A Spoiler Free Bit About The Book ( A Little Bit of Blurb)
"Older than her years and completely alone, Temple is just trying to live one day at a time in a post-apocalyptic world, where the undead roam endlessly, and the remnant of mankind who have survived, at times, seem to retain little humanity themselves."
My Review
This book is covered in amazing reviews on the inside pages and I read every single one of them. Instead of making me want to pick the book up and see what all the fuss was about, it actually made me nervous about reading it because I couldn't imagine it could ever live up to its reviews.
I was wrong. This book was beautiful, articulate, sophisticated, poignant, sad, wonderful and haunting.
I was pulled in by the first paragraph, it was excellent. So excellent I want to share it.
"God is a slick god. Temple knows. She knows because of all the crackerjack miracles still to be seen on this ruined globe."
The style was very heavy, long sentences and long words flowing together so beautifully it was hard to get my head round it. I think this was because the last book I read was written so simply that it made it very difficult for me to get into. But once I was in, I was completely immersed.
The Reapers are the Angels is written in the third person, which allows the beautiful articulate flow of narrative while Temple, our protagonist can't read or write and often speaks very poorly. This contrasted in the most gorgeous way to the narrative and made it even more beautiful and sophisticated. The words flowed together as though taking a single one out would disrupt the rhythm. As I read, I was enchanted by it.
The description was something to behold. Every notion made me think. Through Temple, The Reapers are the Angels muses about life, death, good and evil without the reader even noticing.
I adored Temple as the protagonist because she was strong, independent and unashamed. She was so convinced of her own evil that her only agenda at the start of the novel is to survive. As the novel continues and she meets different people, the struggle within her is obvious as she wants to undo all the wrongs in her past although she doesn't believe that anything can reverse her evil. When the truth about her past it fed to us, little bit by little bit, we feel for her as we wouldn't have done if given the truth at the beginning of the novel.
The ending was haunting and I still can't stop thinking about it days later. It was just incredible. And I can't believe it, but it lived up to its reviews.
Evaluation
Plot - 9/10 - post-apocalyptic journey, gotta love 'em
Way Plot Was Pursued - 9/10 - standard
Characters - 8/10 - Temple I adored and a few others but I felt I wanted a little more time with each character
Style - 10/10 - I can't praise the beauty of this novel enough
Pace - 9/10 - great, but I felt it started a little slow
Would I recommend it? Yes, I have nothing bad to say about this novel
Would I look up the author? Yes, I need to see what else Alden Bell's written for sure!
The Reapers are the Angels was crafted and shaped like the most delicate piece of jewellery or the most beautiful song.
Molly Looby
Author / Editor / Ghostwriter / Blogger / Reviewer / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready
molly.looby@hotmail.com
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