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We Burn Daylight
An epic novel of star-crossed lovers set in a doomsday cult on the Texas prairie that asks: what would you sacrifice for the person you love?
Waco, Texas 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel—signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods—and his motives.
Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff; a 14 year old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families. The Lamb has plans for them all—especially Jaye—and as his preaching and scheming move them closer and closer to unthinkable violence, Roy risks everything to save Jaye.
Based on the true events that unfolded thirty years ago during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, Bret Anthony Johnston’s We Burn Daylight is an unforgettable love story, a heart-pounding literary page turner, and a profound exploration of faith, family, and what it means to truly be saved.
Waco, Texas 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel—signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods—and his motives.
Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff; a 14 year old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families. The Lamb has plans for them all—especially Jaye—and as his preaching and scheming move them closer and closer to unthinkable violence, Roy risks everything to save Jaye.
Based on the true events that unfolded thirty years ago during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, Bret Anthony Johnston’s We Burn Daylight is an unforgettable love story, a heart-pounding literary page turner, and a profound exploration of faith, family, and what it means to truly be saved.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published July 30, 2024
About the author
Bret Anthony Johnston
15 books209 followersBret Anthony Johnston is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Remember Me Like This, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the winner of the 2015 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns Prize. The book has been translated around the world and is being made into a major motion picture. Bret is also the author of the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent (London) and The Irish Times, and the editor of Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. His work appears in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere.
His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, The Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation. He wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and at Harvard University, where he is the Director of Creative Writing.
His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, The Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation. He wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars and at Harvard University, where he is the Director of Creative Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
March 13, 2024
I watched the entire televised Waco siege of David Koresh (Lamb) and the Branch Davidians tragedy as it unfolded in March-April 1993. I was pregnant with my daughter, on temporary bedrest. Our technology was limited yet we thought it was vast. So what did I do? I read books and watched TV, and the Waco siege was the most compelling TV at the time. I was facing potential loss while loss was unfolding on our TV screens. Waco is 100 miles north of Austin, my home, a plain small city with not a whole heckuva lot going for it. Then Waco broke national and international news. That was huge then, in the 1990s, when not even Austin was on the "destination" map. Texas writer Bret Anthony Johnston says that this is not the life of David Koresh. Which, I'm going to interpret as--rather, this is the life of fictional characters, Roy and Jaye, and their friends and family. Or consider it as a re-imagining of David Koresh’s clone. I have read some of the non-fiction material on the whole damned catastrophe, and nobody has hit the right notes of truth more than this author.
It isn’t just facts that tell a story about an event. It’s emotional and psychological truth that matters, and that’s where it counts for me. The main characters are Jaye, a fourteen-year-old girl and beaux Roy, also fourteen. Roy and Jaye tell their love story in alternating narratives, certainly borne from Johnston’s imagination, but the setting/melding of the calamity in Waco is brilliant. Johnston’s muscular use of language is sizzling, simmering. He uses robust and ripe words and phrases, very physical and forceful and yet sinewy and lucid. No word is superfluous; every sentence is nimble and supple---all five senses engaged, and a memorable romance. It's a page-turner, dear readers!
A lot is said about the stars, in metaphor, personification, and just the boundless entirety of its space. This all happened before cell phones kept us connected without interruption, when we had to depend on being there in the room where the telephone rang. There was a lot more waiting, suspense, expectancy, or not knowing that went along with this era right before the explosion of iPhones. Time and space have been reclassified by mobile phones, and some of the magic and anxiety of being able to contact your most important person was wholly different then.
“…I imagined a universe where a person could rearrange the stars to relay a message to someone else, a night sky inscribed in cryptic code, an illuminated language of loss.” How much would you sacrifice for a faith or glory, the abstractness of a supreme being? What would you do to save the person you most care about---and what is the meaning of “saved” to these characters? Is it religious, spiritual, emotional, or literal? Would you save your one true love first, or would you save what a charismatic leader calls your “soul.”
David Koresh (OK, Perry Cullen in the novel), to some folks, was like Jesus, a prophet of the Seven Seals, a person who could probably quote the entire Bible. To his worshippers, he is inviolable, unassailable. He was also a pedophile, and essentially had babies with babies. But he twisted these people’s minds enough that they believed he was their savior, and everything he did was part of his God-given right.
The story progresses with a pacey rhythm and I was on edge the whole time. Does this novel have more impact if you are familiar with the Waco standoff and siege? I do think my knowledge of the event and the minutiae of its moving parts created a particularly ripe suspense for me. However, it is Johnston that held all these facts together and wrote a compelling love story that is superimposed and braided into the dark events of the time. Those of us that followed the story in 1993 will have that whole scenario playing in our heads while we read WE BURNED DAYLIGHT.
I also kept thinking of the Supertramp song, “If Everyone was Listening." At one point, I put it on to connect to the most moving lyrics. It’s from the album, Crime of the Century—“For we dreamed a lot, and we schemed a lot, and we tried to sing of love before the stage fell apart.” It was like a play, Koresh as the mad clown, the compound his stage. “You don’t know what you’ve done, the finale’s begun.”
The friendship/romance between Jaye and Roy was deeply emotional but held with subtle restraint. They must have been the two most intelligent, quick-witted people in Waco, their feelings for each other illuminated their vulnerability and their strength. Could it survive—one love on the inside, one on the outside? While Perry Cullen kept his flock close at hand—everyone on the commune had a job to do, there was no plumbing, and there were hard chores to be done—the drama of Jaye and Roy played out.
Jaye's mother hauled her to Texas from California to be with Perry Cullen and his nutty flock. Jaye endured, she loved her mother, but she also kept a cautious distance to Perry, at the very least spelling out her boundaries to him, with a cutting tone, if that’s what it took. She knew he tried to groom her, and all the young ones. She was only fourteen, an attractive age for Perry. Yeah, he's that.
Jaye did things like sneak in Cullen’s room when he was gone to use the only telephone in the compound, to call Roy, and to do a bit of sabotage, like pour out Perry’s milk and put the empty carton back in the fridge, or eat his cheese. Lots of people went hungry, there wasn’t sufficient food, but not Perry. He had everything he wanted and more.
The story is propulsive, irresistible. It engulfs me. You may break dates, disregard dinner, ignore everything else but the book. It’s so gripping, meaningful, and expressive that you’ll obliterate any obstruction between you and WE BURNED DAYLIGHT. It’s page-turning and maximum appeal, natural sounding, effortless, but you know he worked hard on it with dedication and no fakery. Johnston is a breath of fresh air, a fearsome writer and master storyteller, with tantalizing wordplay.
Thank you to Random House for sending me an ARC to read and review. It’s a hard act to follow. I’ve been a fan of Johnston since REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS, another ripped-from-the-headlines event written for specific and individual fictional characters. Johnston does that so well. Took a huge national tragedy and yet owns it for his indelible make-believe one. The song remains the same.
It isn’t just facts that tell a story about an event. It’s emotional and psychological truth that matters, and that’s where it counts for me. The main characters are Jaye, a fourteen-year-old girl and beaux Roy, also fourteen. Roy and Jaye tell their love story in alternating narratives, certainly borne from Johnston’s imagination, but the setting/melding of the calamity in Waco is brilliant. Johnston’s muscular use of language is sizzling, simmering. He uses robust and ripe words and phrases, very physical and forceful and yet sinewy and lucid. No word is superfluous; every sentence is nimble and supple---all five senses engaged, and a memorable romance. It's a page-turner, dear readers!
A lot is said about the stars, in metaphor, personification, and just the boundless entirety of its space. This all happened before cell phones kept us connected without interruption, when we had to depend on being there in the room where the telephone rang. There was a lot more waiting, suspense, expectancy, or not knowing that went along with this era right before the explosion of iPhones. Time and space have been reclassified by mobile phones, and some of the magic and anxiety of being able to contact your most important person was wholly different then.
“…I imagined a universe where a person could rearrange the stars to relay a message to someone else, a night sky inscribed in cryptic code, an illuminated language of loss.” How much would you sacrifice for a faith or glory, the abstractness of a supreme being? What would you do to save the person you most care about---and what is the meaning of “saved” to these characters? Is it religious, spiritual, emotional, or literal? Would you save your one true love first, or would you save what a charismatic leader calls your “soul.”
