Millions of people vanish in the blink of an eye leaving everyone left on Earth feeling like God just told them, "It's not you, it's me...." 
 It's been three years since the Sudden Departure, and the mayor of Mapleton, Kevin Garvey, is trying to get the town back to a feeling of normalcy. However, Kevin's family was profoundly impacted by the disappearances. His wife Laurie has left him to join a cult of white-clad chain smokers called the Guilty Remnant who silently stalk people while son Tom dropped out of college to follow a man called Holy Wayne who offers hugs as comfort. Kevin is left with his teenage daughter Jill and her best friend who has moved in with them to get away from the creepy stepfather she was left with when her mom went poof. The girls are blowing off class to get drunk and high at parties that seem more depressing than fun. Another key figure in Mapleton is Nora Durst whose husband and two children vanished, and she's been made a reluctant symbol of the mass loss. 
 While there are no definite answers as to what exactly happened to the missing people; the implication is that most of them believe deep down that this was a religious judgment of some kind. However, while it seems to fit the template of the Christian Rapture, people of all faiths from all over the world were taken while some hard core believers were not, and those who vanished were seemingly just as flawed in their lives as those who remain. So those left behind walk around feeling like they were judged and found wanting. Even worse is that since they don't know what the criteria was, there's no way to know why they didn't make the cut. 
 The real bitch of this is because these people have realized that the biggest event in human history occurred, and they were left out of it. Now they're supposed to.....what? Go to work? Study for a test? Join a cult? Start a softball league? 
 There's an unspoken belief among them that the real story is taking place with the people who departed, and the ones left are just a minor footnote at best. That's the creepy vibe that haunts the book and makes the idea really work. There aren't any huge apocalyptic battles to fight or horrors to endure, just that feeling that they've been abandoned and not knowing how to react to it. Can any of them find a reason to go on? Is it even worth trying? 
 I read this after seeing the TV series on HBO which I found disturbing on a lot of levels. While the basic plot and most of the characters are the same, the show seems to be hinting that there is still something looming, that this was just the first act which makes sense since most of the book's plot was used in the first season so it needs more story to tell. That gives the show a different spin because there's more rage and craziness while the book is more about quiet despair.