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The Incendiaries
The Incendiaries is a 2018 novel by South Korean–born American author R. O. Kwon, published by Riverhead Books. The novel was inspired by Kwon's own loss of faith in God at the age of 17, and it took her 10 years to finish.
The novel follows a young woman who is indoctrinated into a cult on her campus, as told by three characters: Phoebe Lin, the woman who is recruited, John Leal, the man who recruits her, and Will Kendall, a fellow student who loves Phoebe and struggles to understand her choices.
Three people meet at Edwards University in Noxhurst, a fictional town in upstate New York: Phoebe Lin, the American daughter of two South Koreans, John Leal, a mysterious half-Korean Edwards drop-out who knows Phoebe's father, and Will Kendall, a poor white Californian who is a former evangelist.
Phoebe grew up as a young piano prodigy but after mastering a challenging piece by the composer Libich and being complimented on it she realizes that her ambition will never match her talent. She abandons her ambition to be a pianist and shortly before graduating high school also loses her mother in a car accident where Phoebe was driving. The double loss causes Phoebe to become a reckless party girl in university where she drinks heavily and is sexually promiscuous with little regard for her own health.
At school she meets Will Kendall, who has recently transferred to the college after a slow crisis of faith caused him to abandon his religion and leave his studies at a religious college. At school Will hides the fact that he is much poorer than his classmates and must work at a restaurant in order to supplement his income and help to send money back home. Will has a crush on Phoebe and the two gradually grow close, with Phoebe eventually confiding in him about her mother's death and Will admitting his relative poverty and difficult home life.
At the same time Phoebe has attracted the attention of the mysterious John Leal, a half-Korean man who knows her father and who is an activist who spent time in a North Korean gulag.
Will manages to obtain several promising positions at school, eventually getting an internship at an investment fund in Beijing. Phoebe, who by this time is his girlfriend, plans to spend the summer with Will, but because of her slipping grades she is forced to spend the summer at school taking remedial courses. During their time apart Will is upset to find she is spending more time with John Leal, who has recruited her into his mysterious group he calls Jejah. When Will returns for the next semester he and Phoebe move in together, but he is surprised to find that she continues to attend Jejah sessions.
To keep an eye on Phoebe, Will also asks to attend Jejah. He is reluctantly allowed in and for a time he, like Phoebe, enjoys the strict regimen that John Leal imposes on his followers. At an anti-abortion rally however he experiences a revelation that Jejah is a cult and taking some sleeping pills to relax himself experiences vivid hallucinations. Rather than take care of him Phoebe sends him back home and spends the weekend with John Leal, causing Will to grow increasingly angry and jealous. As their relationship fractures Will notices that Phoebe has scars and bruises on her back thanks to penance inflected by John Leal. Wanting Phoebe to leave Jejah for good Will proposes to her and then rapes her, finally causing her to leave him and move out of their shared apartment.
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The Incendiaries
The Incendiaries is a 2018 novel by South Korean–born American author R. O. Kwon, published by Riverhead Books. The novel was inspired by Kwon's own loss of faith in God at the age of 17, and it took her 10 years to finish.
The novel follows a young woman who is indoctrinated into a cult on her campus, as told by three characters: Phoebe Lin, the woman who is recruited, John Leal, the man who recruits her, and Will Kendall, a fellow student who loves Phoebe and struggles to understand her choices.
Three people meet at Edwards University in Noxhurst, a fictional town in upstate New York: Phoebe Lin, the American daughter of two South Koreans, John Leal, a mysterious half-Korean Edwards drop-out who knows Phoebe's father, and Will Kendall, a poor white Californian who is a former evangelist.
Phoebe grew up as a young piano prodigy but after mastering a challenging piece by the composer Libich and being complimented on it she realizes that her ambition will never match her talent. She abandons her ambition to be a pianist and shortly before graduating high school also loses her mother in a car accident where Phoebe was driving. The double loss causes Phoebe to become a reckless party girl in university where she drinks heavily and is sexually promiscuous with little regard for her own health.
At school she meets Will Kendall, who has recently transferred to the college after a slow crisis of faith caused him to abandon his religion and leave his studies at a religious college. At school Will hides the fact that he is much poorer than his classmates and must work at a restaurant in order to supplement his income and help to send money back home. Will has a crush on Phoebe and the two gradually grow close, with Phoebe eventually confiding in him about her mother's death and Will admitting his relative poverty and difficult home life.
At the same time Phoebe has attracted the attention of the mysterious John Leal, a half-Korean man who knows her father and who is an activist who spent time in a North Korean gulag.
Will manages to obtain several promising positions at school, eventually getting an internship at an investment fund in Beijing. Phoebe, who by this time is his girlfriend, plans to spend the summer with Will, but because of her slipping grades she is forced to spend the summer at school taking remedial courses. During their time apart Will is upset to find she is spending more time with John Leal, who has recruited her into his mysterious group he calls Jejah. When Will returns for the next semester he and Phoebe move in together, but he is surprised to find that she continues to attend Jejah sessions.
To keep an eye on Phoebe, Will also asks to attend Jejah. He is reluctantly allowed in and for a time he, like Phoebe, enjoys the strict regimen that John Leal imposes on his followers. At an anti-abortion rally however he experiences a revelation that Jejah is a cult and taking some sleeping pills to relax himself experiences vivid hallucinations. Rather than take care of him Phoebe sends him back home and spends the weekend with John Leal, causing Will to grow increasingly angry and jealous. As their relationship fractures Will notices that Phoebe has scars and bruises on her back thanks to penance inflected by John Leal. Wanting Phoebe to leave Jejah for good Will proposes to her and then rapes her, finally causing her to leave him and move out of their shared apartment.