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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
I see a lot of reviews that compare this novel to The Road. I guess that's valid, but I couldn't make it past a dozen pages of that one. I can take bleak, but The Road just seemed to smother me with it.
The Reapers are the Angels is also about as bleak as you can get, but pressing through this is, at times, wonderful writing, and a very good story. There is no use of quotation marks, which for some reason at the beginning I found a bit pretentious...you know, the old style over substance thing, but this feeling slipped away quite easily as I got immersed into the story.
The story follows Temple, a 15 year-old girl who fights for survival after a zombie (oh dear, I've lost some of you now, haven't I?) apocalypse. This is America 25 years after the dead first began to rise.
Now I know what you're thinking. Another zombie book? I know, I thought the same thing. But reviews here by my friends convinced me to give it a shot, and it's a short novel, so not a big time commitment. So this only took me a week to read (would have been quicker if not for real life, real life not post-apocalyptic, thank God), but the after effects of the novel will linger for much longer than that.
While in the midst of the story, I was figuring on giving this a 3-star rating, only because it didn't have that can't-wait-to-get-back-to-it quality. The last quarter of the book had such a strong impact on me, though, that this quickly shot up to a solid 4-star read. Now as I'm typing this, several hours after finishing it, I am still left with images and feelings that I can't quite shake. THIS is really getting close to the 5-star awesome rating.
I'm giving it a very solid 4.5 stars.
The Reapers are the Angels is also about as bleak as you can get, but pressing through this is, at times, wonderful writing, and a very good story. There is no use of quotation marks, which for some reason at the beginning I found a bit pretentious...you know, the old style over substance thing, but this feeling slipped away quite easily as I got immersed into the story.
The story follows Temple, a 15 year-old girl who fights for survival after a zombie (oh dear, I've lost some of you now, haven't I?) apocalypse. This is America 25 years after the dead first began to rise.
Now I know what you're thinking. Another zombie book? I know, I thought the same thing. But reviews here by my friends convinced me to give it a shot, and it's a short novel, so not a big time commitment. So this only took me a week to read (would have been quicker if not for real life, real life not post-apocalyptic, thank God), but the after effects of the novel will linger for much longer than that.
While in the midst of the story, I was figuring on giving this a 3-star rating, only because it didn't have that can't-wait-to-get-back-to-it quality. The last quarter of the book had such a strong impact on me, though, that this quickly shot up to a solid 4-star read. Now as I'm typing this, several hours after finishing it, I am still left with images and feelings that I can't quite shake. THIS is really getting close to the 5-star awesome rating.
I'm giving it a very solid 4.5 stars.
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
I liked it. It was a gripping read, hard to put down, with a lot of good imagery. I liked the ending, but I would have liked a different ending much better.
This book was amazing. I love books with a zombie element and this one also had a very deep human element to it which I loved. The story is about Temple who is wise beyond her years because of the zombie infested world she has grown up in. She comes across a ton of "slugs" throughout the book, but the real danger comes from the humans and Temple herself. It gets into what growing up in this particular world has done to her and the other humans she encounters. Some people have complained about the lack of quotation marks, but I think it worked for this kind of story. I highly recommend this book; it was beautiful in a zombie apocalypse sort of way.
This was a highly ranked zombie novel. As an avid consumer, it doesn’t take much for me to pick one up and enjoy. But this, did very little for me
I thought I would be a fan of this book. I really did. I like zombie books, and I like a good survival story in a post-apocalyptic setting. Combine that with a strong heroine, and I thought I had myself an enjoyable novel. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I did not like this book.
It started out well enough. Actually, scratch that. It started off with me wondering how I received an e-Book with such broken formatting. I quickly realized that it was another of those stylistic things. I’ve been taken aback by this before in Blood Red Road and Shatter Me, so I moved past it and did my best to move on. However, I think it does bear mentioning that you should be prepared to find zero quotation marks in this book. In a book that uses dialogue and inner thoughts to drive the plot, it sometimes becomes difficult to muddle through exactly who is speaking, and if Temple is speaking aloud or in her head.
