate any obstruction between you and WE BURNED DAYLIGHT. It’s page-turning and maximum appeal, natural sounding, effortless, but you know he worked hard on it with dedication and no fakery. Johnston is a breath of fresh air, a fearsome writer and master storyteller, with tantalizing wordplay.
Thank you to Random House for sending me an ARC to read and review. It’s a hard act to follow. I’ve been a fan of Johnston since REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS, another ripped-from-the-headlines event written for specific and individual fictional characters. Johnston does that so well. Took a huge national tragedy and yet owns it for his indelible make-believe one. The song remains the same.
It isn’t just facts that tell a story about an event. It’s emotional and psychological truth that matters, and that’s where it counts for me. The main characters are Jaye, a fourteen-year-old girl and beaux Roy, also fourteen. Roy and Jaye tell their love story in alternating narratives, certainly borne from Johnston’s imagination, but the setting/melding of the calamity in Waco is brilliant. Johnston’s muscular use of language is sizzling, simmering. He uses robust and ripe words and phrases, very physical and forceful and yet sinewy and lucid. No word is superfluous; every sentence is nimble and supple---all five senses engaged, and a memorable romance. It's a page-turner, dear readers!
A lot is said about the stars, in metaphor, personification, and just the boundless entirety of its space. This all happened before cell phones kept us connected without interruption, when we had to depend on being there in the room where the telephone rang. There was a lot more waiting, suspense, expectancy, or not knowing that went along with this era right before the explosion of iPhones. Time and space have been reclassified by mobile phones, and some of the magic and anxiety of being able to contact your most important person was wholly different then.
“…I imagined a universe where a person could rearrange the stars to relay a message to someone else, a night sky inscribed in cryptic code, an illuminated language of loss.” How much would you sacrifice for a faith or glory, the abstractness of a supreme being? What would you do to save the person you most care about---and what is the meaning of “saved” to these characters? Is it religious, spiritual, emotional, or literal? Would you save your one true love first, or would you save what a charismatic leader calls your “soul.”
David Koresh (OK, Perry Cullen in the novel), to some folks, was like Jesus, a prophet of the Seven Seals, a person who could probably quote the entire Bible. To his worshippers, he is inviolable, unassailable. He was also a pedophile, and essentially had babies with babies. But he twisted these people’s minds enough that they believed he was their savior, and everything he did was part of his God-given right.
The story progresses with a pacey rhythm and I was on edge the whole time. Does this novel have more impact if you are familiar with the Waco standoff and siege? I do think my knowledge of the event and the minutiae of its moving parts created a particularly ripe suspense for me. However, it is Johnston that held all these facts together and wrote a compelling love story that is superimposed and braided into the dark events of the time. Those of us that followed the story in 1993 will have that whole scenario playing in our heads while we read WE BURNED DAYLIGHT.
I also kept thinking of the Supertramp song, “If Everyone was Listening." At one point, I put it on to connect to the most moving lyrics. It’s from the album, Crime of the Century—“For we dreamed a lot, and we schemed a lot, and we tried to sing of love before the stage fell apart.” It was like a play, Koresh as the mad clown, the compound his stage. “You don’t know what you’ve done, the finale’s begun.”
The friendship/romance between Jaye and Roy was deeply emotional but held with subtle restraint. They must have been the two most intelligent, quick-witted people in Waco, their feelings for each other illuminated their vulnerability and their strength. Could it survive—one love on the inside, one on the outside? While Perry Cullen kept his flock close at hand—everyone on the commune had a job to do, there was no plumbing, and there were hard chores to be done—the drama of Jaye and Roy played out.
Jaye's mother hauled her to Texas from California to be with Perry Cullen and his nutty flock. Jaye endured, she loved her mother, but she also kept a cautious distance to Perry, at the very least spelling out her boundaries to him, with a cutting tone, if that’s what it took. She knew he tried to groom her, and all the young ones. She was only fourteen, an attractive age for Perry. Yeah, he's that.
Jaye did things like sneak in Cullen’s room when he was gone to use the only telephone in the compound, to call Roy, and to do a bit of sabotage, like pour out Perry’s milk and put the empty carton back in the fridge, or eat his cheese. Lots of people went hungry, there wasn’t sufficient food, but not Perry. He had everything he wanted and more.
The story is propulsive, irresistible. It engulfs me. You may break dates, disregard dinner, ignore everything else but the book. It’s so gripping, meaningful, and expressive that you’ll obliterate any obstruction between you and WE BURNED DAYLIGHT. It’s page-turning and maximum appeal, natural sounding, effortless, but you know he worked hard on it with dedication and no fakery. Johnston is a breath of fresh air, a fearsome writer and master storyteller, with tantalizing wordplay.
Thank you to Random House for sending me an ARC to read and review. It’s a hard act to follow. I’ve been a fan of Johnston since REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS, another ripped-from-the-headlines event written for specific and individual fictional characters. Johnston does that so well. Took a huge national tragedy and yet owns it for his indelible make-believe one. The song remains the same.
July 19, 2025
This mind-bending, meticulously crafted thriller delves into the tragic events unfolding in Waco, Texas, in 1993, through the star-crossed romance of two teenagers. Roy, the son of the sheriff, grapples with the absence of his elder brother, who is serving in Iraq. Meanwhile, Jay's mother finds herself drawn to a charismatic cult leader, Perry Cullen (based on real-life figure David Koresh), disrupting Jay's life and drawing her into a dangerous web.
The narrative unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Roy and Jay, offering insight into their respective journeys. Roy navigates the complexities of law enforcement, seeking to fill the void left by his brother's departure, while Jay struggles with her mother's newfound infatuation and the allure of a life beyond her grasp.
Short, poignant chapters interwoven with podcast segments from the present day create a sense of foreboding, driving the narrative forward and keeping readers engaged. Despite knowing the historical backdrop, the fate of the two teenagers remains uncertain, adding layers of tension to each chapter.
The novel excels in its pacing and character development, offering a realistic portrayal of the tragedy and the cult leader's manipulative influence. David Koresh's fictionalized portrayal sheds light on his apocalyptic vision and the fervent devotion of his followers, exploring the dangerous consequences of unchecked manipulation.
The heart-wrenching conclusion leaves a lasting impact, underscoring the novel's emotional depth and resonance. Overall, this is one of the best historical fictions I've encountered recently, and I highly recommend adding it to your reading list.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a digital review copy of this exceptional novel in exchange for my honest feedback.
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The narrative unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Roy and Jay, offering insight into their respective journeys. Roy navigates the complexities of law enforcement, seeking to fill the void left by his brother's departure, while Jay struggles with her mother's newfound infatuation and the allure of a life beyond her grasp.
Short, poignant chapters interwoven with podcast segments from the present day create a sense of foreboding, driving the narrative forward and keeping readers engaged. Despite knowing the historical backdrop, the fate of the two teenagers remains uncertain, adding layers of tension to each chapter.
The novel excels in its pacing and character development, offering a realistic portrayal of the tragedy and the cult leader's manipulative influence. David Koresh's fictionalized portrayal sheds light on his apocalyptic vision and the fervent devotion of his followers, exploring the dangerous consequences of unchecked manipulation.
The heart-wrenching conclusion leaves a lasting impact, underscoring the novel's emotional depth and resonance. Overall, this is one of the best historical fictions I've encountered recently, and I highly recommend adding it to your reading list.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a digital review copy of this exceptional novel in exchange for my honest feedback.
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August 7, 2024I'm just tired of reading this book. It's not bad and it's not good. I'm just tired of it. I keep telling myself I will get interested in it but I'm at the halfway point and I'm done.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
July 29, 2024
It’s been 10 years since Bret Anthony Johnston burst onto the literary scene with Remember Me Like This, a novel I described at the time as “manna from heaven.” The past long and eventful decade has not dimmed his talent one bit. If anything, it has enhanced it.
I devoured this page-turning story, inspired by true events -- the 1993 government siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Going into the book, my memory of the siege was sketchy: a long-haired man who believed that the end of days was imminent, a raid on the compound approved by Janet Reno, a lengthy stand-off, and a blazing fire that killed dozens.
My sketchy knowledge didn’t matter because We Burn Daylight is a work of fiction, enabling the author to take liberties with his story. It is focused on two 14-year-olds: the sheriff’s son Roy and a girl named Jaye, who reluctantly lives in the compound. They are in the throes of first love when the first part of the siege begins.
Bret Anthony Johnson divides the novel into four parts, defined by the four horses of the apocalypse. The white horse signifies conquest – many believe it symbolizes Christ or the Antichrist. The black horse symbolizes war and bloodshed; the red horse stands for famine; and the pale horse is usually identified as Death. Interspered with the narratives are recorded podcasts involving the fictional characters and set in the present time.
Perry Cullen (aka The Lamb), for a Christ or Antichrist figure (depending on who is doing the defining), is amazingly ordinary – Bible-thumping and repellent and able to lure people to him by making them feel they belonged with him. (Hmm…I wonder who that reminds me of?) Yet, for all his so-called charisma, it is Roy and Jaye who command our attention and remind us that innocent and guileless love truly has the power to save.
At the end of the day, bloodline, prayer sacrifice, or a “glad-hearted dream of God” mean little. Macbeth’s speech in the eponymous Shakespeare play (Life’s but a walking shadow a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more) could very well apply to all the Perry Cullens of the world. Justice, mercy, grace, and most of all, love, are what saves us from the constant fires.
I simply cannot recommend this novel enough and owe a huge thanks to Random House for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
I devoured this page-turning story, inspired by true events -- the 1993 government siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Going into the book, my memory of the siege was sketchy: a long-haired man who believed that the end of days was imminent, a raid on the compound approved by Janet Reno, a lengthy stand-off, and a blazing fire that killed dozens.
My sketchy knowledge didn’t matter because We Burn Daylight is a work of fiction, enabling the author to take liberties with his story. It is focused on two 14-year-olds: the sheriff’s son Roy and a girl named Jaye, who reluctantly lives in the compound. They are in the throes of first love when the first part of the siege begins.
