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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
This was a phenomenal book! I am definitely putting it directly into my favorites list. I think that the concept is wonderful, and the writing is beautiful ( Very Cormac McCarthy!) I could rant and rave about how much I love this book for hours, more importantly though I am going to tell you about why you ( points haughtily) must read it.
The Reapers are the Angels depicts the story of Temple, a sixteen year old girl all on her lonesome during the zombie apocalypse ( If your not ready to pick up the book and add it to your Amazon Cart please keep listening.) Temple is being chased though by more then just the undead. She is also being pursued by a man bent on murdering her after she killed his brother. On top of that Temple does not know if she wants to die or not. She contemplates whether there is beauty in the world and whether it is a world worth living in. She engages in violence and wonders if what she is doing is right or whether she herself is twice as evil as the undead ( slugs) that surround her.
Temple's journey is perilous and littered with tons of brilliant characters and plot twists. Along the way she picks up a mute named Muray who she then becomes attached to despite the fact that he does not seem to acknowledge her support or existence.
Overall this is a beautiful book. The Dialogue is incredible, and I loved all the recurring themes. The power behind the authors words where completely numbing. I ordered his next book off Amazon just a few minutes ago.
If you pick up this book I guarantee you that you have made a good choice!
The Reapers are the Angels depicts the story of Temple, a sixteen year old girl all on her lonesome during the zombie apocalypse ( If your not ready to pick up the book and add it to your Amazon Cart please keep listening.) Temple is being chased though by more then just the undead. She is also being pursued by a man bent on murdering her after she killed his brother. On top of that Temple does not know if she wants to die or not. She contemplates whether there is beauty in the world and whether it is a world worth living in. She engages in violence and wonders if what she is doing is right or whether she herself is twice as evil as the undead ( slugs) that surround her.
Temple's journey is perilous and littered with tons of brilliant characters and plot twists. Along the way she picks up a mute named Muray who she then becomes attached to despite the fact that he does not seem to acknowledge her support or existence.
Overall this is a beautiful book. The Dialogue is incredible, and I loved all the recurring themes. The power behind the authors words where completely numbing. I ordered his next book off Amazon just a few minutes ago.
If you pick up this book I guarantee you that you have made a good choice!
I picked up this book almost for the express purpose of washing The Forest of Hands and Teeth out of my mind. Same principle - young girl in a zombie-infested world, fighting to survive - but a vastly different story. And man did it accomplish the task.
Actually, The Reapers are the Angels ran counter to a lot zombie stories that I've been exposed to lately. Last night, as I watched The Walking Dead and characters snapped at eachother over nearly getting killed during a run for medical supplies, I could hear Temple in my head, saying something like "It's just the way the world is now, ain't nobody's fault." I couldn't help but imagine Temple as Rick and Lori's unborn child, grown up alone in a harsh world like Lori predicted, but still meeting good people and seeing beautiful things. Her complacency, her complete adaptation to her world is fascinating in its simplicity and gorgeously portrayed. Temple is friendly and noble at times, but also brutal and occasionally scary, though mostly to herself. I think she's bad ass and has got nothing to be ashamed of, but that's easy to say when its just your post-apocalyptic fantasy rather than your life.
This book is mostly episodic - Temple wanders, meets people, and gets herself in and out of dangerous and sometimes just odd situations. The central storyline though is that of a man, Moses Todd, who is hellbent on executing her for killing his brother, Abraham (yes, those are really their names). Their relationship is bizarre - there's little animosity between them, only a sense of duty, locked in a duel of fates all due to Abraham's stupidity in thinking he could have his way with Temple. As the chase continues they both seem to recognize they may be the only people in the world capable of understanding eachother, but still neither of them lets up. Meanwhile, Temple picks up a mentally handicapped mute and attempts to take him back home, and along the way comes across zombie-eating hunters, hillbillies-turned-mutant junkies, and even kind of falls for a handsome, brooding guy and dresses up in taffeta gowns with his grandmother.
Temple is just incredibly real, so the book doesn't try to go any further than that, but it also doesn't lock itself into a kill-or-be-killed dystopia. Its about not just survival but staying a whole person and staying sane, enjoying the tiny moments of wonder in a world of darkness.
Actually, The Reapers are the Angels ran counter to a lot zombie stories that I've been exposed to lately. Last night, as I watched The Walking Dead and characters snapped at eachother over nearly getting killed during a run for medical supplies, I could hear Temple in my head, saying something like "It's just the way the world is now, ain't nobody's fault." I couldn't help but imagine Temple as Rick and Lori's unborn child, grown up alone in a harsh world like Lori predicted, but still meeting good people and seeing beautiful things. Her complacency, her complete adaptation to her world is fascinating in its simplicity and gorgeously portrayed. Temple is friendly and noble at times, but also brutal and occasionally scary, though mostly to herself. I think she's bad ass and has got nothing to be ashamed of, but that's easy to say when its just your post-apocalyptic fantasy rather than your life.