That aside, the book started off on a pretty good foot. It was a book about a young girl making her way in a country defeated by mindless zombies. She is thoughtful, considering God and the way things may have been before — when there were enough people to keep civilization running smoothly. But Temple knows that God works in mysterious ways, and that nature will always win. She moves on from place to place as the zombies or nature itself force her out. Pretty soon on from there it becomes apparent what the problem with this book is. At least, what I consider to be the problem.
That is, the author. Trying far too hard. This novel is chock full of purple prose and leading situations. Alden Bell has tried too hard to craft a literary zombie novel, and to me it shows. This is a book the author clearly intended to be analyzed in an English class, with students pain-stakingly examining between the lines for evidence of allegory, symbolism, motifs and themes. In my opinion, this is not a book written to be enjoyed, and it was not. I stuck it through to the end, because I hate leaving a book unfinished. But by the last few chapters, I was sorry I had done so, because the forced literary elements just piled on at the novel’s conclusion.
I’d only recommend this novel if you consider yourself a person that enjoys the kind of work that goes with reading a novel not just for enjoyment, but for hidden messages. Perhaps you will find yourself a good match for this book.
It started out well enough. Actually, scratch that. It started off with me wondering how I received an e-Book with such broken formatting. I quickly realized that it was another of those stylistic things. I’ve been taken aback by this before in Blood Red Road and Shatter Me, so I moved past it and did my best to move on. However, I think it does bear mentioning that you should be prepared to find zero quotation marks in this book. In a book that uses dialogue and inner thoughts to drive the plot, it sometimes becomes difficult to muddle through exactly who is speaking, and if Temple is speaking aloud or in her head.
That aside, the book started off on a pretty good foot. It was a book about a young girl making her way in a country defeated by mindless zombies. She is thoughtful, considering God and the way things may have been before — when there were enough people to keep civilization running smoothly. But Temple knows that God works in mysterious ways, and that nature will always win. She moves on from place to place as the zombies or nature itself force her out. Pretty soon on from there it becomes apparent what the problem with this book is. At least, what I consider to be the problem.
That is, the author. Trying far too hard. This novel is chock full of purple prose and leading situations. Alden Bell has tried too hard to craft a literary zombie novel, and to me it shows. This is a book the author clearly intended to be analyzed in an English class, with students pain-stakingly examining between the lines for evidence of allegory, symbolism, motifs and themes. In my opinion, this is not a book written to be enjoyed, and it was not. I stuck it through to the end, because I hate leaving a book unfinished. But by the last few chapters, I was sorry I had done so, because the forced literary elements just piled on at the novel’s conclusion.
I’d only recommend this novel if you consider yourself a person that enjoys the kind of work that goes with reading a novel not just for enjoyment, but for hidden messages. Perhaps you will find yourself a good match for this book.
My all time favourite book!
The Reapers are the Angels isn't just a dystopian, zombie novel centred around a young, fearless girl. It's a big question mark towards morality in survival.
Poor Temple starts out like the little tomboy sister we want to protect, but goes on to become very troubled by her own thoughts and actions. She sees herself as evil which only makes you pity her and the things she has had to do to survive.
The characters in this story are all grey, nobody is 100% good or bad and this is what makes it so amazing. Everyone's POV is understandable. The world-building is phenomenal; Bell is able to describe a scene with all senses so accurately you almost feel like you're really there. The "meatskins", and their various names, are described so well that it can turn your stomach to imagine them and their stench.
I am very certain this book would make a killing being made into a film and I'd be first in the cinema to view it.
The Reapers are the Angels isn't just a dystopian, zombie novel centred around a young, fearless girl. It's a big question mark towards morality in survival.
Poor Temple starts out like the little tomboy sister we want to protect, but goes on to become very troubled by her own thoughts and actions. She sees herself as evil which only makes you pity her and the things she has had to do to survive.
The characters in this story are all grey, nobody is 100% good or bad and this is what makes it so amazing. Everyone's POV is understandable. The world-building is phenomenal; Bell is able to describe a scene with all senses so accurately you almost feel like you're really there. The "meatskins", and their various names, are described so well that it can turn your stomach to imagine them and their stench.
I am very certain this book would make a killing being made into a film and I'd be first in the cinema to view it.