Bret Anthony Johnson divides the novel into four parts, defined by the four horses of the apocalypse. The white horse signifies conquest – many believe it symbolizes Christ or the Antichrist. The black horse symbolizes war and bloodshed; the red horse stands for famine; and the pale horse is usually identified as Death. Interspered with the narratives are recorded podcasts involving the fictional characters and set in the present time.
Perry Cullen (aka The Lamb), for a Christ or Antichrist figure (depending on who is doing the defining), is amazingly ordinary – Bible-thumping and repellent and able to lure people to him by making them feel they belonged with him. (Hmm…I wonder who that reminds me of?) Yet, for all his so-called charisma, it is Roy and Jaye who command our attention and remind us that innocent and guileless love truly has the power to save.
At the end of the day, bloodline, prayer sacrifice, or a “glad-hearted dream of God” mean little. Macbeth’s speech in the eponymous Shakespeare play (Life’s but a walking shadow a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more) could very well apply to all the Perry Cullens of the world. Justice, mercy, grace, and most of all, love, are what saves us from the constant fires.
I simply cannot recommend this novel enough and owe a huge thanks to Random House for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
July 28, 2024
Two teens, a doomsday cult, and Waco Texas sets the stage for We Burn Daylight.
Waco, Texas 1993
Perry Cullen, known by his followers as (The Lamb) has followers from all over. They come to his compound with their possessions and money to prepare for the end of times. They have gathered a HUGE amount of weapons for when the end comes. Jaye’s mother comes to Texas to join the Lamb and his followers. She is a steadfast and devout follower while her her daughter, Jaye questions the Lamb's intentions and methods. Roy is the local sheriff's son and finds himself drawn to Jaye.
If you are getting David Koresh and the Branch Davidians vibes from this book, that is because this book is based on the events that took place in Waco, Texas in 1993.
This book is told through a podcast which takes place 30 years after the siege, and through the POV's of Jaye and Roy. This book was somewhat slow for me and I struggle with slow, but I hung in there and did enjoy the book. The podcast sections were my favorite parts of the book. I appreciated the depiction of devotion, of cults, of doubt, and the connection between Jaye and Roy.
Thank you to Ramdon House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖
Waco, Texas 1993
Perry Cullen, known by his followers as (The Lamb) has followers from all over. They come to his compound with their possessions and money to prepare for the end of times. They have gathered a HUGE amount of weapons for when the end comes. Jaye’s mother comes to Texas to join the Lamb and his followers. She is a steadfast and devout follower while her her daughter, Jaye questions the Lamb's intentions and methods. Roy is the local sheriff's son and finds himself drawn to Jaye.
If you are getting David Koresh and the Branch Davidians vibes from this book, that is because this book is based on the events that took place in Waco, Texas in 1993.
This book is told through a podcast which takes place 30 years after the siege, and through the POV's of Jaye and Roy. This book was somewhat slow for me and I struggle with slow, but I hung in there and did enjoy the book. The podcast sections were my favorite parts of the book. I appreciated the depiction of devotion, of cults, of doubt, and the connection between Jaye and Roy.
Thank you to Ramdon House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖
July 18, 2025
Romeo and Juliet meets the 1993 Waco massacre: This novel is a fictionalization of the events around doomsday prophet David Koresh who ran a cult in Texas until the FBI stormed his compound, which led to the 51 day Waco siege - apparently, this is a major thing in America's public consciousness, but I'm a European who was a child in the 90's, so I heard about it for the first time in this novel.
To highlight the Shakespearean dimension of this tragedy, we get references to his famous star-crossed lovers: 14-year-old Roy hails from a Texan law enforcement dynasty, while Jaye has been brought from California to Waco by her mom to live with the local cult, run by Perry "Lamb" Cullen, a predatory gun nut and sex pest. Of course, Roy enlists his dad, the sheriff, to help save Jayne. The title of the novel is taken from the play, where Mercutio (the real MVP of the story whom I would have married instead of whiny drama king Romeo) says it to his buddy Romeo as he tries to convince him to attend the Capulets' ball.
Sure, Bret Anthony Johnston claims that Cullen is not Koresh, but there are obviously legal reasons at play. The story is mainly told from the POV's of Roy and Jaye whose chapters alternate and are interspersed with short transcripts from a true crime podcast on the case. The language is functional, and the story does work as a thriller, but although the teenage viewpoint is fresh, the structure and the sound are highly conventional - as I love more experimental approaches and prefer them to even well done straightforward pageturners, this is not for me. There is just not enough going on on the aesthetic level, and I feel like the topics of cults and their mechanics, how they relate to religion and media and the human search for purpose has been done so often, I just need more confetti to keep me interested. Also, Romeo and Juliet is so overused and under-interpreted in its remixes, I just can't anymore (ever wondered about the role of fanaticism in Romeo's obsessive love, and how his childish ideas about love lead to destruction? Shakespeare clearly did).
The novel achieves what it wants to do, but this is not for me.
You can listen to our podcast gang discussing the German translation (also called We Burn Daylight: Roman) here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/podcast/...
To highlight the Shakespearean dimension of this tragedy, we get references to his famous star-crossed lovers: 14-year-old Roy hails from a Texan law enforcement dynasty, while Jaye has been brought from California to Waco by her mom to live with the local cult, run by Perry "Lamb" Cullen, a predatory gun nut and sex pest. Of course, Roy enlists his dad, the sheriff, to help save Jayne. The title of the novel is taken from the play, where Mercutio (the real MVP of the story whom I would have married instead of whiny drama king Romeo) says it to his buddy Romeo as he tries to convince him to attend the Capulets' ball.
Sure, Bret Anthony Johnston claims that Cullen is not Koresh, but there are obviously legal reasons at play. The story is mainly told from the POV's of Roy and Jaye whose chapters alternate and are interspersed with short transcripts from a true crime podcast on the case. The language is functional, and the story does work as a thriller, but although the teenage viewpoint is fresh, the structure and the sound are highly conventional - as I love more experimental approaches and prefer them to even well done straightforward pageturners, this is not for me. There is just not enough going on on the aesthetic level, and I feel like the topics of cults and their mechanics, how they relate to religion and media and the human search for purpose has been done so often, I just need more confetti to keep me interested. Also, Romeo and Juliet is so overused and under-interpreted in its remixes, I just can't anymore (ever wondered about the role of fanaticism in Romeo's obsessive love, and how his childish ideas about love lead to destruction? Shakespeare clearly did).
The novel achieves what it wants to do, but this is not for me.
You can listen to our podcast gang discussing the German translation (also called We Burn Daylight: Roman) here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/podcast/...
August 13, 2024
In a brief afterword to his new novel, Bret Anthony Johnston claims, “‘We Burn Daylight’ is not about David Koresh.” But the fact that his plot is set around a millenarian compound besieged by federal agents in Waco is no less coincidental than Donald Trump’s decision to rally there last year. Although people have different motives for circling this mass grave, they all seek to warm their hands in that inferno.
Johnston, though, comes bearing an additional, even older tragedy. “We Burn Daylight” reimagines the conflict between the government and the Branch Davidians as a modern-day echo of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” His star-crossed lovers are a pair of teenagers whose ardor is doomed by an animosity far beyond their control. Roy is a lonely 14-year-old boy, the younger son of the McLennan County sheriff. Jaye is the angry daughter of a devoted member of the religious group holed up in Waco. In the Bard’s words, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.”
Johnston, a native of Texas, captures this area with an appreciation for the rhythms and courtesies of rural life — neighbors who know who drinks too much and who keeps their fences mended. Church is the center of everyone’s week.
The novel comes to us in chapters narrated, alternately, by Roy and Jaye. She’s essentially a captive, acting out any way she can to irritate her mother and repel the cult’s leader. Roy, a high school freshman, occupies a strangely....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Johnston, though, comes bearing an additional, even older tragedy. “We Burn Daylight” reimagines the conflict between the government and the Branch Davidians as a modern-day echo of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” His star-crossed lovers are a pair of teenagers whose ardor is doomed by an animosity far beyond their control. Roy is a lonely 14-year-old boy, the younger son of the McLennan County sheriff. Jaye is the angry daughter of a devoted member of the religious group holed up in Waco. In the Bard’s words, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.”
Johnston, a native of Texas, captures this area with an appreciation for the rhythms and courtesies of rural life — neighbors who know who drinks too much and who keeps their fences mended. Church is the center of everyone’s week.
The novel comes to us in chapters narrated, alternately, by Roy and Jaye. She’s essentially a captive, acting out any way she can to irritate her mother and repel the cult’s leader. Roy, a high school freshman, occupies a strangely....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
July 25, 2024
DNF. I liked the examination of a cult but saw no purpose in setting it in Waco. I remember true accounts of the siege on Waco in 1993, where most cult members died. But we are reminded that this story is separate from one actual historical Waco, and its fictional leader, the Lamb (who lacks charisma), is not based on David Koresh. I felt the fictional account of the cult and siege would have been more effective if a different location had been chosen.
The story focused on a romance and thoughts of two teenagers, a girl living in the compound, the other the son of a law enforcement member. They narrate their story in alternate chapters. Their involvement leads up to the fictional siege and to suspense about the outcome. Their individual stories are mixed with a present-day podcast interviewing witnesses, survivors, and law enforcement agents. I regret I am in the minority and failed to maintain interest. However, many readers will find this to be a gripping story, with its unique narrative and suspenseful plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher of the ARC. The publication date is July 30, 2024.
The story focused on a romance and thoughts of two teenagers, a girl living in the compound, the other the son of a law enforcement member. They narrate their story in alternate chapters. Their involvement leads up to the fictional siege and to suspense about the outcome. Their individual stories are mixed with a present-day podcast interviewing witnesses, survivors, and law enforcement agents. I regret I am in the minority and failed to maintain interest. However, many readers will find this to be a gripping story, with its unique narrative and suspenseful plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher of the ARC. The publication date is July 30, 2024.