This book is mostly episodic - Temple wanders, meets people, and gets herself in and out of dangerous and sometimes just odd situations. The central storyline though is that of a man, Moses Todd, who is hellbent on executing her for killing his brother, Abraham (yes, those are really their names). Their relationship is bizarre - there's little animosity between them, only a sense of duty, locked in a duel of fates all due to Abraham's stupidity in thinking he could have his way with Temple. As the chase continues they both seem to recognize they may be the only people in the world capable of understanding eachother, but still neither of them lets up. Meanwhile, Temple picks up a mentally handicapped mute and attempts to take him back home, and along the way comes across zombie-eating hunters, hillbillies-turned-mutant junkies, and even kind of falls for a handsome, brooding guy and dresses up in taffeta gowns with his grandmother.
Temple is just incredibly real, so the book doesn't try to go any further than that, but it also doesn't lock itself into a kill-or-be-killed dystopia. Its about not just survival but staying a whole person and staying sane, enjoying the tiny moments of wonder in a world of darkness.
Wow. This book was unexpected. I loved the "voice" of the main character. And more than that I loved her ability, in a horrible world, to see the miracles that surround us, even when everything looks desperate. I thought it was a stroke of genius to have Temple, the protagonist, be a child born into a world where the "normal" state of being was dangerous and nasty. What would it be like to have no other memory of what the world "used to be" or "ought to be." In the midst of all the awfulness, Temple still has the ability to believe in a God who is a "slick God" - a god who, she believes, showers people with miracles if only they knew how to look. The one thing that Temple lacks is the ability to judge herself rightly, leading to a mistaken belief that she is evil at heart. And *that* she is not.
Like Flannery O'Connor, the author uses grotesques to illustrate the points he is trying to make. Southern to the core, or so it seems to me, the story very much illustrates Flannery's "God haunted" South.
Distrubing, dark, but worth the read.
Like Flannery O'Connor, the author uses grotesques to illustrate the points he is trying to make. Southern to the core, or so it seems to me, the story very much illustrates Flannery's "God haunted" South.
Distrubing, dark, but worth the read.
Put the Thesaurus down slowly and no one gets hurt .. geez. This entire book carried on with such discord between Temple's simple Southern speech and the flowery, "intellectual" narration. Liked Temple well enough and kept waiting for the story to be worth it, just never happened for me.
From the first page, I was engrossed in this book. It’s a zombie novel, yes, but also so much more. Bell’s writing is different, captivating, uniquely suited to describing a world overrun by zombies. In this world, Temple, a fifteen-year-old girl living in a world twenty-five years into the zombie apocalypse, travels through her memories, her life, and a world of small communities that barricade themselves from the zombie world. Like Bell’s writing, she is uniquely suited to this grotesque post-apocalyptic world. She is a survivor and a product of the mentality she had to grow up with, which includes bravery, a deeply-abiding faith and an optimism of sorts because she has known no other world. She is resigned, yes, but not in the way a zombie literature reader might expect.
There are things I truly enjoy about this novel. The first three-quarters, in fact, were fantastic. The writing, as I mentioned, is superb, and the story moves along at a brisk pace. There are familiar zombie tropes, but new ideas as well. I enjoyed that the word zombie is not used once, but rather “slugs”or “meatskins” are the terms most commonly applied to the walking dead. And I also enjoyed Temple’s rational survivor logic (one reason why I looooove the original Dawn of the Dead movie). She understands the slugs in her own way, and she moves through the world accordingly. Not fearfully, but with a determined understanding of what can get her killed and what can keep death at bay. And I liked how Bell designed his zombies: slow, hungry and with the “Hell is full” idea (every dead person becomes a zombie).
Temple’s character and Bell’s writing are so good that about two-thirds of the way in, when events start to tickle my disbelief nerve just a little too strongly, I’m willing to hang in anyway. At this point I trust the author, trust that everything new being introduced will have its place just as everything before has.
My trust was misplaced.
The family of hillbillies that tickles my disbelief nerve are never fully explained. Their very existence stretches even further the suspension of disbelief that a zombie story requires. In the end, they serve a purpose of sorts, but one that could have been served much better by something more within the norm. It wasn’t the ending event, exactly, that pissed me off so much. It was who did it, and how it happened. And what happened after. I felt that it didn’t fit with the rest of the book. Where everything had a point, the point began to stray with the intro of the hillbilly family. The point did get back on track, but finally the point was murdered by non-sense. Again, not what happened, but how. It didn’t feel right; it felt cheap, quick and dirty (now I have to get tested!). And thus my two stars out of five. Technically the book deserves more, it really does, but my vast disappointment in the ending ruined it all and infuriated me. It’s very possible that I just missed something, some detail or biblical reference that would have enlightened me to the true brilliance of the ending. All I know is that to me the ending seemed pointless and over-orchestrated instead of desperately sorrowful and meaningful (the ending I thought I was being led to).
Yes, the name is from a bible quote. No, I’m not confused about what it’s referring to. And yes, I did this when the book title came up in the book.
