Summary

In a religious suburb lives Jason Bock, a teenager fully aware that Catholicism is not his religious calling. One day after visiting the water tower with his friend Shin, an encounter with a violent bully, Henry, leads Jason to an intervention. While he lays on the ground beaten near to unconsciousness, Jason admires the water tower and creates the religion, Chutengodian. As Jason begins to develop this religion's rules and traditions, Shin (Jason's barricaded friend) , Henry (the one who beaten Jason into his idea), and Madge (girl from the church whom Jason has a deeper-than-crush feeling about) join in on the religion. Later we find that Jason starts to realize Chutengodian can only go so far until finding who the real authority is, as well as how serious each person is about the religion, especially Shin. In this hard hitting narration and eye opening realization on the wrong and rights of religion, Pete Hautman creates a genuine religiously confused teenager looking for someone or actually something to look up to. As well as a rebellion of forced belief.