May 3, 2025
I'm a little on the fence about this book, because it was good, but there were also parts that bugged me.
Like the fact that it was inspired by what happened in Waco, and even though the names are different, I feel like I know too much about the real events to be completely comfortable reading a fictionalised account of it.
It also didn't help that the main characters were teenagers, but the narrators chosen didn't even try to sound younger, so I was listening to people who sounded 40, talking about high school, it took me out of the story a few times.
And when you read the epilogue, it makes some sense, but I still would've preferred for them to .
But I will say that the story was compelling, I loved the podcast chapters, and I do think that the author managed to get into the thick of it, why people like the Lamb drew others to them like moths to a flame, it was definitely interesting.
3.5
Like the fact that it was inspired by what happened in Waco, and even though the names are different, I feel like I know too much about the real events to be completely comfortable reading a fictionalised account of it.
It also didn't help that the main characters were teenagers, but the narrators chosen didn't even try to sound younger, so I was listening to people who sounded 40, talking about high school, it took me out of the story a few times.
And when you read the epilogue, it makes some sense, but I still would've preferred for them to .
But I will say that the story was compelling, I loved the podcast chapters, and I do think that the author managed to get into the thick of it, why people like the Lamb drew others to them like moths to a flame, it was definitely interesting.
3.5
April 17, 2024
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 30, 2024
Bret Anthony Johnston’s new novel, “We Burn Daylight” brings two star-crossed lovers learning about love, and themselves, in a coming-of-age story with a doomsday cult in Waco, Texas as the backdrop (no, not that one).
It’s 1993 and Roy is the son of the local sheriff. With his older brother away in the military, Roy sometimes helps his father out when he goes to deliver warrants to the community. Roy’s mother is a health aide and her schedule shifts around which patient needs her the most, so it is often Roy and his father in the sheriff’s pickup. Roy’s father, and the community at large, are convinced that Perry Cullen and his “followers” living in the half-decrepit place on the hill are up to something. Some people think it’s something sinister, some believe that Perry Cullen’s people are nothing more than religious zealots. Jaye is a reluctant member, having been brought to Cullen’s property after her mother fell prey to its charming and provocative leader. Jaye was forced to leave everything behind, including her father, and has to watch her back at every turn, knowing Perry does not have good intentions. But then Jaye meets Roy and she feels hope for the first time- but there is a war brewing and although Jaye and Roy can feel the undercurrents, they live on the edge of their seat, hoping they can make it out alive.
“Daylight” is narrated by the two fourteen-year-old protagonists, but by no means is it a young adult novel. Anthony Johnston’s writing is poetic and descriptive and his novel brings out complex emotions. Young love is a theme, as is loss, but so is fear, power and deceit.
There was no question I was going to read this one (there’s a cult in it, after all) but it exceeded my expectations all the same. Anthony Johnston is a new author for me, and “Daylight” has only made me want to drop everything and immediately read everything else he has ever penned. I found his wording graceful without being thick or overly intellectual, and the dual plots of the Cullen cult as well as the star-crossed romance intertwined effortlessly.
The cult mentioned, obviously, will bring to mind the Waco, Texas chapter of the “Branch Davidians”, led by David Karesh, but it is not based on it, only loosely influenced by. I didn’t mean the symmetry and in fact, I found the setting and background easier to visualize if I had a concrete example to create from.
“Daylight” is unique and unsettling, and I loved every minute.
Expected publication date: July 30, 2024
Bret Anthony Johnston’s new novel, “We Burn Daylight” brings two star-crossed lovers learning about love, and themselves, in a coming-of-age story with a doomsday cult in Waco, Texas as the backdrop (no, not that one).
It’s 1993 and Roy is the son of the local sheriff. With his older brother away in the military, Roy sometimes helps his father out when he goes to deliver warrants to the community. Roy’s mother is a health aide and her schedule shifts around which patient needs her the most, so it is often Roy and his father in the sheriff’s pickup. Roy’s father, and the community at large, are convinced that Perry Cullen and his “followers” living in the half-decrepit place on the hill are up to something. Some people think it’s something sinister, some believe that Perry Cullen’s people are nothing more than religious zealots. Jaye is a reluctant member, having been brought to Cullen’s property after her mother fell prey to its charming and provocative leader. Jaye was forced to leave everything behind, including her father, and has to watch her back at every turn, knowing Perry does not have good intentions. But then Jaye meets Roy and she feels hope for the first time- but there is a war brewing and although Jaye and Roy can feel the undercurrents, they live on the edge of their seat, hoping they can make it out alive.
“Daylight” is narrated by the two fourteen-year-old protagonists, but by no means is it a young adult novel. Anthony Johnston’s writing is poetic and descriptive and his novel brings out complex emotions. Young love is a theme, as is loss, but so is fear, power and deceit.
There was no question I was going to read this one (there’s a cult in it, after all) but it exceeded my expectations all the same. Anthony Johnston is a new author for me, and “Daylight” has only made me want to drop everything and immediately read everything else he has ever penned. I found his wording graceful without being thick or overly intellectual, and the dual plots of the Cullen cult as well as the star-crossed romance intertwined effortlessly.
The cult mentioned, obviously, will bring to mind the Waco, Texas chapter of the “Branch Davidians”, led by David Karesh, but it is not based on it, only loosely influenced by. I didn’t mean the symmetry and in fact, I found the setting and background easier to visualize if I had a concrete example to create from.
“Daylight” is unique and unsettling, and I loved every minute.
July 30, 2024
This is a tense and riveting novel that is both a love story and a tragedy reminiscent of a Shakesperean play. Reading We Burn Daylight is like watching two locomotives on the same track heading towards each other with no way to stop them.
It's easy to see the similarities between this book and the 1993 events that brought to a head the 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidian apocalyptic cult under David Koresh in Waco, Texas and federal agents. Except, the principal part of this story is centered around two teens on opposite sides who are destined to find each other.
The narrative is told through the eyes of Jaye and Roy starting before the deadly altercation in 1993 and excerpts from current podcast interviews with people who had been involved 20 years earlier. Roy is the 14-year-old son of the county's sheriff and Jaye is the recalcitrant daughter of a woman who leaves her home in California to settle with an odd group of lost souls in Waco, Texas who are devout followers of the Lamb, a self-made prophet.
I've never understood the lure of cults, but in reading this mesmerizing portrayal of the Lamb by Bret Anthony Johnston you can certainly imagine the psychological impact that a fanatic with utopian promises can have on people seeking a "better" life at all costs and how their indoctrination and the Lamb's preachings set off a course of events that lead to disaster.
This book was very different from the types of books that I usually read. However, the quality of the writing and the buildup of suspense made it perfectly enjoyable.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
It's easy to see the similarities between this book and the 1993 events that brought to a head the 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidian apocalyptic cult under David Koresh in Waco, Texas and federal agents. Except, the principal part of this story is centered around two teens on opposite sides who are destined to find each other.
The narrative is told through the eyes of Jaye and Roy starting before the deadly altercation in 1993 and excerpts from current podcast interviews with people who had been involved 20 years earlier. Roy is the 14-year-old son of the county's sheriff and Jaye is the recalcitrant daughter of a woman who leaves her home in California to settle with an odd group of lost souls in Waco, Texas who are devout followers of the Lamb, a self-made prophet.
I've never understood the lure of cults, but in reading this mesmerizing portrayal of the Lamb by Bret Anthony Johnston you can certainly imagine the psychological impact that a fanatic with utopian promises can have on people seeking a "better" life at all costs and how their indoctrination and the Lamb's preachings set off a course of events that lead to disaster.
This book was very different from the types of books that I usually read. However, the quality of the writing and the buildup of suspense made it perfectly enjoyable.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
August 15, 2024
There’s a Place for Us
The pitch is fairly simple: a Romeo and Juliet romance set in Waco, Texas, during a scenario much like the Branch Davidians siege. Author Bret Anthony Johnston was in Waco on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy and met with a number of the survivors and people involved– here the story began germinating in his imagination.
Jaye, the Juliet, is a teenaged girl who has reluctantly moved with her mother to the compound run by a religious zealot, Perry Cullen or “the Lamb” – a character similar to the real-life David Koresh. The members are permitted to go into town and Jaye meets the Sheriff’s son, fourteen-year-old Roy (our Romeo). Roy falls heavily for Jaye but has no idea she lives in the compound that his father and other law enforcement officials are investigating.
So, the real-life events of 1993 provide the skeleton for much of the setting. As such, we know how things ended, and we know there was a lot of controversy about the way the government handled the situation. In between Jaye and Roy’s chapters there are episodes of a podcast, “On the Lamb,” a modern-day investigation to find out what really happened. These are short and refreshing breaks as the pace seems to sputter at times. The kids are creations and not historical figures, so a driving motivation to keep reading is to discover their fates.
The sense of place is intense– this is Texas and cannot be confused with anywhere else. The people here are all understandable, if not sympathetic. The Lamb is extreme, of course, but the followers are multidimensional and not painted as mere zombies or robots. If anything, it is the federal government officials who are portrayed as a bit shady.
Overall, this is an interesting depiction of the Waco setting and the people there. For anyone who cares, the Romeo and Juliet theme was all right, with “Easter Eggs” scattered throughout. Knowing the probable outcome only made it drag out to a longer journey than necessary.
Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #WeBurnDaylight #NetGalley.
The pitch is fairly simple: a Romeo and Juliet romance set in Waco, Texas, during a scenario much like the Branch Davidians siege. Author Bret Anthony Johnston was in Waco on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy and met with a number of the survivors and people involved– here the story began germinating in his imagination.
