Somewhere Past The End

Alice Greene has been planning her escape from the closed religious community she was raised in, timed to happen before its leader discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't supposed to have. Then his prophecy of the end of the world comes true in front of her: more than a hundred members disappear into a plume of smoke and light, and Alice is left behind. Reeling, she reconnects with the other survivors and her childhood best friend Edwin, who carries a message from their vanished leader — the two of them are meant to shepherd whoever is left. Certain she's the wrong person for the job but terrified of losing what family she has, Alice starts digging into her mother's hidden journal and uncovers the secrets and lies the community was actually built on, including one that will change her relationship with Edwin for good. Told across two timelines, the novel follows Alice in the present and her mother Teresa in the past, tracing how one family's choices blurred the line between faith, delusion, and control.