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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So I should note, first off, that this book is solidly 4 1/2 stars, but it was closer to 5 than it was 4. It would've been a solid 5 if it hadn't been for the obnoxious mutant interlude.
This book clearly takes some notes from The Road, but becomes its own fairly solid creature from very nearly the beginning. See, there are zombies (do we ever find out why? Nope. Doesn't matter. But. Digression.) And there's a 15-year-old girl named Temple who has a knife and a couple guns and a worldweariness that she doesn't deserve. And she soldiers through this zombified wasteland, attempts to do the right thing, constantly pays lip service towards being a pragmatist, and decidedly isn't, even though she'd never admit it. Her sentiment binds up her destiny, which is bound with a dark, dangerous man named Moses Todd (one of my favorite new characters; anytime he's on the page, he's absolutely spellbinding) and with a mentally handicapped mute. She's trying to get Maury to safety, and Moses is trying to kill her. Along the way, there's Southern gentry, hunters who have figured out how to eat the zombies, mutants (the weak portion of the book), dates with sheltered 15-year-old boys, falling in love with a man we'd say is too old for our protagonist, a secret that drives everything, sparse prose, and even sparser dialogue.
Of course, that's what's on the page. There's a world, though, between what's on the page and what's going on, and that's what you're going to need to read this book to discover. Like the best stories, I can't even hope to sum it up for you. I can only recommend that you read it and say that it will almost definitely be worth your time, if you want to read something that will make you think.
This book clearly takes some notes from The Road, but becomes its own fairly solid creature from very nearly the beginning. See, there are zombies (do we ever find out why? Nope. Doesn't matter. But. Digression.) And there's a 15-year-old girl named Temple who has a knife and a couple guns and a worldweariness that she doesn't deserve. And she soldiers through this zombified wasteland, attempts to do the right thing, constantly pays lip service towards being a pragmatist, and decidedly isn't, even though she'd never admit it. Her sentiment binds up her destiny, which is bound with a dark, dangerous man named Moses Todd (one of my favorite new characters; anytime he's on the page, he's absolutely spellbinding) and with a mentally handicapped mute. She's trying to get Maury to safety, and Moses is trying to kill her. Along the way, there's Southern gentry, hunters who have figured out how to eat the zombies, mutants (the weak portion of the book), dates with sheltered 15-year-old boys, falling in love with a man we'd say is too old for our protagonist, a secret that drives everything, sparse prose, and even sparser dialogue.
Of course, that's what's on the page. There's a world, though, between what's on the page and what's going on, and that's what you're going to need to read this book to discover. Like the best stories, I can't even hope to sum it up for you. I can only recommend that you read it and say that it will almost definitely be worth your time, if you want to read something that will make you think.
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It's beautifully written, but I still think it could have said the things it wanted to say stronger. I do like how the zombies are not the main focus of the story. And I do like the main character. But the religious undertext isn't really working as well for me.
The main reason why I couldn't rate this book higher are the extremely questionable scenes with main character. Problem would be solved either by making her 20 or leaving sex out of the story. But 15 year old girl having sex with 25 year old is not okay in any case.
I understand why it's impactful how this baffled teen is just trying to survive in the world. But then... it didn't need sex. And if it did, she should be older. This alone kind of ruined the book for me.
Then the relationship between Temple and Moses Todd. It was interesting and I did like the idea. But Mose's motivation in the end felt hollow.
The ending was also giving me mixed feelings. I kind of liked it but still wished it would have gone differently.
So all in all, my 3 stars are only for the beautiful writing and emotions it stirred in me.
The main reason why I couldn't rate this book higher are the extremely questionable scenes with main character. Problem would be solved either by making her 20 or leaving sex out of the story. But 15 year old girl having sex with 25 year old is not okay in any case.
I understand why it's impactful how this baffled teen is just trying to survive in the world. But then... it didn't need sex. And if it did, she should be older. This alone kind of ruined the book for me.
Then the relationship between Temple and Moses Todd. It was interesting and I did like the idea. But Mose's motivation in the end felt hollow.
The ending was also giving me mixed feelings. I kind of liked it but still wished it would have gone differently.
So all in all, my 3 stars are only for the beautiful writing and emotions it stirred in me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism
"Well ain't I been some places, ain't I partook in some glorious happenings wanderin my way between heaven and earth. And if I ain't seen everything there is to see, it wasn't for lack of lookin."
I don't understand what makes a blockbuster of a book. I read [b:The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320606344s/6288.jpg|3355573] and honestly hated it. This book does a similar theme and does it so much better and is so much better written. So why does one succeed and one isn't as well known?