Jaye, the Juliet, is a teenaged girl who has reluctantly moved with her mother to the compound run by a religious zealot, Perry Cullen or “the Lamb” – a character similar to the real-life David Koresh. The members are permitted to go into town and Jaye meets the Sheriff’s son, fourteen-year-old Roy (our Romeo). Roy falls heavily for Jaye but has no idea she lives in the compound that his father and other law enforcement officials are investigating.
So, the real-life events of 1993 provide the skeleton for much of the setting. As such, we know how things ended, and we know there was a lot of controversy about the way the government handled the situation. In between Jaye and Roy’s chapters there are episodes of a podcast, “On the Lamb,” a modern-day investigation to find out what really happened. These are short and refreshing breaks as the pace seems to sputter at times. The kids are creations and not historical figures, so a driving motivation to keep reading is to discover their fates.
The sense of place is intense– this is Texas and cannot be confused with anywhere else. The people here are all understandable, if not sympathetic. The Lamb is extreme, of course, but the followers are multidimensional and not painted as mere zombies or robots. If anything, it is the federal government officials who are portrayed as a bit shady.
Overall, this is an interesting depiction of the Waco setting and the people there. For anyone who cares, the Romeo and Juliet theme was all right, with “Easter Eggs” scattered throughout. Knowing the probable outcome only made it drag out to a longer journey than necessary.
Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #WeBurnDaylight #NetGalley.
May 17, 2024
This story begins with a mother and daughter who leave California, heading to Waco, Texas. Jaye’s mother has learned that a man she knew in California has formed a religious community where he plans to share the word of God, or at least his version of God. She’s heard the word about ’the Lamb’, and is eager to become a part of this new community. Set in an isolated area, far from anything resembling a suburb, he is treated by some as a god, and where his followers, eager to follow, believe his words, and follow him.
When Jaye and her mother arrive, Jaye meets Roy, the son of the local sheriff, which slowly becomes somewhat of a love story.
The longer you read this the more you begin to believe that it is one of those stories that will likely end badly. After all, put together a cult and Waco, and what else would you expect?
Part of this story is shared through podcasts, although the main part of the story is shared through Jaye’s perspective and Roy’s, as well.
I enjoyed this, if somewhat unevenly, as the story continued, but while the podcast transcripts offered insight to some degree, it also felt like I was being taken out of the story to ‘listen’ to the podcast.
What I loved about this was that, despite the darker moments, that this is also a beautifully written story, despite the darkness.
Pub Date: 30 Jul 2024
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random Houses Publishing Group - Random House / Random House
April 20, 2024
Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word.
If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire,
Or — save your reverence — love, wherein thou stickest
Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet
Although author Bret Anthony Johnston states in his Acknowledgements at the end of We Burn Daylight that this “is not about David Koresh”, this is the story of a charismatic leader — named Perry Cullen, aka “The Lamb” — and the doomsday religion that he founds on a shambolic ranch outside of Waco, Texas, which was eventually subject to siege and deadly raid by government forces in March of 1993. Told in short, alternating chapters by a pair of fourteen-year-old “star-crossed lovers” (hence the source of title) — Roy is the upstanding son of the local Sheriff, and Jaye is the (barely) more worldly daughter of a woman who was drawn to the Lamb from California; both Roy and Jaye being good, innocent kids, hungry in that familiar adolescent way for love and validation — and although the reader knows where the escalating standoff between law enforcement and the residents of the highly armed ranch must lead (and to be sure, there is plenty of foreshadowing along the way), this is a heart-wrenching, pulse-pounding, deeply philosophical exploration of faith and social constructs and the real limits of freedom. Johnston’s prose is clear and propulsive — the cold, barren landscape is masterfully captured without a hint of sentimentality — and his characters are real and relatable; even those who would knowingly follow what others might call a “cult”; even the so-called cult leader himself is simply following his own fate. Thirty years after the raid on the Branch Davidians, it might be easy to blame the debacle entirely on government overreach, but here Johnston explores the events that led up to that day — the growing unease of the local community (I hear he has illegal weapons, I hear he’s impregnating underage girls), the mounting paranoia within the ranch (These are the end times, the prophesied opening of the Seventh Seal), and a government that feels its authority under scrutiny (with recent fiascos in Montana and Idaho) — there’s an inevitability to the ensuing tragedy that feels Shakespearian in the end. This was an outstanding reading experience (especially for someone like myself who watched the raid on the Branch Davidians with confused horror as it played out in the day), and it could have rated five stars, but I did not like the way that Johnston wrapped his story up. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
Hidy there, everybody. Good afternoon. Or evening. Sorry to be tardy, but we’ve had ourselves a dustup at the ranch. As you’ve heard by now, people have taken to calling me the Lamb, which is sure nicer than other names I’ve been called. Anyway we’ve had these pork choppers flying at us. I don’t mean to tease. I appreciate y’all tuning in, I do. Well so, okay, it’s the eighteenth day of February 1993, the year of our Lord, and I’m talking at you, through your radios, in your homes and cars and places of commerce, about the revelation of Jesus Christ. That’s the big to-do.
As creepy and delusional as The Lamb may seem, he doesn’t actually appear to be breaking any laws: His visions have called for him to propagate the “New Light, which seemed to be children who would inherit the earth after the Wave Sheaf scrubbed it of sin”; which does involve him sleeping with everyone of breeding age, including underage girls (with theirs and their parents’ consent; so not technically illegal in Texas), and although the community does make their money by reselling weapons on the gun show circuit (and by having a popular shooting range on the ranch), the weapons are all registered, and is absolutely in keeping with the local ethos of “God, Guts, Guns”. The local Sheriff, Eli, sees nothing of concern on routine visits to the ranch, CPS sees no reason to remove any of the children when they follow up on reports from concerned citizens, and even “the taxman” is kept at bay by the group’s tidy bookkeeping and tax exempt status. Even so, the feds will eventually want to have a look inside, and that’s exactly what the prophecy of the Wave Sheaf predicted: and it’s hard to put normal pressure on a people who want be deemed worthy of “translation” to the afterlife.
But all of that happens in the background as Ro
And still more noise — the walls absorbing what they could, the helicopters and yelling and sobbing and coughing, my breathing coming too fast and the awful high-pitched gurgling of our chickens as they were being shot and people pleading with God and barking orders and information: Get down ! Over here now! They’re still coming! I can see them and they’re still coming! Then a single shot and the sickening muffled thunk of its impact, a sledgehammer into a sandbag. Then an enormous gasp — like someone breaching the surface of water after too long below. The gasping continued and turned wet, and a man cried out, “No! No no no no!” Then, as if all the agents were ordered to aim at the same thing and hold down their triggers at the same time: The dinner bell tolled tolled tolled tolled until it dropped to the frozen earth and silenced.
In a stroke of narrative genius, Johnston also has intermittent transcripts from a modern day podcast called “ON THE LAMB”, which sees its host interviewing people who had been involved in the raid, trying to learn what lessons might have been gleaned by thirty years of contemplation on those events. This includes an interview with a defensive retired Special Agent:
What happened was tragic, no question, but there’s also no doubt about who bears responsibility: Cullen. We can debate tactics and strategies, tanks and tear gas, but if Cullen hadn’t abused those kids, we wouldn’t have been there.
But even the attorney general testified there was no evidence of child abuse.
The responsibility is Cullen’s. He did this. The tanks went in because he wouldn’t come out.
And an interview with one of the few survivors among the Lamb’s followers, recently released from prison:
Didn’t they run out of ammo? Isn’t that what being outgunned means?
I think it means we had some help.
God, you’re saying.
What’s the alternative? Some Bible thumpers defeated Uncle Sam? That so much planning and training and equipment was no match for little old us? Sounds fishy, but what do I know? Either way, it sounds like something I can shake hands with.
And an interview with Roy’s long-suffering father, retired Sheriff Eli Mo
We aren’t built to matter. That’s the surprise here. That’s the big finale. Tell the story a million times, a million different ways, but the ones who were punished and the ones who were pardoned ain’t switching places.
And it all serves to satisfyingly explore both how something like this could have actually happened in the “Land of the Free” (without needing to be 100% faithful to the truth of Koresh and the Branch Davidians) and what it all means in the end:
Did we win or lose? Are we damned or saved? We occupy a liminal, leftover world, and we live off scraps. We build our religion, our very existences, with salvaged and stolen parts, waiting for the next fire. To survive is to know what no one else does: Nothing is forever. Not an alibi or shelter, not bloodline or prayer, not nation or sacrifice or any glad-hearted dream of God.
A well-written and compelling narrative, with a sweet and relatable love story at its heart, this isn’t quite a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but it is definitely Shakespearian in its tragedian format and philosophical heart; this leaves me with much to think about and I’m looking forward to exploring Johnston’s earlier work.
February 17, 2024
This is set in Waco, Texas in 1993, at a compound. You can infer from that what this is about.
I greatly empathized with Roy and Jaye. It’s hard out here for fourteen-year-olds! They meet because Perry Cullen has bewitched Jaye’s mother into joining him in Waco, and Jaye decides to come along. The latter is astoundingly wise to all of Perry’s BS, and her observations and witty comments are quite hilarious.
I purposely did not brush up on what really happened during those months of the standoff, so I wouldn’t inadvertently be biased in any way against the reimagined story. You may think that this is a slow burn, but I don’t consider it to be one. Johnston really makes you care about the characters (at least the ones worth caring about), and I was invested in their fates.
What happened is sad, yes, but there’s a tale in here worth reading. Look for this in July 2024!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eARC, which I voluntarily reviewed.
I greatly empathized with Roy and Jaye. It’s hard out here for fourteen-year-olds! They meet because Perry Cullen has bewitched Jaye’s mother into joining him in Waco, and Jaye decides to come along. The latter is astoundingly wise to all of Perry’s BS, and her observations and witty comments are quite hilarious.
I purposely did not brush up on what really happened during those months of the standoff, so I wouldn’t inadvertently be biased in any way against the reimagined story. You may think that this is a slow burn, but I don’t consider it to be one. Johnston really makes you care about the characters (at least the ones worth caring about), and I was invested in their fates.