David Koresh (OK, Perry Cullen in the novel), to some folks, was like Jesus, a prophet of the Seven Seals, a person who could probably quote the entire Bible. To his worshippers, he is inviolable, unassailable. He was also a pedophile, and essentially had babies with babies. But he twisted these people’s minds enough that they believed he was their savior, and everything he did was part of his God-given right.
The story progresses with a pacey rhythm and I was on edge the whole time. Does this novel have more impact if you are familiar with the Waco standoff and siege? I do think my knowledge of the event and the minutiae of its moving parts created a particularly ripe suspense for me. However, it is Johnston that held all these facts together and wrote a compelling love story that is superimposed and braided into the dark events of the time. Those of us that followed the story in 1993 will have that whole scenario playing in our heads while we read WE BURNED DAYLIGHT.
I also kept thinking of the Supertramp song, “If Everyone was Listening." At one point, I put it on to connect to the most moving lyrics. It’s from the album, Crime of the Century—“For we dreamed a lot, and we schemed a lot, and we tried to sing of love before the stage fell apart.” It was like a play, Koresh as the mad clown, the compound his stage. “You don’t know what you’ve done, the finale’s begun.”
The friendship/romance between Jaye and Roy was deeply emotional but held with subtle restraint. They must have been the two most intelligent, quick-witted people in Waco, their feelings for each other illuminated their vulnerability and their strength. Could it survive—one love on the inside, one on the outside? While Perry Cullen kept his flock close at hand—everyone on the commune had a job to do, there was no plumbing, and there were hard chores to be done—the drama of Jaye and Roy played out.
Jaye's mother hauled her to Texas from California to be with Perry Cullen and his nutty flock. Jaye endured, she loved her mother, but she also kept a cautious distance to Perry, at the very least spelling out her boundaries to him, with a cutting tone, if that’s what it took. She knew he tried to groom her, and all the young ones. She was only fourteen, an attractive age for Perry. Yeah, he's that.
Jaye did things like sneak in Cullen’s room when he was gone to use the only telephone in the compound, to call Roy, and to do a bit of sabotage, like pour out Perry’s milk and put the empty carton back in the fridge, or eat his cheese. Lots of people went hungry, there wasn’t sufficient food, but not Perry. He had everything he wanted and more.
The story is propulsive, irresistible. It engulfs me. You may break dates, disregard dinner, ignore everything else but the book. It’s so gripping, meaningful, and expressive that you’ll obliterate any obstruction between you and WE BURNED DAYLIGHT. It’s page-turning and maximum appeal, natural sounding, effortless, but you know he worked hard on it with dedication and no fakery. Johnston is a breath of fresh air, a fearsome writer and master storyteller, with tantalizing wordplay.
Thank you to Random House for sending me an ARC to read and review. It’s a hard act to follow. I’ve been a fan of Johnston since REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS, another ripped-from-the-headlines event written for specific and individual fictional characters. Johnston does that so well. Took a huge national tragedy and yet owns it for his indelible make-believe one. The song remains the same.
April 20, 2024
This mind-bending, meticulously crafted thriller delves into the tragic events unfolding in Waco, Texas, in 1993, through the star-crossed romance of two teenagers. Roy, the son of the sheriff, grapples with the absence of his elder brother, who is serving in Iraq. Meanwhile, Jay's mother finds herself drawn to a charismatic cult leader, Perry Cullen (based on real-life figure David Koresh), disrupting Jay's life and drawing her into a dangerous web.
The narrative unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Roy and Jay, offering insight into their respective journeys. Roy navigates the complexities of law enforcement, seeking to fill the void left by his brother's departure, while Jay struggles with her mother's newfound infatuation and the allure of a life beyond her grasp.
Short, poignant chapters interwoven with podcast segments from the present day create a sense of foreboding, driving the narrative forward and keeping readers engaged. Despite knowing the historical backdrop, the fate of the two teenagers remains uncertain, adding layers of tension to each chapter.
The novel excels in its pacing and character development, offering a realistic portrayal of the tragedy and the cult leader's manipulative influence. David Koresh's fictionalized portrayal sheds light on his apocalyptic vision and the fervent devotion of his followers, exploring the dangerous consequences of unchecked manipulation.
The heart-wrenching conclusion leaves a lasting impact, underscoring the novel's emotional depth and resonance. Overall, this is one of the best historical fictions I've encountered recently, and I highly recommend adding it to your reading list.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a digital review copy of this exceptional novel in exchange for my honest feedback.
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The narrative unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Roy and Jay, offering insight into their respective journeys. Roy navigates the complexities of law enforcement, seeking to fill the void left by his brother's departure, while Jay struggles with her mother's newfound infatuation and the allure of a life beyond her grasp.
Short, poignant chapters interwoven with podcast segments from the present day create a sense of foreboding, driving the narrative forward and keeping readers engaged. Despite knowing the historical backdrop, the fate of the two teenagers remains uncertain, adding layers of tension to each chapter.
The novel excels in its pacing and character development, offering a realistic portrayal of the tragedy and the cult leader's manipulative influence. David Koresh's fictionalized portrayal sheds light on his apocalyptic vision and the fervent devotion of his followers, exploring the dangerous consequences of unchecked manipulation.
The heart-wrenching conclusion leaves a lasting impact, underscoring the novel's emotional depth and resonance. Overall, this is one of the best historical fictions I've encountered recently, and I highly recommend adding it to your reading list.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a digital review copy of this exceptional novel in exchange for my honest feedback.
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August 7, 2024I'm just tired of reading this book. It's not bad and it's not good. I'm just tired of it. I keep telling myself I will get interested in it but I'm at the halfway point and I'm done.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
July 29, 2024
It’s been 10 years since Bret Anthony Johnston burst onto the literary scene with Remember Me Like This, a novel I described at the time as “manna from heaven.” The past long and eventful decade has not dimmed his talent one bit. If anything, it has enhanced it.
I devoured this page-turning story, inspired by true events -- the 1993 government siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Going into the book, my memory of the siege was sketchy: a long-haired man who believed that the end of days was imminent, a raid on the compound approved by Janet Reno, a lengthy stand-off, and a blazing fire that killed dozens.
My sketchy knowledge didn’t matter because We Burn Daylight is a work of fiction, enabling the author to take liberties with his story. It is focused on two 14-year-olds: the sheriff’s son Roy and a girl named Jaye, who reluctantly lives in the compound. They are in the throes of first love when the first part of the siege begins.
Bret Anthony Johnson divides the novel into four parts, defined by the four horses of the apocalypse. The white horse signifies conquest – many believe it symbolizes Christ or the Antichrist. The black horse symbolizes war and bloodshed; the red horse stands for famine; and the pale horse is usually identified as Death. Interspered with the narratives are recorded podcasts involving the fictional characters and set in the present time.
Perry Cullen (aka The Lamb), for a Christ or Antichrist figure (depending on who is doing the defining), is amazingly ordinary – Bible-thumping and repellent and able to lure people to him by making them feel they belonged with him. (Hmm…I wonder who that reminds me of?) Yet, for all his so-called charisma, it is Roy and Jaye who command our attention and remind us that innocent and guileless love truly has the power to save.
At the end of the day, bloodline, prayer sacrifice, or a “glad-hearted dream of God” mean little. Macbeth’s speech in the eponymous Shakespeare play (Life’s but a walking shadow a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more) could very well apply to all the Perry Cullens of the world. Justice, mercy, grace, and most of all, love, are what saves us from the constant fires.
I simply cannot recommend this novel enough and owe a huge thanks to Random House for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
I devoured this page-turning story, inspired by true events -- the 1993 government siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Going into the book, my memory of the siege was sketchy: a long-haired man who believed that the end of days was imminent, a raid on the compound approved by Janet Reno, a lengthy stand-off, and a blazing fire that killed dozens.
My sketchy knowledge didn’t matter because We Burn Daylight is a work of fiction, enabling the author to take liberties with his story. It is focused on two 14-year-olds: the sheriff’s son Roy and a girl named Jaye, who reluctantly lives in the compound. They are in the throes of first love when the first part of the siege begins.
Bret Anthony Johnson divides the novel into four parts, defined by the four horses of the apocalypse. The white horse signifies conquest – many believe it symbolizes Christ or the Antichrist. The black horse symbolizes war and bloodshed; the red horse stands for famine; and the pale horse is usually identified as Death. Interspered with the narratives are recorded podcasts involving the fictional characters and set in the present time.
