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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Zombies seem to be very popular these days. There are zombie is video games, zombies on TV shows, and even zombies in books. But one of the things I've noticed about this zombie comeback is that many of the things supposedly about zombies aren't really about zombies. Like The Walking Dead TV show, which is more about people trying to survive, rather than people trying to avoid being turned into zombies. Without the fear of zombiefication, and the loss of life and humanity that comes with it, zombies are really nothing more than attention-grabbing set pieces. Would The Walking Dead really be that much different if, instead of zombies roaming the landscape, the danger was gangs of cannibals or other post-apocalyptic human threats? In my opinion, a zombie story needs real zombies, and the focus of the horror should be zombie-related, not survival-related. In other words, the central conflict of a zombie story should be the struggle to avoid becoming a zombie. Alden Bell's novel, The Reapers are the Angels, follows the same pattern as some other recent zombie works, in that the central focus is general survival in a post-apocalyptic hellscape; zombies are just one of the problems the wannabe survivors face. That's not to say it's a bad novel, but it's disengenous to try and pass it off as a zombie novel.
The Reapers are the Angels tells the story of Temple, a fifteen-year-old girl trying to survive in a zombie-infested hellscape. The thing is, zombies are really a threat to Temple. She has a Buffy-like aplomb for killing, which means that she has little trouble dismembering and beheading the shuffling meatskins, as zombies are called in the novel. Her skill in killing makes the beginning of the novel somewhat hard to fathom. Temple is living in a lighthouse, catching fresh fish for food, and safely removed from society. She sees one zombie wash up on shore and she's all like, "Oh no! I have to run away!" Why not just stay in the lighthouse, which would probably be easy to defend, rather than go roaming around in the wastelands of Florida? It doesn't make any sense.
As Temple continues her travels, she meets people, easily kills zombies, and wanders around. It's not very interesting. It's actually a lot like a not very interesting imitation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. About halfway through the novel, things start to pick up when Temple kills a man and that man's brother, Moses Todd, vows revenge. Of course, this doesn't make it any more of a zombie novel, because the antagonist is human and zombies are just ancillary background characters.
Things really start to pick up when Temple, still on the run from Moses, finds a mentally retarded man carrying his dead grandmother and a note reading:
Hello! My name is Maury and I wouldn't hurt a fly. My grandmother loves me and wishes she could take care of me forever, but she's most likely gone now. I have family out west. If you find me, will you take me to them? God bless you.
Temple, unable to turn her back on a helpless innocent, makes escorting Maury to Texas her primary goal. Moses is still following them, occasionally making an appearance, but the focus of the novel becomes Temple's efforts at defining herself. Is she a caring young girl capable of protecting and saving for Maury, or is she nothing more than a violent killing machine? In the final third of the novel, zombies become almost non-existent (although there are some mutants that pop in for some odd reason) and the novel becomes much more philosophical. Even the conversations between Temple and Moses concentrate on the nature of evil and Temple's morality. The also fight some mutants, and again, I don't quite understand why the mutants are there.
Although the novel wanders into strange territory for a brief spell, Bell redeems himself with the final showdown between Temple and Moses. It's during this showdown that Temple first seems vulnerable. Fighting zombies and mutants, there's never any question that she's going to win, but the showdown with Moses is brilliantly suspenseful. Bell's talents as a writer are on full display as Temple, facing down the barrel of a gun, evaluates her options and plans her last-ditch effort for survival. I won't reveal the Shakespearean-in-magnitude conclusion, but I will say that it surprised me to the extent that I actually went back and reread a page or two, just to make sure I hadn't misread something. The resolution is shocking, surprising, but not absurd or unbelievable.
It's a shame that the first half of The Reapers are the Angels isn't nearly as good as the second half. In all honesty, you could start reading this novel about ten before the start of Part 2 of the book and it would make perfect sense. It might even be a better novel. Although the novel drags at the beginning, The Reapers are the Angels picks up enough at the end to still be a worthwhile read.
The Reapers are the Angels tells the story of Temple, a fifteen-year-old girl trying to survive in a zombie-infested hellscape. The thing is, zombies are really a threat to Temple. She has a Buffy-like aplomb for killing, which means that she has little trouble dismembering and beheading the shuffling meatskins, as zombies are called in the novel. Her skill in killing makes the beginning of the novel somewhat hard to fathom. Temple is living in a lighthouse, catching fresh fish for food, and safely removed from society. She sees one zombie wash up on shore and she's all like, "Oh no! I have to run away!" Why not just stay in the lighthouse, which would probably be easy to defend, rather than go roaming around in the wastelands of Florida? It doesn't make any sense.