What happened is sad, yes, but there’s a tale in here worth reading. Look for this in July 2024!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eARC, which I voluntarily reviewed.
August 4, 2024
This is a pretty compelling work of fiction related to the real life siege of the Branch Davidians and their leader David Koresh in Waco Texas 1993.
This could have been a copy - cat story but the Author throws in a twist introducing us to Jaye and Roy a couple of kids who fall in love.
Jaye and her mother leave California to follow Perry Cullen called the lamb by his followers to Waco in 1993. Where their compound falls under siege by the government. The similarities of fiction and reality are profound but start to go in a different direction when Roy the son of the sheriff helping with the siege is bound and determined to get Jaye out of the compound alive.
Now starts a cat and mouse thriller that will keep you in suspense.
A well written novel and an easy read.
This could have been a copy - cat story but the Author throws in a twist introducing us to Jaye and Roy a couple of kids who fall in love.
Jaye and her mother leave California to follow Perry Cullen called the lamb by his followers to Waco in 1993. Where their compound falls under siege by the government. The similarities of fiction and reality are profound but start to go in a different direction when Roy the son of the sheriff helping with the siege is bound and determined to get Jaye out of the compound alive.
Now starts a cat and mouse thriller that will keep you in suspense.
A well written novel and an easy read.
April 21, 2024
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
When I saw that this book was about a cult, I was so excited. I think cults are very interesting and I love hearing about them, the leaders, and the people that join them. I was nervous that maybe this book wouldn't meet my expectations, but wow,was I wrong! I loved everything about this story. Every character had a very distinct voice that added so much to the story. I loved all the foreshadowing, and I lived how similar the story was to the actual Waco cult incident in 1993. I loved how we don't know the identity of the podcast host until much later in the book. I think the only thing that could make this book better would be to hear it on audio. If it was done in a way that each character had its own narrator (especially in the podcast portion!), it would make an audie award worthy audio book.
Absolutely recommend!
When I saw that this book was about a cult, I was so excited. I think cults are very interesting and I love hearing about them, the leaders, and the people that join them. I was nervous that maybe this book wouldn't meet my expectations, but wow,was I wrong! I loved everything about this story. Every character had a very distinct voice that added so much to the story. I loved all the foreshadowing, and I lived how similar the story was to the actual Waco cult incident in 1993. I loved how we don't know the identity of the podcast host until much later in the book. I think the only thing that could make this book better would be to hear it on audio. If it was done in a way that each character had its own narrator (especially in the podcast portion!), it would make an audie award worthy audio book.
Absolutely recommend!
October 3, 2024
This book could have been a five star for me but it lost a couple of stars for two reasons. One being that the character of Jaye was written to act way older than she was stated as being. That was ok and made it a four star until I read the acknowledgments. The fact that the author says it was not about David Koresh. If he would have said it was loosely based on Koresh and the town of Waco, TX that would have helped. It was very much indeed about that horrific event. Yes in fiction form but it should have said "based" on. That is my humble opinion.
I was entranced by this story. I remember when the cult and awful events of that time happened. How horribly it was addressed. The FBI, cops, and whatever other law enforcement was there messed things up horribly. Yes the main character, Perry, should have been brought down. But according to this story and the real life story, he was in town and having gun shows all the time. They could have taken him at any time without causing many deaths. Without all the destruction. Again this is my humble opinion. Now and back then.
Two teenagers tell most of this story. One being the sheriffs son, Roy, ages 14. The other is Jaye, who came from California with her mother to join Perry. Jaye was just way to mature for a 15 year old. She did everything. She stood up to Perry like he was nothing. I didn't buy that either. I did like the story though so bear with me please. If not for her age it would have felt so much more realistic. Jaye had been a shy somewhat introverted young girl. She and her mother came to see what Perry and his commune was all about. It sounded very much like they were trying to groom Jaye for Perry even though her mother was wildly crazy about him. I mean she left her husband to move to Texas and be with Perry. I get that. It happened a lot in cults.
Roy was a kid who had a good life. His mother was a nurse and his dad the sheriff. He was a good kid and did what he was suppose to do. Until he didn't. That is when things went crazy in this story. lol At least for me. There were a few things that just didn't add up for me in this book. The fact that the cop didn't run after Roy when he ran into the compound. That they didn't look for him like he was the sheriff's son. Oh wait, he was the sheriff's son. Go figure. Yes it would happen but in this book I just didn't buy that. This man, Roy's dad, would have moved mountains to find his son knowing what was coming.
The FBI botched the arrest of Perry. They caused so many deaths. Yes Perry deserved to die in my opinion for what he was doing to young girls. But so did their parents for allowing it. Not that this book was in any way graphic. You only read that it did happen. No details. No graphics. I also didn't buy the ending. The sheriff would not have gone along with it. Not the man I read about anyway. He would have found a way for things to be ok.
I figured out what happened to the two youngsters and was not surprised by the ending. But I had no idea who the podcaster what. I was pleasantly surprised. I like him and was hoping he would find out the truth.
This book had great potential and it looks like I am in the minority with this opinion. I liked it but it did not wow me like I had hoped it would. It was a fast paced story and after the FBI got called in it got exciting. But I just didn't think a few things were so great and I do believe it is about David Koresh, or loosely about him and the events of that time.
Thank you #NetGalley, #RandomHousePublishingGroup, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.
Three stars.
I was entranced by this story. I remember when the cult and awful events of that time happened. How horribly it was addressed. The FBI, cops, and whatever other law enforcement was there messed things up horribly. Yes the main character, Perry, should have been brought down. But according to this story and the real life story, he was in town and having gun shows all the time. They could have taken him at any time without causing many deaths. Without all the destruction. Again this is my humble opinion. Now and back then.
Two teenagers tell most of this story. One being the sheriffs son, Roy, ages 14. The other is Jaye, who came from California with her mother to join Perry. Jaye was just way to mature for a 15 year old. She did everything. She stood up to Perry like he was nothing. I didn't buy that either. I did like the story though so bear with me please. If not for her age it would have felt so much more realistic. Jaye had been a shy somewhat introverted young girl. She and her mother came to see what Perry and his commune was all about. It sounded very much like they were trying to groom Jaye for Perry even though her mother was wildly crazy about him. I mean she left her husband to move to Texas and be with Perry. I get that. It happened a lot in cults.
Roy was a kid who had a good life. His mother was a nurse and his dad the sheriff. He was a good kid and did what he was suppose to do. Until he didn't. That is when things went crazy in this story. lol At least for me. There were a few things that just didn't add up for me in this book. The fact that the cop didn't run after Roy when he ran into the compound. That they didn't look for him like he was the sheriff's son. Oh wait, he was the sheriff's son. Go figure. Yes it would happen but in this book I just didn't buy that. This man, Roy's dad, would have moved mountains to find his son knowing what was coming.
The FBI botched the arrest of Perry. They caused so many deaths. Yes Perry deserved to die in my opinion for what he was doing to young girls. But so did their parents for allowing it. Not that this book was in any way graphic. You only read that it did happen. No details. No graphics. I also didn't buy the ending. The sheriff would not have gone along with it. Not the man I read about anyway. He would have found a way for things to be ok.
I figured out what happened to the two youngsters and was not surprised by the ending. But I had no idea who the podcaster what. I was pleasantly surprised. I like him and was hoping he would find out the truth.
This book had great potential and it looks like I am in the minority with this opinion. I liked it but it did not wow me like I had hoped it would. It was a fast paced story and after the FBI got called in it got exciting. But I just didn't think a few things were so great and I do believe it is about David Koresh, or loosely about him and the events of that time.
Thank you #NetGalley, #RandomHousePublishingGroup, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.
Three stars.
October 13, 2024
This incredibly well-done fictionalization of the Branch Davidian cult and the standoff in Waco between the cult and federal forces brought back this little piece of Texas history in a very powerful way. “The Lamb”/Perry Cullen (David Koresch) is an extremely charismatic religious figure. However, the two main characters are a young man (Roy), the son of the local sheriff, and a young woman, Jaye, whose mother becomes enthralled with The Lamb and joins the cult, bringing her daughter, Jaye, along with her. These two young people play off each other perfectly – son of local law enforcement and daughter of the cult – and of course develop a strong personal relationship. The reader experiences teenage boy life in Waco at the time as well as daily life inside the compound. When force is used by the federal forces, the reader feels the recipients’ pain. However, this novel is not a definitive justification for either side, and, as in “real life”, the question of “who did/had what when” remain unanswered.
The story is told from many POV’s. Although Roy and Jaye are the main characters, the story is narrated by law enforcement (both local and federal – with the conflict between the two portrayed clearly), survivors (from prison in some cases), friends, and many other lesser, but beautifully intertwined characters. I was deeply impressed by the quality of the author’s ability to take me back so fully into this sad event. I listened to the audio, and I found the different voices to be very impactful.
The story is told from many POV’s. Although Roy and Jaye are the main characters, the story is narrated by law enforcement (both local and federal – with the conflict between the two portrayed clearly), survivors (from prison in some cases), friends, and many other lesser, but beautifully intertwined characters. I was deeply impressed by the quality of the author’s ability to take me back so fully into this sad event. I listened to the audio, and I found the different voices to be very impactful.
March 27, 2024
(4.5 stars) This book attracted me from the start. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Branch Davidian tragedy outside Waco, Texas in 1993. The story is told from the points of view of two 14-year-olds – Roy, the son of the local sheriff, and Jaye, the daughter of a Branch Davidian convert. The two meet and fall in love, with Roy not realizing that Jaye is intimately involved in the crisis unfolding near his home and consuming his father.
Jaye is bold and daring, opposing the “Lamb” at the center of the Davidians (Perry Cullen in the novel, David Koresh in real life) and sneaking out of the compound to meet with Roy. The Lamb has big plans for Jaye, moving closer to her as the crisis grows. Jaye cannot leave her mother, though, even as the tension builds and the Lamb continues to amass weapons for the End Times. As the situation culminates, Roy risks all to try to save Jaye.