Perry Cullen (aka The Lamb), for a Christ or Antichrist figure (depending on who is doing the defining), is amazingly ordinary – Bible-thumping and repellent and able to lure people to him by making them feel they belonged with him. (Hmm…I wonder who that reminds me of?) Yet, for all his so-called charisma, it is Roy and Jaye who command our attention and remind us that innocent and guileless love truly has the power to save.
At the end of the day, bloodline, prayer sacrifice, or a “glad-hearted dream of God” mean little. Macbeth’s speech in the eponymous Shakespeare play (Life’s but a walking shadow a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more) could very well apply to all the Perry Cullens of the world. Justice, mercy, grace, and most of all, love, are what saves us from the constant fires.
I simply cannot recommend this novel enough and owe a huge thanks to Random House for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
July 28, 2024
Two teens, a doomsday cult, and Waco Texas sets the stage for We Burn Daylight.
Waco, Texas 1993
Perry Cullen, known by his followers as (The Lamb) has followers from all over. They come to his compound with their possessions and money to prepare for the end of times. They have gathered a HUGE amount of weapons for when the end comes. Jaye’s mother comes to Texas to join the Lamb and his followers. She is a steadfast and devout follower while her her daughter, Jaye questions the Lamb's intentions and methods. Roy is the local sheriff's son and finds himself drawn to Jaye.
If you are getting David Koresh and the Branch Davidians vibes from this book, that is because this book is based on the events that took place in Waco, Texas in 1993.
This book is told through a podcast which takes place 30 years after the siege, and through the POV's of Jaye and Roy. This book was somewhat slow for me and I struggle with slow, but I hung in there and did enjoy the book. The podcast sections were my favorite parts of the book. I appreciated the depiction of devotion, of cults, of doubt, and the connection between Jaye and Roy.
Thank you to Ramdon House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖
Waco, Texas 1993
Perry Cullen, known by his followers as (The Lamb) has followers from all over. They come to his compound with their possessions and money to prepare for the end of times. They have gathered a HUGE amount of weapons for when the end comes. Jaye’s mother comes to Texas to join the Lamb and his followers. She is a steadfast and devout follower while her her daughter, Jaye questions the Lamb's intentions and methods. Roy is the local sheriff's son and finds himself drawn to Jaye.
If you are getting David Koresh and the Branch Davidians vibes from this book, that is because this book is based on the events that took place in Waco, Texas in 1993.
This book is told through a podcast which takes place 30 years after the siege, and through the POV's of Jaye and Roy. This book was somewhat slow for me and I struggle with slow, but I hung in there and did enjoy the book. The podcast sections were my favorite parts of the book. I appreciated the depiction of devotion, of cults, of doubt, and the connection between Jaye and Roy.
Thank you to Ramdon House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖
July 25, 2024
DNF. I liked the examination of a cult but saw no purpose in setting it in Waco. I remember true accounts of the siege on Waco in 1993, where most cult members died. But we are reminded that this story is separate from one actual historical Waco, and its fictional leader, the Lamb (who lacks charisma), is not based on David Koresh. I felt the fictional account of the cult and siege would have been more effective if a different location had been chosen.
The story focused on a romance and thoughts of two teenagers, a girl living in the compound, the other the son of a law enforcement member. They narrate their story in alternate chapters. Their involvement leads up to the fictional siege and to suspense about the outcome. Their individual stories are mixed with a present-day podcast interviewing witnesses, survivors, and law enforcement agents. I regret I am in the minority and failed to maintain interest. However, many readers will find this to be a gripping story, with its unique narrative and suspenseful plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher of the ARC. The publication date is July 30, 2024.
The story focused on a romance and thoughts of two teenagers, a girl living in the compound, the other the son of a law enforcement member. They narrate their story in alternate chapters. Their involvement leads up to the fictional siege and to suspense about the outcome. Their individual stories are mixed with a present-day podcast interviewing witnesses, survivors, and law enforcement agents. I regret I am in the minority and failed to maintain interest. However, many readers will find this to be a gripping story, with its unique narrative and suspenseful plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher of the ARC. The publication date is July 30, 2024.
August 13, 2024
In a brief afterword to his new novel, Bret Anthony Johnston claims, “‘We Burn Daylight’ is not about David Koresh.” But the fact that his plot is set around a millenarian compound besieged by federal agents in Waco is no less coincidental than Donald Trump’s decision to rally there last year. Although people have different motives for circling this mass grave, they all seek to warm their hands in that inferno.
Johnston, though, comes bearing an additional, even older tragedy. “We Burn Daylight” reimagines the conflict between the government and the Branch Davidians as a modern-day echo of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” His star-crossed lovers are a pair of teenagers whose ardor is doomed by an animosity far beyond their control. Roy is a lonely 14-year-old boy, the younger son of the McLennan County sheriff. Jaye is the angry daughter of a devoted member of the religious group holed up in Waco. In the Bard’s words, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.”
Johnston, a native of Texas, captures this area with an appreciation for the rhythms and courtesies of rural life — neighbors who know who drinks too much and who keeps their fences mended. Church is the center of everyone’s week.
The novel comes to us in chapters narrated, alternately, by Roy and Jaye. She’s essentially a captive, acting out any way she can to irritate her mother and repel the cult’s leader. Roy, a high school freshman, occupies a strangely....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Johnston, though, comes bearing an additional, even older tragedy. “We Burn Daylight” reimagines the conflict between the government and the Branch Davidians as a modern-day echo of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” His star-crossed lovers are a pair of teenagers whose ardor is doomed by an animosity far beyond their control. Roy is a lonely 14-year-old boy, the younger son of the McLennan County sheriff. Jaye is the angry daughter of a devoted member of the religious group holed up in Waco. In the Bard’s words, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.”
Johnston, a native of Texas, captures this area with an appreciation for the rhythms and courtesies of rural life — neighbors who know who drinks too much and who keeps their fences mended. Church is the center of everyone’s week.
The novel comes to us in chapters narrated, alternately, by Roy and Jaye. She’s essentially a captive, acting out any way she can to irritate her mother and repel the cult’s leader. Roy, a high school freshman, occupies a strangely....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
April 17, 2024
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 30, 2024
Bret Anthony Johnston’s new novel, “We Burn Daylight” brings two star-crossed lovers learning about love, and themselves, in a coming-of-age story with a doomsday cult in Waco, Texas as the backdrop (no, not that one).
It’s 1993 and Roy is the son of the local sheriff. With his older brother away in the military, Roy sometimes helps his father out when he goes to deliver warrants to the community. Roy’s mother is a health aide and her schedule shifts around which patient needs her the most, so it is often Roy and his father in the sheriff’s pickup. Roy’s father, and the community at large, are convinced that Perry Cullen and his “followers” living in the half-decrepit place on the hill are up to something. Some people think it’s something sinister, some believe that Perry Cullen’s people are nothing more than religious zealots. Jaye is a reluctant member, having been brought to Cullen’s property after her mother fell prey to its charming and provocative leader. Jaye was forced to leave everything behind, including her father, and has to watch her back at every turn, knowing Perry does not have good intentions. But then Jaye meets Roy and she feels hope for the first time- but there is a war brewing and although Jaye and Roy can feel the undercurrents, they live on the edge of their seat, hoping they can make it out alive.
“Daylight” is narrated by the two fourteen-year-old protagonists, but by no means is it a young adult novel. Anthony Johnston’s writing is poetic and descriptive and his novel brings out complex emotions. Young love is a theme, as is loss, but so is fear, power and deceit.
There was no question I was going to read this one (there’s a cult in it, after all) but it exceeded my expectations all the same. Anthony Johnston is a new author for me, and “Daylight” has only made me want to drop everything and immediately read everything else he has ever penned. I found his wording graceful without being thick or overly intellectual, and the dual plots of the Cullen cult as well as the star-crossed romance intertwined effortlessly.
The cult mentioned, obviously, will bring to mind the Waco, Texas chapter of the “Branch Davidians”, led by David Karesh, but it is not based on it, only loosely influenced by. I didn’t mean the symmetry and in fact, I found the setting and background easier to visualize if I had a concrete example to create from.
“Daylight” is unique and unsettling, and I loved every minute.
Expected publication date: July 30, 2024
Bret Anthony Johnston’s new novel, “We Burn Daylight” brings two star-crossed lovers learning about love, and themselves, in a coming-of-age story with a doomsday cult in Waco, Texas as the backdrop (no, not that one).