As Temple continues her travels, she meets people, easily kills zombies, and wanders around. It's not very interesting. It's actually a lot like a not very interesting imitation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. About halfway through the novel, things start to pick up when Temple kills a man and that man's brother, Moses Todd, vows revenge. Of course, this doesn't make it any more of a zombie novel, because the antagonist is human and zombies are just ancillary background characters.
Things really start to pick up when Temple, still on the run from Moses, finds a mentally retarded man carrying his dead grandmother and a note reading:
Hello! My name is Maury and I wouldn't hurt a fly. My grandmother loves me and wishes she could take care of me forever, but she's most likely gone now. I have family out west. If you find me, will you take me to them? God bless you.
Temple, unable to turn her back on a helpless innocent, makes escorting Maury to Texas her primary goal. Moses is still following them, occasionally making an appearance, but the focus of the novel becomes Temple's efforts at defining herself. Is she a caring young girl capable of protecting and saving for Maury, or is she nothing more than a violent killing machine? In the final third of the novel, zombies become almost non-existent (although there are some mutants that pop in for some odd reason) and the novel becomes much more philosophical. Even the conversations between Temple and Moses concentrate on the nature of evil and Temple's morality. The also fight some mutants, and again, I don't quite understand why the mutants are there.
Although the novel wanders into strange territory for a brief spell, Bell redeems himself with the final showdown between Temple and Moses. It's during this showdown that Temple first seems vulnerable. Fighting zombies and mutants, there's never any question that she's going to win, but the showdown with Moses is brilliantly suspenseful. Bell's talents as a writer are on full display as Temple, facing down the barrel of a gun, evaluates her options and plans her last-ditch effort for survival. I won't reveal the Shakespearean-in-magnitude conclusion, but I will say that it surprised me to the extent that I actually went back and reread a page or two, just to make sure I hadn't misread something. The resolution is shocking, surprising, but not absurd or unbelievable.
It's a shame that the first half of The Reapers are the Angels isn't nearly as good as the second half. In all honesty, you could start reading this novel about ten before the start of Part 2 of the book and it would make perfect sense. It might even be a better novel. Although the novel drags at the beginning, The Reapers are the Angels picks up enough at the end to still be a worthwhile read.
One of the better post-apocalyptic books where undead things wander around. This one is sometimes gritty, but worth the read.
Minor complaint: unrealistically, too many things are conveniently still working fine or un-rotted/undecayed, decades after things go to hell.
VERDICT: 4 skulls
Minor complaint: unrealistically, too many things are conveniently still working fine or un-rotted/undecayed, decades after things go to hell.
VERDICT: 4 skulls
I stayed up late reading this book. That rarely happens anymore.
I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's full of very powerful sentiments; Temple wanders her post-apocalyptic world with an eye for beauty, and her descriptions of vistas and experiences can really make you hold your breath. Exhibit A:
She remembers again the Miracle of the Fish—the silver-gold bodies darting in circles around her ankles as though she were standing in the middle of another moon—the way things could be perfect like that on occasion—a clear god, a god of messages and raptures—a moment when you knew what you were given a stomach for, for it to feel that way, all tense with magic meaning.
It has become something to her, that memory—something she can take out in dismal times and stare into like a crystal ball disclosing not presages but reminders. She holds it in her palm like a captured ladybug and thinks, 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.
The beauty of her recollection is almost palpable, especially against the backdrop of a barren world torn apart by flesh-eating zombies. However, the plot of The Reapers Are The Angels left something to be desired. The book is intensely meandering, and purposefully so, but worse than that is Temple's lack of goals. She supposes she wants to go some places, like Niagara Falls, but beyond helping a straggler she finds along the way she has very little driving her. She survives where others wouldn't, and she is keenly aware of the world's beauty despite the disasters, but it was hard for me as a reader to get a grip on her character. She isolates herself from others, not physically but emotionally, and this causes her to stay largely unaffected by the events in the book. Her actions are purely instinctual all the way through. The Temple I met on page one seemed to be the exact same girl I said goodbye to at the end of the book. I admire the author for straying from the beaten path, but at the same time the lack of character development made me feel like the book wasn't as significant as it could have been.
My favorite thing about this book is that it forced me to think long and hard about what makes something beautiful and what makes life worth living. What is truly horrifying and what is simply different? Temple's level personality definitely helped tone down the terror of zombies. Exhibit B:
Looking down over the guardrails of the roadway, she can see the slugs out there wandering in the rain—some looking curiously upward only to get rain in their eyes. Others sit in the gutters watching the small rivers of water course over them. Sometimes the dead can seem clownish or childlike. She wonders how people could have let such a race of silly creatures push them into the corners and closets of the world.