I loved the way the author approached the telling of this tale. Between the teenagers, the two sides of the conflict could be thoroughly explored in an organic way. While not exactly sympathetic to the Davidians, the story that is told allows the reader to come to their own conclusion as to who was at fault. The writing feels authentic for the time and place. It brought me back to that time 30 years ago when I watched it all unfold on television. This was a page-turner of the best kind.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with this e-ARC. The book publishes in July.
Jaye is bold and daring, opposing the “Lamb” at the center of the Davidians (Perry Cullen in the novel, David Koresh in real life) and sneaking out of the compound to meet with Roy. The Lamb has big plans for Jaye, moving closer to her as the crisis grows. Jaye cannot leave her mother, though, even as the tension builds and the Lamb continues to amass weapons for the End Times. As the situation culminates, Roy risks all to try to save Jaye.
I loved the way the author approached the telling of this tale. Between the teenagers, the two sides of the conflict could be thoroughly explored in an organic way. While not exactly sympathetic to the Davidians, the story that is told allows the reader to come to their own conclusion as to who was at fault. The writing feels authentic for the time and place. It brought me back to that time 30 years ago when I watched it all unfold on television. This was a page-turner of the best kind.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with this e-ARC. The book publishes in July.
February 3, 2024
ARC for review. To be published July 30, 2024.
Based on the true events in Waco, Texas in 1993, Perry Cullen stands in for David Koresh here. His followers call him “the Lamb,” and he drew them from all over, they willingly gave their possessions and money to his church as he prepared for the day of reckoning. Jaye Carroll’s mother, Marie followed him from California to join.
Roy Moreland, 14, was the son of the local Sheriff and fell in love with Jaye but didn’t know about Perry’s relationship with Jaye’s mother or his designs on Jaye. The story is told in alternating points of view between Jaye and Roy.
I love me a cult book! This one is interspersed with bits of transcripts from a documentary which adds a different perspective. This may not be for everyone but I quite enjoyed it. Recommended.
Based on the true events in Waco, Texas in 1993, Perry Cullen stands in for David Koresh here. His followers call him “the Lamb,” and he drew them from all over, they willingly gave their possessions and money to his church as he prepared for the day of reckoning. Jaye Carroll’s mother, Marie followed him from California to join.
Roy Moreland, 14, was the son of the local Sheriff and fell in love with Jaye but didn’t know about Perry’s relationship with Jaye’s mother or his designs on Jaye. The story is told in alternating points of view between Jaye and Roy.
I love me a cult book! This one is interspersed with bits of transcripts from a documentary which adds a different perspective. This may not be for everyone but I quite enjoyed it. Recommended.
July 27, 2025
Ein Buch, auf das ich mich sehr gefreut hatte, habe ich doch die Erstürmung/Belagerung der Davidianer-Sekte in Waco 1993 (Ereignisse, die das vorliegende Werk stark fiktionalisiert) damals gebannt mitverfolgt. Doch die Erwartungen hat das Buch nicht erfüllt: Das ist zwar spannend erzählt (sogar mit einem anfänglich mysteriösem aktuellen Podcast-Seitenstrang) und auch die moralischen Fragen des Ereignisses kommen zur Sprache. So richtig warm bin ich dennoch nicht damit geworden, was auch an den Erzählstimmen (schwer verliebte Teenager) liegen mag. Auf diesen Star-Crossed-Lovers-Angle hätte ich z.B. zugunsten der Mutter oder des Sektenführers verzichtet. Also: Tolles Thema, die Umsetzung hat mich leider (zu) kalt gelassen.
Mehr zum Buch in unserer ausführlichen Besprechung @ Papierstau Podcast: #327: le canon, c’est nous, bitches!
Mehr zum Buch in unserer ausführlichen Besprechung @ Papierstau Podcast: #327: le canon, c’est nous, bitches!
November 5, 2024
A story of a first love combined with the tragedy of Waco Texas in 1993.
February 3, 2025
This originally appeared at OneLitChick.com.
Trying to Make Sense of Waco
Bret Anthony Johnston uses multiple points of view to write a thriller-esque young-love literary novel ensconced within the battleground that existed in Waco, Texas between David Koresh and his Branch Davidians, and law enforcement (local, ATF, and FBI). In his version, Koresh is Perry or “The Lamb,” as in the Lamb of God. Johnston tells the story of young teenagers in love: a girl inside the compound and a boy outside (who happens to be the sheriff’s son). For a good article on the author, go here. We Burn Daylight dodges making fierce judgment on the situation: we see complex characters and motives. Along with Jaye (the girl inside) and Roy (the boy outside), we are introduced to multiple characters who guest on a podcast called “On the Lamb.”
Lara: Let me start by saying thank you for agreeing to read this with me. I do realize a book about cults is an easy sell for you. So let’s hard launch our thoughts on this: What did you think?
Jennifer: Yeah, I was, like, LET’S DO IT!!!!!!!!!!
So, I don’t actually read a lot on cults but I love a good cult documentary on Netflix or Hulu. This book, then, could be risky. Would it be sensationalistic BS?
Lo and behold, it’s Bret Anthony Johnston, who I’ve bever read before. He writes very well. The individual sentences were dreamy. I think I really want to assert that: this is a literary exploration of humanity, and it rises above cultic sensationalism. My guess is that this book is underrated? Under the radar for readers?
Here’s a sample passage:
“My shoulders jammed painfully toward my gut. Like I was wrapped in duct tape. Like someone put a plastic bag over my head and cinched it around my windpipe. I couldn’t cough. I choked. Another thought of snakes: I was a field mouse, already dead and swallowed, the reptile’s ancient muscles crushing my irrelevant bones.”
Elsewhere and continuously, Jaye refers to Roy as “My Pilgrim,” which is a sweet epithet. I find this better than “babe.”
Lara: I really liked it too! And, through it, I got you to a great documentary on Netflix about the whole WACO fiasco. As for the book, I heard about it from one of my favorite podcasts: Book Talk, etc. and knew I wanted to read it. When I learned it had a full cast narration, I listened to it and it was great from the opening:
“In those first few weeks of 1993, before my family broke apart and before the March fires, before the world turned its lurid attention our way and before her and before everything else that changed me, I was fourteen years old and learning to pick locks.” – Roy
We were in our early twenties when the 51-day stand off at Mt. Carmel in Waco, Texas occurred. Did you remember a lot of that? How true to historical events was the story?
Jennifer: So, I have a memory of Waco happening. I guess I was in college. I see myself in Louie’s Lower Level at the University of Arizona–a restaurant (that wasn’t great) in the basement (since closed)–possibly with my friend, Scott. We were watching TV? Is this memory a lie? Even if it is, I knew of it superficially. It was a TV-event. Koresh was a nutcase. That’s what I knew.
When I became older, Waco was where Chip and Joanna lived.
How close to historical events? My guess is pretty close. (I bet Johnston watched this documentary too; Did You, Kind Sir?) I think Johnston is careful to establish that he’s writing fiction, and he’s careful in obscuring his own biases; however, I bet there’s a lot of truth in here. Do you think it changed your perspective?
Lara: You know, reading develops our ability to empathize. And I think that a book like this enables readers to see the members of this fanatical man’s “church” as vulnerable, flawed, insecure, and easily preyed upon. It’s too easy to label his followers as insane or ridiculous, and that doesn’t get at what is really happening here and in these types of situations. It also shines a light on the Perry (David Koreshes) of the world. Are they manipulative megalomaniacs or do they have a mental break that has them honestly believing they are the next Messiah? I have more sympathy for his followers than I do for him (in fact, I have little to none for him) and I think any kind of story that helps us to better understand is a good thing.
“I aim to get right what no one else has: Perry Cullen was not a charismatic man. He was not articulate or intelligent. He bragged about leaving school before finishing eighth grade. In his youth, kids took to calling him Perry the Fairy and beating him so often that his mother would keep him home. She’d been a prostitute, which he also flaunted. ‘I’m the son of a whore, spawned from the seed of a double-dealing husband,’ he’d say. He was not handsome. He wore bottle thick-glasses and still had to squint to read the scripture.
But people put their faith in him. They listened to his claims of decoding the Bible, and it lit a glassy far away glow in their eyes. They signed over the savings and pensions. Sold their homes and property, shed careers and uprooted their families to live in squalor 20 miles outside of town… A year or so before the fires, they started calling him ‘the Lamb'”. – Roy
Jennifer: I have very little sympathy for him, to be honest, too. I do think the book “humanizes” his followers. But I’ll be honest: I think his religious followers are culpable too. The humanizing part, in my opinion, is that vulnerability to nutcases and culpability in accepting dogma are universal conditions. Human nature is such that we gotta watch out.
What is your favorite aspect of the book? Were you drawn to a character or narrator? Did you like the podcast device? Were you wanting something in particular?
Lara: I loved Jaye and Roy, the two young lovers. They read as very authentic to me–young enough to be naive to more complex ways of the world and idealistic enough to think they could change the outcome. I also thought weaving in a modern-day podcast that interviewed people involved in the standoff with Perry was a creative touch and helped drive the story forward while helping to build the slow burn to the ultimate ending.
Jennifer: I liked it all too. I liked Roy a little more than I liked Jaye–but not for any good reason. As we both noted in conversation, they’re good kids. These are not bad kids. Coop, Roy’s friend, is a good kid too. I liked the Sheriff. I liked the podcast. I was intrigued by it all.
Did anything bug you about the book?
Lara: My biggest rub (and this is nitpicking) was that I wish the podcast episodes were covered in chronological order. That was a little hard to follow via audio. Oh, and Roy has a brother who adds a little drama and conflict to the family for no real apparent benefit. I think we could have done without him. It didn’t hurt the book, but I don’t think it helped either.
Jennifer: I’m not sure I disliked anything! I see your points on Mason and chronology. The end threw me a little, but I’ll leave it there! It’s a good book!