It’s 1993 and Roy is the son of the local sheriff. With his older brother away in the military, Roy sometimes helps his father out when he goes to deliver warrants to the community. Roy’s mother is a health aide and her schedule shifts around which patient needs her the most, so it is often Roy and his father in the sheriff’s pickup. Roy’s father, and the community at large, are convinced that Perry Cullen and his “followers” living in the half-decrepit place on the hill are up to something. Some people think it’s something sinister, some believe that Perry Cullen’s people are nothing more than religious zealots. Jaye is a reluctant member, having been brought to Cullen’s property after her mother fell prey to its charming and provocative leader. Jaye was forced to leave everything behind, including her father, and has to watch her back at every turn, knowing Perry does not have good intentions. But then Jaye meets Roy and she feels hope for the first time- but there is a war brewing and although Jaye and Roy can feel the undercurrents, they live on the edge of their seat, hoping they can make it out alive.
“Daylight” is narrated by the two fourteen-year-old protagonists, but by no means is it a young adult novel. Anthony Johnston’s writing is poetic and descriptive and his novel brings out complex emotions. Young love is a theme, as is loss, but so is fear, power and deceit.
There was no question I was going to read this one (there’s a cult in it, after all) but it exceeded my expectations all the same. Anthony Johnston is a new author for me, and “Daylight” has only made me want to drop everything and immediately read everything else he has ever penned. I found his wording graceful without being thick or overly intellectual, and the dual plots of the Cullen cult as well as the star-crossed romance intertwined effortlessly.
The cult mentioned, obviously, will bring to mind the Waco, Texas chapter of the “Branch Davidians”, led by David Karesh, but it is not based on it, only loosely influenced by. I didn’t mean the symmetry and in fact, I found the setting and background easier to visualize if I had a concrete example to create from.
“Daylight” is unique and unsettling, and I loved every minute.
July 30, 2024
This is a tense and riveting novel that is both a love story and a tragedy reminiscent of a Shakesperean play. Reading We Burn Daylight is like watching two locomotives on the same track heading towards each other with no way to stop them.
It's easy to see the similarities between this book and the 1993 events that brought to a head the 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidian apocalyptic cult under David Koresh in Waco, Texas and federal agents. Except, the principal part of this story is centered around two teens on opposite sides who are destined to find each other.
The narrative is told through the eyes of Jaye and Roy starting before the deadly altercation in 1993 and excerpts from current podcast interviews with people who had been involved 20 years earlier. Roy is the 14-year-old son of the county's sheriff and Jaye is the recalcitrant daughter of a woman who leaves her home in California to settle with an odd group of lost souls in Waco, Texas who are devout followers of the Lamb, a self-made prophet.
I've never understood the lure of cults, but in reading this mesmerizing portrayal of the Lamb by Bret Anthony Johnston you can certainly imagine the psychological impact that a fanatic with utopian promises can have on people seeking a "better" life at all costs and how their indoctrination and the Lamb's preachings set off a course of events that lead to disaster.
This book was very different from the types of books that I usually read. However, the quality of the writing and the buildup of suspense made it perfectly enjoyable.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
It's easy to see the similarities between this book and the 1993 events that brought to a head the 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidian apocalyptic cult under David Koresh in Waco, Texas and federal agents. Except, the principal part of this story is centered around two teens on opposite sides who are destined to find each other.
The narrative is told through the eyes of Jaye and Roy starting before the deadly altercation in 1993 and excerpts from current podcast interviews with people who had been involved 20 years earlier. Roy is the 14-year-old son of the county's sheriff and Jaye is the recalcitrant daughter of a woman who leaves her home in California to settle with an odd group of lost souls in Waco, Texas who are devout followers of the Lamb, a self-made prophet.
I've never understood the lure of cults, but in reading this mesmerizing portrayal of the Lamb by Bret Anthony Johnston you can certainly imagine the psychological impact that a fanatic with utopian promises can have on people seeking a "better" life at all costs and how their indoctrination and the Lamb's preachings set off a course of events that lead to disaster.
This book was very different from the types of books that I usually read. However, the quality of the writing and the buildup of suspense made it perfectly enjoyable.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read a digital review copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
August 15, 2024
There’s a Place for Us
The pitch is fairly simple: a Romeo and Juliet romance set in Waco, Texas, during a scenario much like the Branch Davidians siege. Author Bret Anthony Johnston was in Waco on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy and met with a number of the survivors and people involved– here the story began germinating in his imagination.
Jaye, the Juliet, is a teenaged girl who has reluctantly moved with her mother to the compound run by a religious zealot, Perry Cullen or “the Lamb” – a character similar to the real-life David Koresh. The members are permitted to go into town and Jaye meets the Sheriff’s son, fourteen-year-old Roy (our Romeo). Roy falls heavily for Jaye but has no idea she lives in the compound that his father and other law enforcement officials are investigating.
So, the real-life events of 1993 provide the skeleton for much of the setting. As such, we know how things ended, and we know there was a lot of controversy about the way the government handled the situation. In between Jaye and Roy’s chapters there are episodes of a podcast, “On the Lamb,” a modern-day investigation to find out what really happened. These are short and refreshing breaks as the pace seems to sputter at times. The kids are creations and not historical figures, so a driving motivation to keep reading is to discover their fates.
The sense of place is intense– this is Texas and cannot be confused with anywhere else. The people here are all understandable, if not sympathetic. The Lamb is extreme, of course, but the followers are multidimensional and not painted as mere zombies or robots. If anything, it is the federal government officials who are portrayed as a bit shady.
Overall, this is an interesting depiction of the Waco setting and the people there. For anyone who cares, the Romeo and Juliet theme was all right, with “Easter Eggs” scattered throughout. Knowing the probable outcome only made it drag out to a longer journey than necessary.
Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #WeBurnDaylight #NetGalley.
The pitch is fairly simple: a Romeo and Juliet romance set in Waco, Texas, during a scenario much like the Branch Davidians siege. Author Bret Anthony Johnston was in Waco on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy and met with a number of the survivors and people involved– here the story began germinating in his imagination.
Jaye, the Juliet, is a teenaged girl who has reluctantly moved with her mother to the compound run by a religious zealot, Perry Cullen or “the Lamb” – a character similar to the real-life David Koresh. The members are permitted to go into town and Jaye meets the Sheriff’s son, fourteen-year-old Roy (our Romeo). Roy falls heavily for Jaye but has no idea she lives in the compound that his father and other law enforcement officials are investigating.
So, the real-life events of 1993 provide the skeleton for much of the setting. As such, we know how things ended, and we know there was a lot of controversy about the way the government handled the situation. In between Jaye and Roy’s chapters there are episodes of a podcast, “On the Lamb,” a modern-day investigation to find out what really happened. These are short and refreshing breaks as the pace seems to sputter at times. The kids are creations and not historical figures, so a driving motivation to keep reading is to discover their fates.
The sense of place is intense– this is Texas and cannot be confused with anywhere else. The people here are all understandable, if not sympathetic. The Lamb is extreme, of course, but the followers are multidimensional and not painted as mere zombies or robots. If anything, it is the federal government officials who are portrayed as a bit shady.
Overall, this is an interesting depiction of the Waco setting and the people there. For anyone who cares, the Romeo and Juliet theme was all right, with “Easter Eggs” scattered throughout. Knowing the probable outcome only made it drag out to a longer journey than necessary.
Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #WeBurnDaylight #NetGalley.
May 17, 2024
This story begins with a mother and daughter who leave California, heading to Waco, Texas. Jaye’s mother has learned that a man she knew in California has formed a religious community where he plans to share the word of God, or at least his version of God. She’s heard the word about ’the Lamb’, and is eager to become a part of this new community. Set in an isolated area, far from anything resembling a suburb, he is treated by some as a god, and where his followers, eager to follow, believe his words, and follow him.
When Jaye and her mother arrive, Jaye meets Roy, the son of the local sheriff, which slowly becomes somewhat of a love story.
The longer you read this the more you begin to believe that it is one of those stories that will likely end badly. After all, put together a cult and Waco, and what else would you expect?
Part of this story is shared through podcasts, although the main part of the story is shared through Jaye’s perspective and Roy’s, as well.
I enjoyed this, if somewhat unevenly, as the story continued, but while the podcast transcripts offered insight to some degree, it also felt like I was being taken out of the story to ‘listen’ to the podcast.
What I loved about this was that, despite the darker moments, that this is also a beautifully written story, despite the darkness.