Temple is a young 15 year old girl on her own. She wasn't born before the zombies took over. She was born after. It's all she has ever known. This character is one of the strongest female characters that I think I have read about. I ADORED her. She feels that she is evil because she has to kill to stay alive. This book haunts you even after you close that last page. Wondering what's wrong and right when faced with unbearable consequences.
I love me some flipping zombie books but this one is just so very much more.
Temple is a young 15 year old girl on her own. She wasn't born before the zombies took over. She was born after. It's all she has ever known. This character is one of the strongest female characters that I think I have read about. I ADORED her. She feels that she is evil because she has to kill to stay alive. This book haunts you even after you close that last page. Wondering what's wrong and right when faced with unbearable consequences.
I love me some flipping zombie books but this one is just so very much more.
Another post-apocalyptic odyssey with zombies, but I enjoyed the voice of the narrator, 16-year-old Temple. More lyrically written than most, and with some striking images and situations.
(This is found in the young adult section of the library but is really not a YA novel. I don't know why stories with teenage protagonists are often automatically marketed as such!)
15/16-year-old Temple wanders the desolate landscape of a post-apocalyptic America, fighting off zombies and the unwanted advances of unsavoury men. There aren't many people left, and the natural beauty of her country is lain out for her sole appreciation. Temple dreams of the Niagara Falls, but doesn't really have any set goals in the way she meanders around the country, getting sidetracked into sending people back where they belong.
Alden Bell's lovely prose - reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy in some parts - makes this dystopic setting somehow spiritually enriching. I can see how criticisms of him being too derivative hold true - I do take issue with the many Gothic characters who appear in the book (the mentally handicapped giant, the creepy entombed family in a mansion) - but these seem quibbles in the face of the unusually, heart-achingly beautiful America he creates.
15/16-year-old Temple wanders the desolate landscape of a post-apocalyptic America, fighting off zombies and the unwanted advances of unsavoury men. There aren't many people left, and the natural beauty of her country is lain out for her sole appreciation. Temple dreams of the Niagara Falls, but doesn't really have any set goals in the way she meanders around the country, getting sidetracked into sending people back where they belong.
Alden Bell's lovely prose - reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy in some parts - makes this dystopic setting somehow spiritually enriching. I can see how criticisms of him being too derivative hold true - I do take issue with the many Gothic characters who appear in the book (the mentally handicapped giant, the creepy entombed family in a mansion) - but these seem quibbles in the face of the unusually, heart-achingly beautiful America he creates.
I don't know if I consider myself an emotional reader. There are books I read that contain very emotional passages and events that I wind up leafing through because I just cannot make myself care. So I don't think I am super sensitive and weepy. But then there are books that I cry to. Books that leave me shaken long after I closed the last page. Books that ruin a day and a half of my good mood because I grieve over the events the characters are subjected to, like they were my own close friends. So I don't know. Maybe I am a sucker for a sad read, and my water works do have a hair trigger, even if I don't want to admit it to myself.
That said, I read half of this book with tears blurring the words. There were chapters where I had to stop and put down the book and blink the moisture away so I could continue with the story. This book took my heart out, smacked it a few times with a hammer and then shoved it back into my chest cavity. I am still sad and mad over what happened and how things ended.
This book wasn't all dark gloomy depressing moments. In fact, most of it was about the beauty of the world and the goodness of the people that inhabit it. Even the protagonist was an upbeat sort of person, considering the situation she was in. Maybe this acceptance of the world, both good and bad, is probably what makes all the horrible sad moments that much more powerful and impactful.
It will probably be weeks before I shake the gloom this book put me under. I know there is a sequel, but I don't know if I am ready to start it yet. I need to heal. But once I do, I will be chasing that same feeling of anguish this book gave me.
That said, I read half of this book with tears blurring the words. There were chapters where I had to stop and put down the book and blink the moisture away so I could continue with the story. This book took my heart out, smacked it a few times with a hammer and then shoved it back into my chest cavity. I am still sad and mad over what happened and how things ended.
This book wasn't all dark gloomy depressing moments. In fact, most of it was about the beauty of the world and the goodness of the people that inhabit it. Even the protagonist was an upbeat sort of person, considering the situation she was in. Maybe this acceptance of the world, both good and bad, is probably what makes all the horrible sad moments that much more powerful and impactful.
It will probably be weeks before I shake the gloom this book put me under. I know there is a sequel, but I don't know if I am ready to start it yet. I need to heal. But once I do, I will be chasing that same feeling of anguish this book gave me.
It's alright. Bell's prose is solid but it sometimes veers into the overwrought and it's not as controlled as I would have liked, and in general the religious allusions he weaves into the story rarely went deep enough to be intriguing. I liked Temple, but her only somewhat complex relationship was with Moses, and I just didn't get enough of his perspective for it to be deep. The episodes in the book's second half were generally more interesting than the episodes in the book's first half, but it was a bit too little too late, and I think the ending sacrificed any philosophical conclusion for a cheap emotional gut punch.
I recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz instead.
I recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz instead.
Alden Bell proves that the literary zombie novel is not an oxymoron. Review to follow.
About zombies, you can say I’m … earnest. I love how they can be so many different things at once – pathetic, savage, terrifying, unrelenting. Zombies are shambling and starving, haunted and lost. They ramble and feed, yet there is a hint, always just a hint, of some long lost memory of who they used to be. Nothing captures that better than the scene from Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead when the zombies come in waves to the mall – “Why do they come here?” “Some kind of instinct. Memory, of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.”
More than anything else, I love what zombies can teach us about ourselves because surviving a zombie apocalypse is going to cost you: your soul, your sanity, your faith, your humanity. Like any zombie story worth its salt, The Reapers are the Angels is not about the zombies. It’s about the survivors -- the ones left hanging on by their fingertips to the jagged edges of a dying world that just won’t die and stay dead. A world that shifts and groans under the weight of biting, grasping corpses.
Temple knows this world. She’s been hanging on by her fingertips to the jagged edges for ten years, since her orphanage was overrun when she was five years old. Now she is fifteen, fierce and feral. She might long for human connections and to find her place in the world, but the basics of human interaction and social etiquettes have passed her by. What she knows is survival at any cost, and it has cost her plenty. She can’t help but think: “I got a devil in me.”But Temple’s not a monster. Even as he hunts her across the country, Moses Todd explains: “I’ve seen evil, girl, and you ain’t it”. This is a redemption story, because really, that is what Temple seeks even though she cannot articulate that basic human need in herself, for forgiveness, for someone to lay their hands on her and tell her she’s just a girl after all, and not an abomination.
I love the title of this book – there is something so poetic, so portent, so Old Testament medieval about it. The Reapers are the Angels … yes, I want to read that book. I want to know what that means. Alden Bell delivers prose to match that is so achingly beautiful in its stream-of-consciousness style. I love the heavy Southern dialect that’s been bastardized by time and trauma.
What more can I say? Read this book.
About zombies, you can say I’m … earnest. I love how they can be so many different things at once – pathetic, savage, terrifying, unrelenting. Zombies are shambling and starving, haunted and lost. They ramble and feed, yet there is a hint, always just a hint, of some long lost memory of who they used to be. Nothing captures that better than the scene from Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead when the zombies come in waves to the mall – “Why do they come here?” “Some kind of instinct. Memory, of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.”
More than anything else, I love what zombies can teach us about ourselves because surviving a zombie apocalypse is going to cost you: your soul, your sanity, your faith, your humanity. Like any zombie story worth its salt, The Reapers are the Angels is not about the zombies. It’s about the survivors -- the ones left hanging on by their fingertips to the jagged edges of a dying world that just won’t die and stay dead. A world that shifts and groans under the weight of biting, grasping corpses.
Temple knows this world. She’s been hanging on by her fingertips to the jagged edges for ten years, since her orphanage was overrun when she was five years old. Now she is fifteen, fierce and feral. She might long for human connections and to find her place in the world, but the basics of human interaction and social etiquettes have passed her by. What she knows is survival at any cost, and it has cost her plenty. She can’t help but think: “I got a devil in me.”But Temple’s not a monster. Even as he hunts her across the country, Moses Todd explains: “I’ve seen evil, girl, and you ain’t it”. This is a redemption story, because really, that is what Temple seeks even though she cannot articulate that basic human need in herself, for forgiveness, for someone to lay their hands on her and tell her she’s just a girl after all, and not an abomination.
I love the title of this book – there is something so poetic, so portent, so Old Testament medieval about it. The Reapers are the Angels … yes, I want to read that book. I want to know what that means. Alden Bell delivers prose to match that is so achingly beautiful in its stream-of-consciousness style. I love the heavy Southern dialect that’s been bastardized by time and trauma.
You give me a compass that tells good from bad, and boy I’ll be a soldier of the righteous truth. But them two things are a slippery business, and tellin them apart might as well be a blind man’s guess.This is a short novel that manages to be epic in its themes and scope, all at once horrific, heartbreaking and rife with tragedy. The violence is explicit but even as the blood and stinking offal pour across the page the book’s magnitude and terrible beauty is never in dispute. Alden Bell is writing Southern Gothic set in a landscape where things are not “gross” but rather “grotesque”.
Spoiler
I was stupefied and struck mute with horror at the backwoods mutants Temple crosses paths with. Only a writer of immeasurable talent and courage could write these creations into a story that already had zombies, and make them truly fucking frightening, rather than ridiculous.What more can I say? Read this book.