By the way, you were hesitant to draw comparisons with Romeo and Juliet, but his epigraph and exact title is from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Lara: I love that quote, despite not being a fan of Shakespeare. I think people are comparing Roy and Jaye to Romeo and Juliet because their names start with the same letters, they are in a seemingly inescapable situation, and they are teenagers. There’s so much difference. I think it’s a lazy comparison.
Jennifer: Lara, you’re a crack-up—dissing William Shakespeare! What else have you been reading?
Lara: I feel like I am getting off to a slow start, but I have read two books I thoroughly enjoyed: Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe and at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon.
Jennifer: Well . . . due to peer pressure and literary guilt, I picked up The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, having once abandoned it (for unknown reasons). Get ready for my statement: Emmett, his little bro Billy, and two escapees from 1950s Kansas-style juvi (a working farm), Duchess and Woolly, go on a little journey across America (or to New York City) with some mild Huck Finn connotations and a little of Homer’s Odyssey too. Plus some New York fun and a hobo/train-hopping adventure with a little anti-racist sentiment thrown in (albeit stereotypical), and even some Harry Potter with a wise, old professor type and, like, a magic book!I Not to mention Of Mice and Men. I read two five-star books right out of the 2025 New-Year-Gates: I‘m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin (this was great!) and Foster by Claire Keegan. Two books that I truly loved.
Up Next!
Join us next time for a super hyped January 2025 read: The Heart of Winter
Trying to Make Sense of Waco
Bret Anthony Johnston uses multiple points of view to write a thriller-esque young-love literary novel ensconced within the battleground that existed in Waco, Texas between David Koresh and his Branch Davidians, and law enforcement (local, ATF, and FBI). In his version, Koresh is Perry or “The Lamb,” as in the Lamb of God. Johnston tells the story of young teenagers in love: a girl inside the compound and a boy outside (who happens to be the sheriff’s son). For a good article on the author, go here. We Burn Daylight dodges making fierce judgment on the situation: we see complex characters and motives. Along with Jaye (the girl inside) and Roy (the boy outside), we are introduced to multiple characters who guest on a podcast called “On the Lamb.”
Lara: Let me start by saying thank you for agreeing to read this with me. I do realize a book about cults is an easy sell for you. So let’s hard launch our thoughts on this: What did you think?
Jennifer: Yeah, I was, like, LET’S DO IT!!!!!!!!!!
So, I don’t actually read a lot on cults but I love a good cult documentary on Netflix or Hulu. This book, then, could be risky. Would it be sensationalistic BS?
Lo and behold, it’s Bret Anthony Johnston, who I’ve bever read before. He writes very well. The individual sentences were dreamy. I think I really want to assert that: this is a literary exploration of humanity, and it rises above cultic sensationalism. My guess is that this book is underrated? Under the radar for readers?
Here’s a sample passage:
“My shoulders jammed painfully toward my gut. Like I was wrapped in duct tape. Like someone put a plastic bag over my head and cinched it around my windpipe. I couldn’t cough. I choked. Another thought of snakes: I was a field mouse, already dead and swallowed, the reptile’s ancient muscles crushing my irrelevant bones.”
Elsewhere and continuously, Jaye refers to Roy as “My Pilgrim,” which is a sweet epithet. I find this better than “babe.”
Lara: I really liked it too! And, through it, I got you to a great documentary on Netflix about the whole WACO fiasco. As for the book, I heard about it from one of my favorite podcasts: Book Talk, etc. and knew I wanted to read it. When I learned it had a full cast narration, I listened to it and it was great from the opening:
“In those first few weeks of 1993, before my family broke apart and before the March fires, before the world turned its lurid attention our way and before her and before everything else that changed me, I was fourteen years old and learning to pick locks.” – Roy
We were in our early twenties when the 51-day stand off at Mt. Carmel in Waco, Texas occurred. Did you remember a lot of that? How true to historical events was the story?
Jennifer: So, I have a memory of Waco happening. I guess I was in college. I see myself in Louie’s Lower Level at the University of Arizona–a restaurant (that wasn’t great) in the basement (since closed)–possibly with my friend, Scott. We were watching TV? Is this memory a lie? Even if it is, I knew of it superficially. It was a TV-event. Koresh was a nutcase. That’s what I knew.
When I became older, Waco was where Chip and Joanna lived.
How close to historical events? My guess is pretty close. (I bet Johnston watched this documentary too; Did You, Kind Sir?) I think Johnston is careful to establish that he’s writing fiction, and he’s careful in obscuring his own biases; however, I bet there’s a lot of truth in here. Do you think it changed your perspective?
Lara: You know, reading develops our ability to empathize. And I think that a book like this enables readers to see the members of this fanatical man’s “church” as vulnerable, flawed, insecure, and easily preyed upon. It’s too easy to label his followers as insane or ridiculous, and that doesn’t get at what is really happening here and in these types of situations. It also shines a light on the Perry (David Koreshes) of the world. Are they manipulative megalomaniacs or do they have a mental break that has them honestly believing they are the next Messiah? I have more sympathy for his followers than I do for him (in fact, I have little to none for him) and I think any kind of story that helps us to better understand is a good thing.
“I aim to get right what no one else has: Perry Cullen was not a charismatic man. He was not articulate or intelligent. He bragged about leaving school before finishing eighth grade. In his youth, kids took to calling him Perry the Fairy and beating him so often that his mother would keep him home. She’d been a prostitute, which he also flaunted. ‘I’m the son of a whore, spawned from the seed of a double-dealing husband,’ he’d say. He was not handsome. He wore bottle thick-glasses and still had to squint to read the scripture.
But people put their faith in him. They listened to his claims of decoding the Bible, and it lit a glassy far away glow in their eyes. They signed over the savings and pensions. Sold their homes and property, shed careers and uprooted their families to live in squalor 20 miles outside of town… A year or so before the fires, they started calling him ‘the Lamb'”. – Roy
Jennifer: I have very little sympathy for him, to be honest, too. I do think the book “humanizes” his followers. But I’ll be honest: I think his religious followers are culpable too. The humanizing part, in my opinion, is that vulnerability to nutcases and culpability in accepting dogma are universal conditions. Human nature is such that we gotta watch out.
What is your favorite aspect of the book? Were you drawn to a character or narrator? Did you like the podcast device? Were you wanting something in particular?
Lara: I loved Jaye and Roy, the two young lovers. They read as very authentic to me–young enough to be naive to more complex ways of the world and idealistic enough to think they could change the outcome. I also thought weaving in a modern-day podcast that interviewed people involved in the standoff with Perry was a creative touch and helped drive the story forward while helping to build the slow burn to the ultimate ending.
Jennifer: I liked it all too. I liked Roy a little more than I liked Jaye–but not for any good reason. As we both noted in conversation, they’re good kids. These are not bad kids. Coop, Roy’s friend, is a good kid too. I liked the Sheriff. I liked the podcast. I was intrigued by it all.
Did anything bug you about the book?
Lara: My biggest rub (and this is nitpicking) was that I wish the podcast episodes were covered in chronological order. That was a little hard to follow via audio. Oh, and Roy has a brother who adds a little drama and conflict to the family for no real apparent benefit. I think we could have done without him. It didn’t hurt the book, but I don’t think it helped either.
Jennifer: I’m not sure I disliked anything! I see your points on Mason and chronology. The end threw me a little, but I’ll leave it there! It’s a good book!
By the way, you were hesitant to draw comparisons with Romeo and Juliet, but his epigraph and exact title is from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Lara: I love that quote, despite not being a fan of Shakespeare. I think people are comparing Roy and Jaye to Romeo and Juliet because their names start with the same letters, they are in a seemingly inescapable situation, and they are teenagers. There’s so much difference. I think it’s a lazy comparison.
Jennifer: Lara, you’re a crack-up—dissing William Shakespeare! What else have you been reading?
Lara: I feel like I am getting off to a slow start, but I have read two books I thoroughly enjoyed: Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe and at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon.
Jennifer: Well . . . due to peer pressure and literary guilt, I picked up The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, having once abandoned it (for unknown reasons). Get ready for my statement: Emmett, his little bro Billy, and two escapees from 1950s Kansas-style juvi (a working farm), Duchess and Woolly, go on a little journey across America (or to New York City) with some mild Huck Finn connotations and a little of Homer’s Odyssey too. Plus some New York fun and a hobo/train-hopping adventure with a little anti-racist sentiment thrown in (albeit stereotypical), and even some Harry Potter with a wise, old professor type and, like, a magic book!I Not to mention Of Mice and Men. I read two five-star books right out of the 2025 New-Year-Gates: I‘m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin (this was great!) and Foster by Claire Keegan. Two books that I truly loved.
Up Next!
Join us next time for a super hyped January 2025 read: The Heart of Winter
September 7, 2024
What the what? Decent writing but so much nonsense. A pair of 14 year olds who hang out less than 5 times but are deeply in love? and then run away and change their names and live happily ever after? hahahhah. Oh, and they both went through a deeply traumatizing experience to start their love affair. I know it is a novel, but it is not a fantasy and this is not how people behave.
Questions:
Why did they have to hide and change their names? They did kidnap Kanaan/Junior but both his parents were dead so, no harm, no foul? I am pretty sure Jaye killed Perry but she was 14, kidnapped and held there. She thought she could leave but again she is 14 and a pretty typical 14 year old. For example, she wants to go back to her school so they can see how skinny she has gotten on her cult starvation diet. lol
I guess they stole some money from the cult but again nobody knows about this money. Put it in your backpack and go home. You still get to keep it.
Why did they steal Kanaan and adopt him? Jaye seemed to like him well enough, but again she is a 14 year old and he is a toddler. Did she fall in love with him too and need to have him forever and ever? Presumably Kanaan's Mom had family who might have wanted him, they lost their daughter (sister/cousin?) and now this 14 year old steals their grandchild from them.