Pub Date: 30 Jul 2024
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random Houses Publishing Group - Random House / Random House
April 20, 2024
Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's own word.
If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire,
Or — save your reverence — love, wherein thou stickest
Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho!
Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet
Although author Bret Anthony Johnston states in his Acknowledgements at the end of We Burn Daylight that this “is not about David Koresh”, this is the story of a charismatic leader — named Perry Cullen, aka “The Lamb” — and the doomsday religion that he founds on a shambolic ranch outside of Waco, Texas, which was eventually subject to siege and deadly raid by government forces in March of 1993. Told in short, alternating chapters by a pair of fourteen-year-old “star-crossed lovers” (hence the source of title) — Roy is the upstanding son of the local Sheriff, and Jaye is the (barely) more worldly daughter of a woman who was drawn to the Lamb from California; both Roy and Jaye being good, innocent kids, hungry in that familiar adolescent way for love and validation — and although the reader knows where the escalating standoff between law enforcement and the residents of the highly armed ranch must lead (and to be sure, there is plenty of foreshadowing along the way), this is a heart-wrenching, pulse-pounding, deeply philosophical exploration of faith and social constructs and the real limits of freedom. Johnston’s prose is clear and propulsive — the cold, barren landscape is masterfully captured without a hint of sentimentality — and his characters are real and relatable; even those who would knowingly follow what others might call a “cult”; even the so-called cult leader himself is simply following his own fate. Thirty years after the raid on the Branch Davidians, it might be easy to blame the debacle entirely on government overreach, but here Johnston explores the events that led up to that day — the growing unease of the local community (I hear he has illegal weapons, I hear he’s impregnating underage girls), the mounting paranoia within the ranch (These are the end times, the prophesied opening of the Seventh Seal), and a government that feels its authority under scrutiny (with recent fiascos in Montana and Idaho) — there’s an inevitability to the ensuing tragedy that feels Shakespearian in the end. This was an outstanding reading experience (especially for someone like myself who watched the raid on the Branch Davidians with confused horror as it played out in the day), and it could have rated five stars, but I did not like the way that Johnston wrapped his story up. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
Hidy there, everybody. Good afternoon. Or evening. Sorry to be tardy, but we’ve had ourselves a dustup at the ranch. As you’ve heard by now, people have taken to calling me the Lamb, which is sure nicer than other names I’ve been called. Anyway we’ve had these pork choppers flying at us. I don’t mean to tease. I appreciate y’all tuning in, I do. Well so, okay, it’s the eighteenth day of February 1993, the year of our Lord, and I’m talking at you, through your radios, in your homes and cars and places of commerce, about the revelation of Jesus Christ. That’s the big to-do.
As creepy and delusional as The Lamb may seem, he doesn’t actually appear to be breaking any laws: His visions have called for him to propagate the “New Light, which seemed to be children who would inherit the earth after the Wave Sheaf scrubbed it of sin”; which does involve him sleeping with everyone of breeding age, including underage girls (with theirs and their parents’ consent; so not technically illegal in Texas), and although the community does make their money by reselling weapons on the gun show circuit (and by having a popular shooting range on the ranch), the weapons are all registered, and is absolutely in keeping with the local ethos of “God, Guts, Guns”. The local Sheriff, Eli, sees nothing of concern on routine visits to the ranch, CPS sees no reason to remove any of the children when they follow up on reports from concerned citizens, and even “the taxman” is kept at bay by the group’s tidy bookkeeping and tax exempt status. Even so, the feds will eventually want to have a look inside, and that’s exactly what the prophecy of the Wave Sheaf predicted: and it’s hard to put normal pressure on a people who want be deemed worthy of “translation” to the afterlife.
But all of that happens in the background as Ro
And still more noise — the walls absorbing what they could, the helicopters and yelling and sobbing and coughing, my breathing coming too fast and the awful high-pitched gurgling of our chickens as they were being shot and people pleading with God and barking orders and information: Get down ! Over here now! They’re still coming! I can see them and they’re still coming! Then a single shot and the sickening muffled thunk of its impact, a sledgehammer into a sandbag. Then an enormous gasp — like someone breaching the surface of water after too long below. The gasping continued and turned wet, and a man cried out, “No! No no no no!” Then, as if all the agents were ordered to aim at the same thing and hold down their triggers at the same time: The dinner bell tolled tolled tolled tolled until it dropped to the frozen earth and silenced.
In a stroke of narrative genius, Johnston also has intermittent transcripts from a modern day podcast called “ON THE LAMB”, which sees its host interviewing people who had been involved in the raid, trying to learn what lessons might have been gleaned by thirty years of contemplation on those events. This includes an interview with a defensive retired Special Agent:
What happened was tragic, no question, but there’s also no doubt about who bears responsibility: Cullen. We can debate tactics and strategies, tanks and tear gas, but if Cullen hadn’t abused those kids, we wouldn’t have been there.
But even the attorney general testified there was no evidence of child abuse.
The responsibility is Cullen’s. He did this. The tanks went in because he wouldn’t come out.
And an interview with one of the few survivors among the Lamb’s followers, recently released from prison:
Didn’t they run out of ammo? Isn’t that what being outgunned means?
I think it means we had some help.
God, you’re saying.
What’s the alternative? Some Bible thumpers defeated Uncle Sam? That so much planning and training and equipment was no match for little old us? Sounds fishy, but what do I know? Either way, it sounds like something I can shake hands with.
And an interview with Roy’s long-suffering father, retired Sheriff Eli Mo
We aren’t built to matter. That’s the surprise here. That’s the big finale. Tell the story a million times, a million different ways, but the ones who were punished and the ones who were pardoned ain’t switching places.
And it all serves to satisfyingly explore both how something like this could have actually happened in the “Land of the Free” (without needing to be 100% faithful to the truth of Koresh and the Branch Davidians) and what it all means in the end:
Did we win or lose? Are we damned or saved? We occupy a liminal, leftover world, and we live off scraps. We build our religion, our very existences, with salvaged and stolen parts, waiting for the next fire. To survive is to know what no one else does: Nothing is forever. Not an alibi or shelter, not bloodline or prayer, not nation or sacrifice or any glad-hearted dream of God.
A well-written and compelling narrative, with a sweet and relatable love story at its heart, this isn’t quite a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but it is definitely Shakespearian in its tragedian format and philosophical heart; this leaves me with much to think about and I’m looking forward to exploring Johnston’s earlier work.
February 17, 2024
This is set in Waco, Texas in 1993, at a compound. You can infer from that what this is about.
I greatly empathized with Roy and Jaye. It’s hard out here for fourteen-year-olds! They meet because Perry Cullen has bewitched Jaye’s mother into joining him in Waco, and Jaye decides to come along. The latter is astoundingly wise to all of Perry’s BS, and her observations and witty comments are quite hilarious.
I purposely did not brush up on what really happened during those months of the standoff, so I wouldn’t inadvertently be biased in any way against the reimagined story. You may think that this is a slow burn, but I don’t consider it to be one. Johnston really makes you care about the characters (at least the ones worth caring about), and I was invested in their fates.
What happened is sad, yes, but there’s a tale in here worth reading. Look for this in July 2024!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eARC, which I voluntarily reviewed.
I greatly empathized with Roy and Jaye. It’s hard out here for fourteen-year-olds! They meet because Perry Cullen has bewitched Jaye’s mother into joining him in Waco, and Jaye decides to come along. The latter is astoundingly wise to all of Perry’s BS, and her observations and witty comments are quite hilarious.
I purposely did not brush up on what really happened during those months of the standoff, so I wouldn’t inadvertently be biased in any way against the reimagined story. You may think that this is a slow burn, but I don’t consider it to be one. Johnston really makes you care about the characters (at least the ones worth caring about), and I was invested in their fates.
What happened is sad, yes, but there’s a tale in here worth reading. Look for this in July 2024!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eARC, which I voluntarily reviewed.
April 21, 2024
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
When I saw that this book was about a cult, I was so excited. I think cults are very interesting and I love hearing about them, the leaders, and the people that join them. I was nervous that maybe this book wouldn't meet my expectations, but wow,was I wrong! I loved everything about this story. Every character had a very distinct voice that added so much to the story. I loved all the foreshadowing, and I lived how similar the story was to the actual Waco cult incident in 1993. I loved how we don't know the identity of the podcast host until much later in the book. I think the only thing that could make this book better would be to hear it on audio. If it was done in a way that each character had its own narrator (especially in the podcast portion!), it would make an audie award worthy audio book.
