FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

THEREFORE, REPENT!: A Post-Rapture Graphic Novel

by Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam

(IDW)

Reader Appeal: Young adult to adult

Genre: Graphic novel; Fantasy

I’ll confess that I felt some misgivings about writing this review, so I’ll try to keep it short and simple. In the end, I felt that the objectionable elements in this book outweighed its reading value enough to even call into question whether or not to draw attention to it here on FAMILYFANS.com, but since it’s big enough to be featured in major retail stores I decided it was worth it.

Therefore Repent! certainly has an interesting premise: a post-Rapture world where those left behind are trying to figure out what to do with themselves and how to carry on life as usual (or not) after such a major revolution to the entire global situation. Apart from the fact that huge numbers of people floated up into the air and disappeared  one day, things are pretty chaotic on Earth. Various group of religious revivalists (splitters) are going around preaching repentance and performing miracles. Numerous pagans are engaging in different kinds of witchcraft and finding themselves undergoing demonic transformations. Dogs are tearing out people’s voice boxes and gaining the ability to speak. And avenging angels in camouflage are dropping in from space and gunning down those practicing witchcraft for violating their contract with God. The unnamed protagonist couple who find themselves navigating this strange world are determined to remind everyone just how much everything has changed, and in the process manage to figure out what really is going on (spoiler: it isn’t the Rapture).

I’m really not sure what to say about the plot. To be honest, the writing and concepts are pretty creative, and the author clearly has a mind for clever invention and creates an attention-grabbing world for the reader to enter. I certainly won’t deny that it was an interesting read. It just wasn’t THAT interesting, nor could I really get into any of the themes or ideas. Really the kicker was that, even though it was clever and creative, none of that quite balanced out the crassness, pointless crudity, and subversiveness (some might feel blasphemy, but I don’t think it rises to that) that runs through the whole plot.

 In other words, it really just isn’t a good book for families or Christians in general to support, and doesn’t even have the philosophical depths of other non-recommended graphic novels like Watchmen.

Most of themes and moral issues that do come up in this book aren’t really good ones, and even though the tone of the book is light and amusing, to be honest the whole thing is just one long string of violence, nudity, and witchcraft (and not the fun Harry Potter kind). The twist at the end was interesting, but seemed to be a bit of a slap in the face to Christians (spoiler: turns out they all died instead of being Raptured).

So, in the end my advice is pretty simple: avoid this book if you can. You won’t be sorry, and you’re not really missing anything.

FAMILYFANS RATING: D

--MV

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