What is the work?[]
American Rapture is a 2024 science fiction horror novel written by C.J. Leede. In it, the story follows a Catholic girl named Sophie Allen whose life takes a downward spiral when a mutated form of SARS, "Sylvia," spreads throughout the US transforming those that are infected into feral beasts driven by lust with them committing evil acts while trying to infect more people. In all that madness, Sophie goes on a journey to find her twin brother Noah who was taken from their home years prior because he was "sinful."
The book heavily discusses themes of religious indoctrination, Christian nationalism, individuality, and all that good stuff. While none of the infected qualify since they lack agency and intelligence (think The Crossed), the main antagonistic force working against Sophie and her found family are the St. Michael's Crusaders and who is their leader?
Who is he? What has he done?[]
Reverend Don Ansel is the main antagonist of the book. A televangelist who had rubbed shoulders with politicians and boasts over a million followers, Ansel sees the outbreak of Sylvia, a mutated strand of the NARS influenza virus, as God's judgment on the United States for its "wrongs." Discussing how "depraved" acts such as homosexuality, gender politics, and "infanticide" have corrupted the nation, Ansel rallies several like-minded people and forms the St. Michael's Crusaders, a Christian nationalist cult that wear red hoods with images of the harlot and the beast from Revelation on their backs.
Knowing how some facilities are trying to make a vaccine to combat the virus, Ansel sends his Crusaders to terrorize and destroy places that distributed the vaccine to the uninfected. While he takes a seat back to the cult's actions, he is nevertheless responsible for much of the conflict of the novel. When Sophie and her team go to Bright Beginnings to get vaccinated, the Crusaders attack and set the school and gym ablaze endangering several people. They later attack the Ho-Chunk Casino complex in Wisconsin leading to more burning and the deaths of Maro; Cleo; Barghest and Wyatt, the youngest of the group who gets his throat slashed open.
The novel concludes with Sophie and her love interest Ben being the sole survivors of the group who are about to head out to find Noah who left her a letter saying that he and his lover were waiting at the Twin islands in the Apostles. As for Ansel, the Crusaders continue to increase in number with the ominous note that they had yet to be stopped.
Freudian Excuse? Mitigating factors?[]
| “ | Christians have faced more oppression and erasure in recent years than ever before. And the world has paid for it. Storms, terrorists, increased violence, confusion among young people, so-called gender politics, the dark world of social media, infanticide, men and women choosing to turn their noses up at God by indulging in same-sex relationships,' forsaking God, blaspheming, at every turn. We are lost. And what has God done every time we've lost our way? What does he do in the Bible again and again? | „ |
| ~ Summarization of Ansel's character in a nutshell. |
No. He's just your typical hateful reverend preaching fire and brimstone and makes no bones with being extremely prejudiced. The only rub I can think of is that, despite being the villain of the story and is repeatedly mentioned in passing by the characters, Ansel's only appearance is on a podcast that one of the main characters was listening to. When his Crusaders start razing things to the ground, he is absent from the story. However, we do have instances of candidates who have small screentime that count because of their personality or what little they were able to pull off in their limited appearance. We know what Ansel's personality is even if he is not the most complex character in the novel. And the Crusaders burning and killing several people also shows how much influence he has over them.
Heinous standard[]
While he is a non-action Big Bad, Ansel is still IMO the most heinous character in the setting. Those infected by the Sylvia virus become feral, mindless shells of their former selves who do several heinous crimes such as raping the uninfected or going after each other. However unlike say the Crossed, they lack intelligence and lose their personalities. As for other instances of rape, there was Luke, one of the survivors who was quarantined in the gymnasium at Bright Beginnings who tries to force himself on Sophie after he was fed up that, because of the rules forbidding some "quality time with oneself," but he is killed by her pet dog Barghest.
Going back to Ansel, while he does not take part in attacking and burning facilities, it is clear that he is the one calling the shots because to him the vaccine would be interfering with God's judgment which puts him over the baseline since he would rather doom the rest of the United States than allow for the vaccine to be distributed.