Absolutely recommend!
When I saw that this book was about a cult, I was so excited. I think cults are very interesting and I love hearing about them, the leaders, and the people that join them. I was nervous that maybe this book wouldn't meet my expectations, but wow,was I wrong! I loved everything about this story. Every character had a very distinct voice that added so much to the story. I loved all the foreshadowing, and I lived how similar the story was to the actual Waco cult incident in 1993. I loved how we don't know the identity of the podcast host until much later in the book. I think the only thing that could make this book better would be to hear it on audio. If it was done in a way that each character had its own narrator (especially in the podcast portion!), it would make an audie award worthy audio book.
Absolutely recommend!
August 4, 2024
This is a pretty compelling work of fiction related to the real life siege of the Branch Davidians and their leader David Koresh in Waco Texas 1993.
This could have been a copy - cat story but the Author throws in a twist introducing us to Jaye and Roy a couple of kids who fall in love.
Jaye and her mother leave California to follow Perry Cullen called the lamb by his followers to Waco in 1993. Where their compound falls under siege by the government. The similarities of fiction and reality are profound but start to go in a different direction when Roy the son of the sheriff helping with the siege is bound and determined to get Jaye out of the compound alive.
Now starts a cat and mouse thriller that will keep you in suspense.
A well written novel and an easy read.
This could have been a copy - cat story but the Author throws in a twist introducing us to Jaye and Roy a couple of kids who fall in love.
Jaye and her mother leave California to follow Perry Cullen called the lamb by his followers to Waco in 1993. Where their compound falls under siege by the government. The similarities of fiction and reality are profound but start to go in a different direction when Roy the son of the sheriff helping with the siege is bound and determined to get Jaye out of the compound alive.
Now starts a cat and mouse thriller that will keep you in suspense.
A well written novel and an easy read.
March 27, 2024
(4.5 stars) This book attracted me from the start. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Branch Davidian tragedy outside Waco, Texas in 1993. The story is told from the points of view of two 14-year-olds – Roy, the son of the local sheriff, and Jaye, the daughter of a Branch Davidian convert. The two meet and fall in love, with Roy not realizing that Jaye is intimately involved in the crisis unfolding near his home and consuming his father.
Jaye is bold and daring, opposing the “Lamb” at the center of the Davidians (Perry Cullen in the novel, David Koresh in real life) and sneaking out of the compound to meet with Roy. The Lamb has big plans for Jaye, moving closer to her as the crisis grows. Jaye cannot leave her mother, though, even as the tension builds and the Lamb continues to amass weapons for the End Times. As the situation culminates, Roy risks all to try to save Jaye.
I loved the way the author approached the telling of this tale. Between the teenagers, the two sides of the conflict could be thoroughly explored in an organic way. While not exactly sympathetic to the Davidians, the story that is told allows the reader to come to their own conclusion as to who was at fault. The writing feels authentic for the time and place. It brought me back to that time 30 years ago when I watched it all unfold on television. This was a page-turner of the best kind.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with this e-ARC. The book publishes in July.
Jaye is bold and daring, opposing the “Lamb” at the center of the Davidians (Perry Cullen in the novel, David Koresh in real life) and sneaking out of the compound to meet with Roy. The Lamb has big plans for Jaye, moving closer to her as the crisis grows. Jaye cannot leave her mother, though, even as the tension builds and the Lamb continues to amass weapons for the End Times. As the situation culminates, Roy risks all to try to save Jaye.
I loved the way the author approached the telling of this tale. Between the teenagers, the two sides of the conflict could be thoroughly explored in an organic way. While not exactly sympathetic to the Davidians, the story that is told allows the reader to come to their own conclusion as to who was at fault. The writing feels authentic for the time and place. It brought me back to that time 30 years ago when I watched it all unfold on television. This was a page-turner of the best kind.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with this e-ARC. The book publishes in July.
March 6, 2024
In his newest novel, “We Burn Daylight”, Bret Anthony Johnston has found a powerful, compelling, and modern way to weave into the story of the Branch Davidian tragedy a “Romeo & Juliet” narrative that will grab the reader from the first pages.
Johnston fictionalizes the Waco, Texas, story just enough, and his authenticity as a Texan is on every page; in every description, every character, every bit of dialogue, every cultural “Texan” detail.
I am a Texan. We are all the same. We are all different. Johnston gets it.
“We Burn Daylight” builds the story and the suspense with a unique framework of alternating first-person narratives by teenagers Roy and Jaye, and short transcripts from a 2024 podcast looking back on the event enriched with thirty years of hindsight. (It was fun to try to figure out who was conducting the podcast. I didn’t guess correctly - but was delighted by the reveal.)
Roy is the son of the local Sheriff, and Jaye has been brought by her mother to the compound of “The Lamb” dominated by a charismatic leader preparing for the apocalypse. (Book sections are named for the colors of the eschatological four horses.)
Because the event is partially fictionalized, Johnston is able to keep us on the edge of our seats, eager to find out what will happen to Roy and Jaye. The podcasts give out just enough information and surprises to ratchet up the tension without revealing the final twists.
Many thanks to Random House for an advanced copy of this gripping and satisfying novel. I recommend pre-ordering it now, and if you haven’t yet read Johnston’s wonderful first novel “Remember Me Like This”, then you’re in for a treat.
Johnston fictionalizes the Waco, Texas, story just enough, and his authenticity as a Texan is on every page; in every description, every character, every bit of dialogue, every cultural “Texan” detail.
I am a Texan. We are all the same. We are all different. Johnston gets it.
“We Burn Daylight” builds the story and the suspense with a unique framework of alternating first-person narratives by teenagers Roy and Jaye, and short transcripts from a 2024 podcast looking back on the event enriched with thirty years of hindsight. (It was fun to try to figure out who was conducting the podcast. I didn’t guess correctly - but was delighted by the reveal.)
Roy is the son of the local Sheriff, and Jaye has been brought by her mother to the compound of “The Lamb” dominated by a charismatic leader preparing for the apocalypse. (Book sections are named for the colors of the eschatological four horses.)
Because the event is partially fictionalized, Johnston is able to keep us on the edge of our seats, eager to find out what will happen to Roy and Jaye. The podcasts give out just enough information and surprises to ratchet up the tension without revealing the final twists.
Many thanks to Random House for an advanced copy of this gripping and satisfying novel. I recommend pre-ordering it now, and if you haven’t yet read Johnston’s wonderful first novel “Remember Me Like This”, then you’re in for a treat.
February 3, 2024
ARC for review. To be published July 30, 2024.
Based on the true events in Waco, Texas in 1993, Perry Cullen stands in for David Koresh here. His followers call him “the Lamb,” and he drew them from all over, they willingly gave their possessions and money to his church as he prepared for the day of reckoning. Jaye Carroll’s mother, Marie followed him from California to join.
Roy Moreland, 14, was the son of the local Sheriff and fell in love with Jaye but didn’t know about Perry’s relationship with Jaye’s mother or his designs on Jaye. The story is told in alternating points of view between Jaye and Roy.
I love me a cult book! This one is interspersed with bits of transcripts from a documentary which adds a different perspective. This may not be for everyone but I quite enjoyed it. Recommended.
Based on the true events in Waco, Texas in 1993, Perry Cullen stands in for David Koresh here. His followers call him “the Lamb,” and he drew them from all over, they willingly gave their possessions and money to his church as he prepared for the day of reckoning. Jaye Carroll’s mother, Marie followed him from California to join.
Roy Moreland, 14, was the son of the local Sheriff and fell in love with Jaye but didn’t know about Perry’s relationship with Jaye’s mother or his designs on Jaye. The story is told in alternating points of view between Jaye and Roy.
I love me a cult book! This one is interspersed with bits of transcripts from a documentary which adds a different perspective. This may not be for everyone but I quite enjoyed it. Recommended.
July 25, 2024
Sometimes, a novel sneaks right in and demands that the reader pay close attention. "We Burn Daylight" by Bret Anthony Johnston is such a story. It is a fictionalized imagining of a Branch Dividian-esque religious cult set in the now same infamous Texas town of Wacos.
Wrapped up in the familiar tragedy that was the confrontation between an evangelical, apocalyptically rooted cult of true believers (with guns) and the immovable force of various local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies (also with guns). As with the historic confrontation, Johnston's fictionalized encounter does not end well.