This is a zombie book that doesn't linger on the horror of the supernatural and instead accepts it and moves on. What terrified me a lot more than the zombies was being in Temple's shoes. She can connect to the glory of the human experience, but not to other people. She can't even read. Her outlook is simple, sometimes annoyingly so. She refuses to protect herself against a man who has sworn vengeance against her and does so due to some misplaced(?) feeling that he hasn't done anything to her yet. Suffice to say that The Reapers Are The Angels was frustrating to read at times due to Temple's outlook, but it was also a unique experience thanks to Temple's outlook.
Besides an out-of-place switch to third-person omniscient to tell things Temple would have no way of knowing, I'd say the book is very well done, but in that "I still can't decide how I feel about it" way. Suffice to say this is a 3-star rating that comes from a deep need to give the book both 5 stars and 1 star at the same time.
She remembers again the Miracle of the Fish—the silver-gold bodies darting in circles around her ankles as though she were standing in the middle of another moon—the way things could be perfect like that on occasion—a clear god, a god of messages and raptures—a moment when you knew what you were given a stomach for, for it to feel that way, all tense with magic meaning.
It has become something to her, that memory—something she can take out in dismal times and stare into like a crystal ball disclosing not presages but reminders. She holds it in her palm like a captured ladybug and thinks, 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.
The beauty of her recollection is almost palpable, especially against the backdrop of a barren world torn apart by flesh-eating zombies. However, the plot of The Reapers Are The Angels left something to be desired. The book is intensely meandering, and purposefully so, but worse than that is Temple's lack of goals. She supposes she wants to go some places, like Niagara Falls, but beyond helping a straggler she finds along the way she has very little driving her. She survives where others wouldn't, and she is keenly aware of the world's beauty despite the disasters, but it was hard for me as a reader to get a grip on her character. She isolates herself from others, not physically but emotionally, and this causes her to stay largely unaffected by the events in the book. Her actions are purely instinctual all the way through. The Temple I met on page one seemed to be the exact same girl I said goodbye to at the end of the book. I admire the author for straying from the beaten path, but at the same time the lack of character development made me feel like the book wasn't as significant as it could have been.
My favorite thing about this book is that it forced me to think long and hard about what makes something beautiful and what makes life worth living. What is truly horrifying and what is simply different? Temple's level personality definitely helped tone down the terror of zombies. Exhibit B:
Looking down over the guardrails of the roadway, she can see the slugs out there wandering in the rain—some looking curiously upward only to get rain in their eyes. Others sit in the gutters watching the small rivers of water course over them. Sometimes the dead can seem clownish or childlike. She wonders how people could have let such a race of silly creatures push them into the corners and closets of the world.
This is a zombie book that doesn't linger on the horror of the supernatural and instead accepts it and moves on. What terrified me a lot more than the zombies was being in Temple's shoes. She can connect to the glory of the human experience, but not to other people. She can't even read. Her outlook is simple, sometimes annoyingly so. She refuses to protect herself against a man who has sworn vengeance against her and does so due to some misplaced(?) feeling that he hasn't done anything to her yet. Suffice to say that The Reapers Are The Angels was frustrating to read at times due to Temple's outlook, but it was also a unique experience thanks to Temple's outlook.
Besides an out-of-place switch to third-person omniscient to tell things Temple would have no way of knowing, I'd say the book is very well done, but in that "I still can't decide how I feel about it" way. Suffice to say this is a 3-star rating that comes from a deep need to give the book both 5 stars and 1 star at the same time.
Despite being two decades into the zombie apocalypse and society's crumbled, there's electricity, running (hot!) water, edible crackers in convenience stores and vehicles that still run on the gas left in the tank.
I wanted to love this book. I picked it up off the shelf because I was in the mood for a good zombie novel. This wasn't so much a zombie novel as it was a survival novel, which was fine except that I never really got entirely invested in it. Yes, there was a bigger message and I felt like some of the emotional connection to the characters was sacrificed for that bigger message. I did appreciate that it showed many different ways that people survive and I loved bits of the novel, but not enough to make up for the feeling of apathy that the rest of the novel left me with.
I hate zombie stuff. It scares me. But I can't deny that this book was really good. If blood and gore doesn't work for you, don't read this book. It's graphic af.
http://nyx-shadow.blogspot.fr/2012/08/les-faucheurs-sont-les-anges-alden-bell.html
Short read, read by a great reader. I can't imagine reading this to myself, the accent sound difficult to read.