Armageddon Summer
| Armageddon Summer | |
|---|---|
 First edition, 1998 |
|
| Author(s) | Jane Yolen & Bruce Coville |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt |
| Publication date | 15 September 1998 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 272 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 0-15-201767-4 |
Armageddon Summer is a 1998 novel by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville. It chronicles the experiences of two teens, Marina and Jed, whose parents have joined a millennialist movement whose members call themselves "The Believers". Neither Marina nor Jed firmly believes that the world is going to end, though Marina finds comfort in the religion while she mourns for her dad, who was left below the mountain in the arms of another lady. Jed's mother ran off to Colorado with a photographer, and Jed's dad has immersed himself in various things since her departure, including this cult.
The leader of the cult, Reverend Beelson, proclaims that the world will end on July 27 in the year 2000, and 144 of the faithful must go to the top of a mountain and set up a camp there. Only those who seek heaven at the top of a mountain will be spared from the fiery wrath that God will rain down upon non-believers. As the cultists prepare for Armageddon, Marina and Jed fall in love.
The camp is closed to all of the nonbelievers, and none of the believers are allowed out, for their own protection. As the story progresses, Jed comes to hate and fear "the Believers." They have shut out everyone, including a man who just wants to get into the camp to visit his wife and children. He also discovers that they are keeping a stockpile of weaponry.
Jed's father and Marina's mother are both distant, distracted parents. Marina, the oldest of her siblings, winds up caring for her younger brothers and sisters much more carefully than her mother does. (The Marlow children: Marina, Grahame, Martin, Jerold and Jordan (twins), and Leo. Jed has a sister, Alice, who refused to join their father on the mountain.)
Outside the camp, people gather. Some just want to see family members who are in the camp. Others missed the 144-person cutoff and want to be saved (these are called 'LMCs' - Last Minute Christians). Police arrive to monitor the situation and threaten action against the camp.
On the morning of armageddon, the leader of the cult, Reverend Beelson, hands out white robes to symbolise the members of the cult being angels. The entire camp gathers in the main hall, armed men guard the doors, and Rev. Beelson preaches to the crowd. Suddenly, the door bursts open and a horde of the LMCs rush in. Chaos erupts. Jed's father shoots a woman who is attacking Jed, and he flees to try to find a communication method. Marina gathers and rescues all the children she can find.
Jed discovers that the police outside were murdered and the gates of the compound were knocked down. The radios in the police cars are shot out, so Jed finds his laptop (which he snuck in under the technology ban) and gets help.
At the end of the story, it is revealed that 20 people out of 144 were killed, along with numerous LMCs and the police. Reverend Beelson and Jed's father were among the dead. There is a close symbolism between the Armageddon that Beelson promises and the Armegeddon that the believers experience.
The concept of the novel was originally Yolen's idea. Later, she asked Bruce Coville to co-write the story. The book is written with the viewpoints of Jed and Marina alternating every chapter. Coville wrote the chapters from Jed's perspective, and Yolen wrote the chapters from Marina's perspective. There are also occasional excerpts from Reverend Beelson's sermons, police transcripts and FBI memos interspersed throughout the book for exposition.