However, what the author added to this deeply tragic and violent moment in American history was a deeply engaging, truly real, beautifully written (and ultimately hopeful) coming-of-age story. For at the heart of this violent story, is a pair of lovestruck sixteen year olds, who, against all odds, find one another. In the increasingly difficult process of figuring out how to survive the adult world's insanity that they have been thrown into, these two remarkable young people show us all that love, loyalty, smart thinking, ingenuity, and compassion are attributes that truly matter in this complicated world of ours.
This compelling, beautifully written novel will be published on July 30, 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it and count it as one of my favorite reads thus far in 2024. I offer my honest review in thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me access to an advanced copy.
#WeBurnDaylight
#BretAnthonyJohnston
#NetGalley
#TexasLiteraryFiction
#WacosTexas
#ComingofAgeTales
Wrapped up in the familiar tragedy that was the confrontation between an evangelical, apocalyptically rooted cult of true believers (with guns) and the immovable force of various local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies (also with guns). As with the historic confrontation, Johnston's fictionalized encounter does not end well.
However, what the author added to this deeply tragic and violent moment in American history was a deeply engaging, truly real, beautifully written (and ultimately hopeful) coming-of-age story. For at the heart of this violent story, is a pair of lovestruck sixteen year olds, who, against all odds, find one another. In the increasingly difficult process of figuring out how to survive the adult world's insanity that they have been thrown into, these two remarkable young people show us all that love, loyalty, smart thinking, ingenuity, and compassion are attributes that truly matter in this complicated world of ours.
This compelling, beautifully written novel will be published on July 30, 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it and count it as one of my favorite reads thus far in 2024. I offer my honest review in thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me access to an advanced copy.
#WeBurnDaylight
#BretAnthonyJohnston
#NetGalley
#TexasLiteraryFiction
#WacosTexas
#ComingofAgeTales
August 27, 2024
A fictionalized story about the government's debacle in handling the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993. It was riveting!
June 30, 2024
This was an amazing story about the doomsday cult that became a part of history back in 1993. The author, Bret Anthony Johnston, does an amazing job of turning history into a like-able and easy read, that paints a portrait of a love story among the destruction of that fateful day.
I highly recommend this book!!! Such an artful experience that kept me wanting more- even though I knew how the story would end.
I highly recommend this book!!! Such an artful experience that kept me wanting more- even though I knew how the story would end.
July 21, 2024
Oh this was really good! I remember being in Houston on spring break in college watching this daily. Heartbreaking. I loved The story and the way it mirrors Romeo and Juliet. I had seen that it was likened to the play, but I was skeptical at first.. but man this just proved great writing and careful forethought can really help!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
April 11, 2024
I've been a fan of Johnston's stories and writing since his first story collection. He has a way of making his character come alive in visual and evocative settings. His writing is flawless and his characters aren't static or ones that sit around feeling sorry for themselves. I loved the alternating points of view in this book, and there are characters I'll be thinking about forever. My only reason for giving four instead of five stars is that the use of the setting of Wacoo and the historical background of this event was hard to parce with my knowledge of the real facts of this event. There were times when the real facts seemed to invade, and while I understand how Johnston played against my expectations, there were moments when I was a bit taken out of the story. But I'm glad I read this, and I'm sure I'll read it again in the future!
August 22, 2024
4.25 star rating
This novel had me consumed from start to finish. Told using dual narratives, short chapters and a present day podcast/interview style, the story is centered around two teenage characters who are love struck upon meeting for the first time. They each tell their perspective of their journey during the Waco siege. We Burn Daylight is more character driven and even though we all know the outcome of the story, some chapters were intense enough that I couldn’t stop reading. I highly recommend this unique and captivating story!
I received an advanced physical copy from @thoughtsfromapage Lit Lover Patreon Community (Traveling Galley Program). I also received an advanced electronic copy from NetGalley and Random House books. Thank you to all! I appreciated the opportunity to preview this book.
This novel had me consumed from start to finish. Told using dual narratives, short chapters and a present day podcast/interview style, the story is centered around two teenage characters who are love struck upon meeting for the first time. They each tell their perspective of their journey during the Waco siege. We Burn Daylight is more character driven and even though we all know the outcome of the story, some chapters were intense enough that I couldn’t stop reading. I highly recommend this unique and captivating story!
I received an advanced physical copy from @thoughtsfromapage Lit Lover Patreon Community (Traveling Galley Program). I also received an advanced electronic copy from NetGalley and Random House books. Thank you to all! I appreciated the opportunity to preview this book.
June 5, 2024
Remember Waco and the Branch Davidian situation back in the ’90s? I do, although it’s becoming a distant memory. The “doomsday cult” members living on their own compound … the Feds moving in … Janet Reno …
Well, Bret Anthony Johnson found the whole thing interesting enough that it inspired him to write “We Burn Daylight.” Young teen Jaye moves with her mom from California to Texas, following cult leader Perry aka “The Lamb.” Perry is into Jaye’s mom, but also kind of takes a shine to Jaye herself. Meanwhile in town, the sheriff’s young teen son Roy has a few meetings with Jaye and the two fall in love. As you can imagine, this leads to trouble. If you know the Waco story, you can guess some of what happens. But this book goes its own direction in an extended epilogue.
I enjoyed this book’s throwback to the early ’90s. The lack of smartphones, computers, and the internet was refreshing and made me nostalgic for that time. The writing was good.
For me, there were more things I didn’t enjoy than I did. Jaye is confident in the you-go-girl way that is so popular today, but I found her brash and kind of annoying. I also found it off-putting that she kept referring to Roy as “my pilgrim.” Their “romance” seemed based on very little other than its necessity as a plot device, and I think comparisons I’ve seen online to Romeo and Juliet (the origin of the title quote) are totally over-the-top. Perry, the David Koresh figure, didn’t seem very charismatic and it was hard to imagine what the others living there saw in him. I wished more about the “services” or daily life in the compound had been fleshed out.
The pacing of the book was very slow, and podcast interviews interspersed between chapters broke up any momentum the story might have otherwise had. If you’re interested in the Waco situation, you may enjoy this.
Well, Bret Anthony Johnson found the whole thing interesting enough that it inspired him to write “We Burn Daylight.” Young teen Jaye moves with her mom from California to Texas, following cult leader Perry aka “The Lamb.” Perry is into Jaye’s mom, but also kind of takes a shine to Jaye herself. Meanwhile in town, the sheriff’s young teen son Roy has a few meetings with Jaye and the two fall in love. As you can imagine, this leads to trouble. If you know the Waco story, you can guess some of what happens. But this book goes its own direction in an extended epilogue.
I enjoyed this book’s throwback to the early ’90s. The lack of smartphones, computers, and the internet was refreshing and made me nostalgic for that time. The writing was good.
For me, there were more things I didn’t enjoy than I did. Jaye is confident in the you-go-girl way that is so popular today, but I found her brash and kind of annoying. I also found it off-putting that she kept referring to Roy as “my pilgrim.” Their “romance” seemed based on very little other than its necessity as a plot device, and I think comparisons I’ve seen online to Romeo and Juliet (the origin of the title quote) are totally over-the-top. Perry, the David Koresh figure, didn’t seem very charismatic and it was hard to imagine what the others living there saw in him. I wished more about the “services” or daily life in the compound had been fleshed out.
The pacing of the book was very slow, and podcast interviews interspersed between chapters broke up any momentum the story might have otherwise had. If you’re interested in the Waco situation, you may enjoy this.
February 15, 2024
About as good as they come. A tight but fully realized story with true characters, big ideas, and more than is felt than spoken. It also has a propulsive story with a deep and satisfying ending that feels discovered instead of written. It moves like an old fashioned page turner but keeps hold of you long after that last one is done. Six stars.
May 10, 2024
I grew up in Waco so I was interested in this story to begin with, but I know too much about the events that transpired at the Branch Davidian to believe documentaries or fictional stories about this place. I didn’t finish the book.
April 27, 2024
Take two star-crossed teens, a cult set in Waco, in 1993, a sheriff trying to stave off a massacre and a current day podcast examining that point in history and you have a masterful story told by a masterful storyteller. Roy, a fourteen year old son of the sheriff, a lock picker and an optimist meets a girl at a gun show. The girl, Jaye, also fourteen, moved to Waco with her mother who was enamored with Perry, aka the Lamb, the leader of a cult waiting for the world to end.
