A Book That Feels Like a Late-Night City Walk
Divine Anarchy: The Writings by CJ Story reads like stepping out into warm streetlight after midnight, when everything looks a little softer and every thought feels louder. This collection began as a companion piece to CJ’s art book, Divine Anarchy: A Collection of Art & Writing, and then grew into its own creature. The result is a loose-limbed mix of stories, memories, and vivid moments that keep sliding between truth, myth, and something that feels like a dream you can almost explain.
The tone stays inviting even when the subject matter turns heavy. There’s an ease to the voice, the kind that makes readers feel like they’re being told a secret over coffee that’s gone cold. The book doesn’t ask for perfection. It asks for presence. It wants the reader to remember a time when everything felt urgent, when the world seemed both fragile and electric, and when searching for meaning felt like a full-time job.
Neon Nights, Hazy Mornings, and the People Who Haunt Them
At the heart of The Writings is a drifting crew: Sirius, Halo, Scoot, Magdalena, and the narrator. They move through Los Angeles, London, and beyond, carried by art shows, parties, hotel rooms, and that peculiar silence that arrives after the music ends. These aren’t neat little chapters that tie themselves up with a bow. They feel lived-in. Scenes appear like snapshots. A laugh lands. A mistake lands harder. A memory flares, then fades.
Readers who love stories rooted in place will enjoy how the settings pulse in the background. Los Angeles isn’t presented as a postcard. It’s a mood. London shows up with its own edge and charm. Between cities, there’s motion, and within that motion there’s vulnerability. The book floats through heartbreak and companionship, through daylight that stings and nighttime that seems to promise answers.
Drugs appear in the landscape too, as part of the messy reality the characters inhabit. The writing doesn’t preach. It observes. It lets the reader sit in the blur, then step back and feel what it cost. That honesty is part of what makes the collection feel so human. Life happens fast in these pages. The consequences still arrive on time.
Raw, Simple, Honest: The Voice Behind the Pages
CJ Story’s background as both writer and artist shows up in the way the book is built. The prose leans visual. Moments feel framed, like scenes caught in the corner of an eye. Critics have called CJ’s work “intimate, and quietly cinematic,” and it’s easy to see why. There’s a steady confidence in the plainness of the language. It doesn’t reach for fancy tricks. It trusts the truth of a feeling.
CJ splits time between the UK and LA, and that cross-current shapes the emotional temperature of the collection. There’s reflection in it, and there’s grit too. The writing often feels like pages pulled from a real life, written down quickly because the moment mattered. That immediacy can be disarming. It can also be comforting, because it reminds readers that confusion, longing, desire, and regret are shared experiences.
CJ has described creating as a way to make sense of the world and one’s place in it. That spirit sits inside the book’s title like a spark. “Divine anarchy” becomes a phrase for the way life can feel both wild and delicate, especially in the early stretch of adulthood when people chase answers with everything they’ve got.
Who This Book Is For, and Where to Find It
Divine Anarchy: The Writings will resonate with readers who enjoy memoir-tinged fiction, modern city atmospheres, and stories that care more about emotional truth than tidy structure. It’s for anyone who’s ever looked around a room full of noise and felt strangely alone. It’s for anyone who’s danced through a phase of life that felt sacred and chaotic at the same time.
There’s also a brightness to the collection. It’s fun in places, fearless in others, and always trying to touch something real. Even when the characters spiral or grasp for meaning, the book keeps a steady hand on the reader’s shoulder, as if to say: you’re not the only one who’s felt this.
For those ready to dive in, the book is available on Amazon.
We had the privilege of interviewing CJ Story. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Hi, it’s great to have you with us today! Please share about yourself with our readers.
Hello, I’m a writer and artist born in the UK. I wrote a book called Divine Anarchy that people seem to have connected with. It happened kind of by accident — I originally wrote pieces to go alongside some paintings, but the writing grabbed people’s attention. The response has been really nice. The book’s personal, I guess, and it’s cool to see people relate to it or be moved by it. That means a lot.
Please tell us about your journey.
Like most writers and artists, I started creating things to try to make sense of the world and my place in it. I’ve lived a life — still living one — and I’ve travelled, changed, had all the ups and downs everyone does. It feels cathartic to turn all of that into something lasting. That’s really what Divine Anarchy is about. It’s that sense that everything is wild and fragile at the same time. It’s capturing that period in the first half of your life when you’re looking for answers or meaning and eventually come to realise it’s all meaningless and meaningful at once.
What are the strategies that helped you become successful in your journey?
Just being honest. That’s the only “strategy” I’ve got. I don’t do perfect. I’m not polished or classically trained or anything like that — but I can invite people into an emotion or a moment and let them sit in it with me or with a character. When someone reads my work, I think they’ll get to know me: my values, my fears, my hopes. It’s all there. For better or worse, I’m proud of that. It’s honest, and it’s from the heart.
Any message for our readers?
Don’t wait for permission. Live your life however you want to live it. Live honestly. Live loud.
Thank you so much for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
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