Request #269 From Kaitlin

I borrowed it from a friend in 2003/2002, and I feel like it was pretty new at the time but it may have been older. It’s a YA book about a girl whose mother joins a cult that believes only a certain number of people on top of a mountain on a certain day can go to heaven. She thinks it’s ridiculous but over the course of the story a lot of things happen that make her wonder if there’s not something to it. They don’t have the right number of people until close to the end when the cult leader’s long lost son joins them on the mountain, making their final person. The news starts covering the cult and a bunch of people want to join the mountain cult but are kept back by ropes and guards. The day dawns, everyone is gathered, but panicked outsiders fight their way on to the mountain top so the rapture doesn’t happen since there’s too many people on the mountain. Or maybe because the whole thing was never true to begin with. The main character doesn’t know which is true and it really leaves you feeling unsettled because by the end, you aren’t either. I believe it’s told in dual POV with a teenage boy who starts out as a believer and slowly begins to doubt. But I don’t remember much from his perspective, so he might not have had a POV, he might just feature heavily.