Through Jaye we gain an understanding of what life was like in the shoddily built compound sans toilets but significantly armed to fend off intruders and how Perry seeks to increase the following generation with children from children. Jaye, a nonbeliever, wants to protect her mother and at the same time tries to steer clear of Perry. While he leads his study group she enters his room, steals food and calls Roy with whom she has fallen in love. She creates opportunities to see him outside the compound and share a kiss.
Roy’s family have always been macho. Dad and grandfather were sheriffs and his brother is a Marine. Roy perceives himself as less. He and his best friend Coop are constant companions. After meeting Jaye, he tries to keep that a secret from everyone. He joined his sheriff father at the compound to suggest Perry keep everything aboveboard. While exploring the property, Jaye finds Roy. Their feelings are reciprocated.
The sheriff is concerned that the FBI wants to get involved and takedown the cult. There is nothing he can do to stop the oncoming siege. Jaye is trapped inside and Roy winds up at Coop’s house watching and waiting and hoping Jaye gets out. What is going through his mind? How can he deal with the trauma of it all?
While their love is intense, it does not overshadow the bigger picture of what is happening. The insightful glimpses into a cult, the emotions on all sides and a thought provoking sense of what is right about this, what is wrong with this keeps the reader captivated. The interspersed excerpts of a podcast have participants on all sides giving their historical perspective. Does time change people? Are there regrets? Read to find out!
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this amazing ARC.
Through Jaye we gain an understanding of what life was like in the shoddily built compound sans toilets but significantly armed to fend off intruders and how Perry seeks to increase the following generation with children from children. Jaye, a nonbeliever, wants to protect her mother and at the same time tries to steer clear of Perry. While he leads his study group she enters his room, steals food and calls Roy with whom she has fallen in love. She creates opportunities to see him outside the compound and share a kiss.
Roy’s family have always been macho. Dad and grandfather were sheriffs and his brother is a Marine. Roy perceives himself as less. He and his best friend Coop are constant companions. After meeting Jaye, he tries to keep that a secret from everyone. He joined his sheriff father at the compound to suggest Perry keep everything aboveboard. While exploring the property, Jaye finds Roy. Their feelings are reciprocated.
The sheriff is concerned that the FBI wants to get involved and takedown the cult. There is nothing he can do to stop the oncoming siege. Jaye is trapped inside and Roy winds up at Coop’s house watching and waiting and hoping Jaye gets out. What is going through his mind? How can he deal with the trauma of it all?
While their love is intense, it does not overshadow the bigger picture of what is happening. The insightful glimpses into a cult, the emotions on all sides and a thought provoking sense of what is right about this, what is wrong with this keeps the reader captivated. The interspersed excerpts of a podcast have participants on all sides giving their historical perspective. Does time change people? Are there regrets? Read to find out!
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this amazing ARC.
April 16, 2024
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader copy.
Set in the early 1990s in Waco, TX, We Burn Daylight by Bret Anthony Johnston is a retelling of the Branch Davidian tragedy that many of us will never forget. I was a child at the time and I vividly remember watching the events unfold from my home in Houston.
Perhaps it is because of my memory of the event that I was able to picture The Lamb, the ranch, the raid, and just the setting and characters in general. But more likely it is Johnston’s mastery with words and storytelling.
Halfway through reading this, I entered a busy week and it pained me to even miss a single day reading this. I ultimately stayed up past my bedtime many nights to read as much as I could, and absolutely followed my husband blindly around the hardware store with my nose in this book (on my Kindle?) when I could NOT put it down even to tend to my responsibilities.
The story of Roy and Jaye, teenagers with stars in their eyes for each other, is told in alternating points of view. The first part confused me a little bit, as I thought the POV switching didn’t match up on the timeline. It seemed like Roy’s telling was slightly ahead of Jaye’s, but I couldn’t place why. By part two and beyond, I did not feel that way anymore and was never distracted by that again.
Speaking of distractions, I felt that the inner monologues of these 14 year olds were a little too mature for kids of this age. It just seems a bit far-fetched in my experience that kids use this kind of language (even if they had been gifted students, though I don’t believe this was ever mentioned). However, I wasn’t mad at it. The writing is beautiful and it wasn’t so unbelievable — just a little side eye sometimes!
I love when I learn something from a book. The epigraph references the title, and so I revisited Romeo + Juliet to familiarize myself with the context. I learned about the origin of colloquialisms “burning daylight” and “carrying a torch”. Pretty fun!
I absolutely recommend this book for literary fiction fans, as well as those who like historical fiction and need a break from all the WWII books. Though it is a teenage love story, it feels very mature and intelligent. Since I received an advanced reader e-copy, I’ll be grabbing the hardcover for my favorites shelf after it goes on sale July 30, 2024.
Set in the early 1990s in Waco, TX, We Burn Daylight by Bret Anthony Johnston is a retelling of the Branch Davidian tragedy that many of us will never forget. I was a child at the time and I vividly remember watching the events unfold from my home in Houston.
Perhaps it is because of my memory of the event that I was able to picture The Lamb, the ranch, the raid, and just the setting and characters in general. But more likely it is Johnston’s mastery with words and storytelling.
Halfway through reading this, I entered a busy week and it pained me to even miss a single day reading this. I ultimately stayed up past my bedtime many nights to read as much as I could, and absolutely followed my husband blindly around the hardware store with my nose in this book (on my Kindle?) when I could NOT put it down even to tend to my responsibilities.
The story of Roy and Jaye, teenagers with stars in their eyes for each other, is told in alternating points of view. The first part confused me a little bit, as I thought the POV switching didn’t match up on the timeline. It seemed like Roy’s telling was slightly ahead of Jaye’s, but I couldn’t place why. By part two and beyond, I did not feel that way anymore and was never distracted by that again.
Speaking of distractions, I felt that the inner monologues of these 14 year olds were a little too mature for kids of this age. It just seems a bit far-fetched in my experience that kids use this kind of language (even if they had been gifted students, though I don’t believe this was ever mentioned). However, I wasn’t mad at it. The writing is beautiful and it wasn’t so unbelievable — just a little side eye sometimes!
I love when I learn something from a book. The epigraph references the title, and so I revisited Romeo + Juliet to familiarize myself with the context. I learned about the origin of colloquialisms “burning daylight” and “carrying a torch”. Pretty fun!
I absolutely recommend this book for literary fiction fans, as well as those who like historical fiction and need a break from all the WWII books. Though it is a teenage love story, it feels very mature and intelligent. Since I received an advanced reader e-copy, I’ll be grabbing the hardcover for my favorites shelf after it goes on sale July 30, 2024.
July 2, 2024
Inspired by the 1993 Waco massacre, "We Burn Daylight" by Bret Anthony Johnston is a compelling story that kept me turning pages from start to finish. Though I was just a child when the actual events in Waco occurred, this book brought back the horror and confusion I felt watching the news with my parents. It left me asking, as did the news then, why the government felt so threatened by a charismatic cult leader that the ATF felt it had no choice but to treat the residents in the compound, including women and children, as if they were enemy combatants.
The story follows teenagers Jaye, whose mother moved her from California to Texas to follow cult leader Perry Cullen, and Roy, the son of the local sheriff. The author deftly unveils a story that you know will end in tragedy, but still leads the reader to hope and believe the outcome may be different. This is a beautifully written work of literary fiction with characters so three-dimensional and developed that readers can identify and sympathize with every major character. The author does not pass judgment on anyone; he simply tells their stories. The book is arranged in four parts, fittingly corresponding to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and readers familiar with the Book of Revelation will recognize the Biblical themes.
This novel exceeded my expectations and, though it was my first book by Mr. Johnston, it will most definitely not be my last. It is a thrilling, but cerebral read, and would make an excellent book club choice for discerning readers. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this book!
The story follows teenagers Jaye, whose mother moved her from California to Texas to follow cult leader Perry Cullen, and Roy, the son of the local sheriff. The author deftly unveils a story that you know will end in tragedy, but still leads the reader to hope and believe the outcome may be different. This is a beautifully written work of literary fiction with characters so three-dimensional and developed that readers can identify and sympathize with every major character. The author does not pass judgment on anyone; he simply tells their stories. The book is arranged in four parts, fittingly corresponding to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and readers familiar with the Book of Revelation will recognize the Biblical themes.
This novel exceeded my expectations and, though it was my first book by Mr. Johnston, it will most definitely not be my last. It is a thrilling, but cerebral read, and would make an excellent book club choice for discerning readers. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this book!
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