Heretics Anonymous

Katie Henry

2018

Ratings31

Average rating3.6

* Amazon Best Book of the Month August 2018 * New York Public Library Best Books 2018 * Put an atheist in a strict Catholic school? Expect comedy, chaos, and an Inquisition. The Breakfast Club meets Saved! in debut author Katie Henry’s hilarious novel about a band of misfits who set out to challenge their school, one nun at a time. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Robyn Schneider. When Michael walks through the doors of Catholic school, things can’t get much worse. His dad has just made the family move again, and Michael needs a friend. When a girl challenges their teacher in class, Michael thinks he might have found one, and a fellow atheist at that. Only this girl, Lucy, isn’t just Catholic . . . she wants to be a priest. Lucy introduces Michael to other St. Clare’s outcasts, and he officially joins Heretics Anonymous, where he can be an atheist, Lucy can be an outspoken feminist, Avi can be Jewish and gay, Max can wear whatever he wants, and Eden can practice paganism. Michael encourages the Heretics to go from secret society to rebels intent on exposing the school’s hypocrisies one stunt at a time. But when Michael takes one mission too far—putting the other Heretics at risk—he must decide whether to fight for his own freedom or rely on faith, whatever that means, in God, his friends, or himself.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Minki

I'm so mad about how much time I wasted reading this.
It's getting closer to winter here in Australia and it's good to know I have kindling for a fire.

May 17, 2020

jess

A fun read about life, adapting, acceptance, and forgiveness.
The days go by quickly as the main character settles into his new school. You may be able to read this whole book in a few hours.

March 23, 2019

Michelle

I appreciate this book, but have to confess I didn't enjoy it all too much. I liked the premise of the book, and yet I rarely felt engaged. I, predictably, liked the portions that reminded me of books like [b:Moxie 33163378 Moxie Jennifer Mathieu https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1494950979s/33163378.jpg 46824140] and [b:The Nowhere Girls 28096541 The Nowhere Girls Amy Reed https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1507458184s/28096541.jpg 48100738] – where students start underground movements to create change in their schools, and face the danger of discovery. However, I came away feeling like the author felt the best response to injustice was a strongly worded petition. This could be a misread, but the group's efforts seemed to be portrayed as too radical based on a chance that the wrong person might be blamed through circumstantial evidence for an underground paper and some graffiti. I guess I just don't want to see a book targeted to younger readers that encourages them to follow the rules and only work within a broken system, and that's what this felt like – point out injustices up until their might be repercussions. The relationships, other than the romantic relationship, could have used more attention, making the portrayals a bit superficial. Of course, this is just me, others might enjoy HA more, and get more out of it, but this book had a lot of hype behind it which, upon reading, I'm not sure it earned.

September 9, 2018