What exactly did Roy do that he had to run away with Jaye and change his name? He went to the compound when it was under siege and he wanted to kill Perry with his fake grenade but failed since it was fake. again, he is 14. I am pretty sure his Dad and grandpa, both sheriffs are not so incredibly stupid that they think living on the lam for the rest of their lives is preferable to just going home and being Roy again.
I dont get it, I guess it was a bad book.
oh, and Roy is an asshole for ditching Coop and letting him think he died. Talk about trauma. The ending implies that Coop might find them, and what? More happy ever after?
Questions:
Why did they have to hide and change their names? They did kidnap Kanaan/Junior but both his parents were dead so, no harm, no foul? I am pretty sure Jaye killed Perry but she was 14, kidnapped and held there. She thought she could leave but again she is 14 and a pretty typical 14 year old. For example, she wants to go back to her school so they can see how skinny she has gotten on her cult starvation diet. lol
I guess they stole some money from the cult but again nobody knows about this money. Put it in your backpack and go home. You still get to keep it.
Why did they steal Kanaan and adopt him? Jaye seemed to like him well enough, but again she is a 14 year old and he is a toddler. Did she fall in love with him too and need to have him forever and ever? Presumably Kanaan's Mom had family who might have wanted him, they lost their daughter (sister/cousin?) and now this 14 year old steals their grandchild from them.
What exactly did Roy do that he had to run away with Jaye and change his name? He went to the compound when it was under siege and he wanted to kill Perry with his fake grenade but failed since it was fake. again, he is 14. I am pretty sure his Dad and grandpa, both sheriffs are not so incredibly stupid that they think living on the lam for the rest of their lives is preferable to just going home and being Roy again.
I dont get it, I guess it was a bad book.
oh, and Roy is an asshole for ditching Coop and letting him think he died. Talk about trauma. The ending implies that Coop might find them, and what? More happy ever after?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2024
Remember Waco and the Branch Davidian situation back in the ’90s? I do, although it’s becoming a distant memory. The “doomsday cult” members living on their own compound … the Feds moving in … Janet Reno …
Well, Bret Anthony Johnson found the whole thing interesting enough that it inspired him to write “We Burn Daylight.” Young teen Jaye moves with her mom from California to Texas, following cult leader Perry aka “The Lamb.” Perry is into Jaye’s mom, but also kind of takes a shine to Jaye herself. Meanwhile in town, the sheriff’s young teen son Roy has a few meetings with Jaye and the two fall in love. As you can imagine, this leads to trouble. If you know the Waco story, you can guess some of what happens. But this book goes its own direction in an extended epilogue.
I enjoyed this book’s throwback to the early ’90s. The lack of smartphones, computers, and the internet was refreshing and made me nostalgic for that time. The writing was good.
For me, there were more things I didn’t enjoy than I did. Jaye is confident in the you-go-girl way that is so popular today, but I found her brash and kind of annoying. I also found it off-putting that she kept referring to Roy as “my pilgrim.” Their “romance” seemed based on very little other than its necessity as a plot device, and I think comparisons I’ve seen online to Romeo and Juliet (the origin of the title quote) are totally over-the-top. Perry, the David Koresh figure, didn’t seem very charismatic and it was hard to imagine what the others living there saw in him. I wished more about the “services” or daily life in the compound had been fleshed out.
The pacing of the book was very slow, and podcast interviews interspersed between chapters broke up any momentum the story might have otherwise had. If you’re interested in the Waco situation, you may enjoy this.
Well, Bret Anthony Johnson found the whole thing interesting enough that it inspired him to write “We Burn Daylight.” Young teen Jaye moves with her mom from California to Texas, following cult leader Perry aka “The Lamb.” Perry is into Jaye’s mom, but also kind of takes a shine to Jaye herself. Meanwhile in town, the sheriff’s young teen son Roy has a few meetings with Jaye and the two fall in love. As you can imagine, this leads to trouble. If you know the Waco story, you can guess some of what happens. But this book goes its own direction in an extended epilogue.
I enjoyed this book’s throwback to the early ’90s. The lack of smartphones, computers, and the internet was refreshing and made me nostalgic for that time. The writing was good.
For me, there were more things I didn’t enjoy than I did. Jaye is confident in the you-go-girl way that is so popular today, but I found her brash and kind of annoying. I also found it off-putting that she kept referring to Roy as “my pilgrim.” Their “romance” seemed based on very little other than its necessity as a plot device, and I think comparisons I’ve seen online to Romeo and Juliet (the origin of the title quote) are totally over-the-top. Perry, the David Koresh figure, didn’t seem very charismatic and it was hard to imagine what the others living there saw in him. I wished more about the “services” or daily life in the compound had been fleshed out.
The pacing of the book was very slow, and podcast interviews interspersed between chapters broke up any momentum the story might have otherwise had. If you’re interested in the Waco situation, you may enjoy this.
March 6, 2024
In his newest novel, “We Burn Daylight”, Bret Anthony Johnston has found a powerful, compelling, and modern way to weave into the story of the Branch Davidian tragedy a “Romeo & Juliet” narrative that will grab the reader from the first pages.
Johnston fictionalizes the Waco, Texas, story just enough, and his authenticity as a Texan is on every page; in every description, every character, every bit of dialogue, every cultural “Texan” detail.
I am a Texan. We are all the same. We are all different. Johnston gets it.
“We Burn Daylight” builds the story and the suspense with a unique framework of alternating first-person narratives by teenagers Roy and Jaye, and short transcripts from a 2024 podcast looking back on the event enriched with thirty years of hindsight. (It was fun to try to figure out who was conducting the podcast. I didn’t guess correctly - but was delighted by the reveal.)
Roy is the son of the local Sheriff, and Jaye has been brought by her mother to the compound of “The Lamb” dominated by a charismatic leader preparing for the apocalypse. (Book sections are named for the colors of the eschatological four horses.)
Because the event is partially fictionalized, Johnston is able to keep us on the edge of our seats, eager to find out what will happen to Roy and Jaye. The podcasts give out just enough information and surprises to ratchet up the tension without revealing the final twists.
Many thanks to Random House for an advanced copy of this gripping and satisfying novel. I recommend pre-ordering it now, and if you haven’t yet read Johnston’s wonderful first novel “Remember Me Like This”, then you’re in for a treat.
Johnston fictionalizes the Waco, Texas, story just enough, and his authenticity as a Texan is on every page; in every description, every character, every bit of dialogue, every cultural “Texan” detail.
I am a Texan. We are all the same. We are all different. Johnston gets it.
“We Burn Daylight” builds the story and the suspense with a unique framework of alternating first-person narratives by teenagers Roy and Jaye, and short transcripts from a 2024 podcast looking back on the event enriched with thirty years of hindsight. (It was fun to try to figure out who was conducting the podcast. I didn’t guess correctly - but was delighted by the reveal.)
Roy is the son of the local Sheriff, and Jaye has been brought by her mother to the compound of “The Lamb” dominated by a charismatic leader preparing for the apocalypse. (Book sections are named for the colors of the eschatological four horses.)
Because the event is partially fictionalized, Johnston is able to keep us on the edge of our seats, eager to find out what will happen to Roy and Jaye. The podcasts give out just enough information and surprises to ratchet up the tension without revealing the final twists.
Many thanks to Random House for an advanced copy of this gripping and satisfying novel. I recommend pre-ordering it now, and if you haven’t yet read Johnston’s wonderful first novel “Remember Me Like This”, then you’re in for a treat.
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October 12, 2024Propulsive, infuriating. Couldn't put it down. Never going to Waco, TX. Bret cooked.
December 25, 2024
We shouldn’t let men write teen girl POVs.
July 25, 2024
Sometimes, a novel sneaks right in and demands that the reader pay close attention. "We Burn Daylight" by Bret Anthony Johnston is such a story. It is a fictionalized imagining of a Branch Dividian-esque religious cult set in the now same infamous Texas town of Wacos.
Wrapped up in the familiar tragedy that was the confrontation between an evangelical, apocalyptically rooted cult of true believers (with guns) and the immovable force of various local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies (also with guns). As with the historic confrontation, Johnston's fictionalized encounter does not end well.
However, what the author added to this deeply tragic and violent moment in American history was a deeply engaging, truly real, beautifully written (and ultimately hopeful) coming-of-age story. For at the heart of this violent story, is a pair of lovestruck sixteen year olds, who, against all odds, find one another. In the increasingly difficult process of figuring out how to survive the adult world's insanity that they have been thrown into, these two remarkable young people show us all that love, loyalty, smart thinking, ingenuity, and compassion are attributes that truly matter in this complicated world of ours.
This compelling, beautifully written novel will be published on July 30, 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it and count it as one of my favorite reads thus far in 2024. I offer my honest review in thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me access to an advanced copy.
#WeBurnDaylight
#BretAnthonyJohnston
#NetGalley
#TexasLiteraryFiction
#WacosTexas
#ComingofAgeTales
Wrapped up in the familiar tragedy that was the confrontation between an evangelical, apocalyptically rooted cult of true believers (with guns) and the immovable force of various local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies (also with guns). As with the historic confrontation, Johnston's fictionalized encounter does not end well.
However, what the author added to this deeply tragic and violent moment in American history was a deeply engaging, truly real, beautifully written (and ultimately hopeful) coming-of-age story. For at the heart of this violent story, is a pair of lovestruck sixteen year olds, who, against all odds, find one another. In the increasingly difficult process of figuring out how to survive the adult world's insanity that they have been thrown into, these two remarkable young people show us all that love, loyalty, smart thinking, ingenuity, and compassion are attributes that truly matter in this complicated world of ours.
This compelling, beautifully written novel will be published on July 30, 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it and count it as one of my favorite reads thus far in 2024. I offer my honest review in thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me access to an advanced copy.
#WeBurnDaylight
#BretAnthonyJohnston
#NetGalley
#TexasLiteraryFiction
#WacosTexas
#ComingofAgeTales
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