I’m not sure I can recommend this book as read or don’t read. I really, really, really wanted to like it, and I was enjoying it up until that point I described above. However, there are a lot of reviews from people on here who highly praise this book (after all, it's currently averaging 4.1). Again, maybe I just missed something. Or am an idiot. Actually, odd as it seems, I think I do recommend this book. If you find the ending palatable, then it will likely be a fantastic book for you. It’s not very long so if you find yourself drawn in within the first ten pages or so, give it a go. Just be warned that if you think like I do, you may pop a blood vessel when you get to the end.
There are things I truly enjoy about this novel. The first three-quarters, in fact, were fantastic. The writing, as I mentioned, is superb, and the story moves along at a brisk pace. There are familiar zombie tropes, but new ideas as well. I enjoyed that the word zombie is not used once, but rather “slugs”or “meatskins” are the terms most commonly applied to the walking dead. And I also enjoyed Temple’s rational survivor logic (one reason why I looooove the original Dawn of the Dead movie). She understands the slugs in her own way, and she moves through the world accordingly. Not fearfully, but with a determined understanding of what can get her killed and what can keep death at bay. And I liked how Bell designed his zombies: slow, hungry and with the “Hell is full” idea (every dead person becomes a zombie).
Temple’s character and Bell’s writing are so good that about two-thirds of the way in, when events start to tickle my disbelief nerve just a little too strongly, I’m willing to hang in anyway. At this point I trust the author, trust that everything new being introduced will have its place just as everything before has.
My trust was misplaced.
The family of hillbillies that tickles my disbelief nerve are never fully explained. Their very existence stretches even further the suspension of disbelief that a zombie story requires. In the end, they serve a purpose of sorts, but one that could have been served much better by something more within the norm. It wasn’t the ending event, exactly, that pissed me off so much. It was who did it, and how it happened. And what happened after. I felt that it didn’t fit with the rest of the book. Where everything had a point, the point began to stray with the intro of the hillbilly family. The point did get back on track, but finally the point was murdered by non-sense. Again, not what happened, but how. It didn’t feel right; it felt cheap, quick and dirty (now I have to get tested!). And thus my two stars out of five. Technically the book deserves more, it really does, but my vast disappointment in the ending ruined it all and infuriated me. It’s very possible that I just missed something, some detail or biblical reference that would have enlightened me to the true brilliance of the ending. All I know is that to me the ending seemed pointless and over-orchestrated instead of desperately sorrowful and meaningful (the ending I thought I was being led to).
Yes, the name is from a bible quote. No, I’m not confused about what it’s referring to. And yes, I did this when the book title came up in the book.
I’m not sure I can recommend this book as read or don’t read. I really, really, really wanted to like it, and I was enjoying it up until that point I described above. However, there are a lot of reviews from people on here who highly praise this book (after all, it's currently averaging 4.1). Again, maybe I just missed something. Or am an idiot. Actually, odd as it seems, I think I do recommend this book. If you find the ending palatable, then it will likely be a fantastic book for you. It’s not very long so if you find yourself drawn in within the first ten pages or so, give it a go. Just be warned that if you think like I do, you may pop a blood vessel when you get to the end.
Actual Rating 4,5 Stars
A very well realized world, good story and realistic characters.
A very well realized world, good story and realistic characters.
This is a beautiful story. I was looking forward to it because I love post-apocalypse stories and zombies stories. This is so much more than that. The people are incredibly real, the journies riveting.
Reviewed on The Paperback Dolls: http://paperbackdolls.com/?p=7647
Ashley: Temple… Temple, is her name- Dude, for like TWO paragraphs I thought they were talking about an ACTUAL Temple and I was WICKED confused
Smash: For real?
Ashley: YES!! I had to re-read the first few pages several times… I’m fairly certain that the ‘literary genius’ of this novel was totally lost on me. ;)
Smash: Heh. I’m not sure I would go that far. ;) However, I loved the name choice. Throughout the book, she reminded me of a sturdy temple, refusing to fall.
Ashley: Really? Dude, I was too freaking irritated throughout Reapers to concentrate much on the story… What ‘perspective’ was this told in? Have you ever read anything without the use of quotations??
Smash: No, and it was wicked annoying. You had to really focus to know when something was being spoken. I am not sure why the author chose to go that route. However, the story was definitely from Temple’s perspective, and an interesting perspective it was!
Ashley: That it was!! But, you know that ‘focusing’ isn’t so much my strong suit… ;)
Smash: And while it is mine, I seem to lose it around you. :D
Ashley: Hehe!! Alright, so I honestly think that this would have been an AWESOME book- if I could have gotten past the problem I had with the whole NON-quotations thing… Why not write the dialog like EVERY other book in the world???
Smash: It was definitely hard to get past. I tell you though; I was drawn into the story from the start though. Temple was fairly young and had been on her own for a very long time. Not a lot of contact with other humans, and she has survived. I really admired her strong wit and backwards smarts. She was a tough cookie.
Ashley: My thing is… the dead rose- What? Like 25 years prior to this story right? WHY is there so much food left? Why are there so many stores, museums, landmarks, malls… EVERYTHING, left untouched?
Smash: Great point, and it isn’t one I even thought about! She did seem to have it easy while traveling, stopping at abandoned stores for her favorite crackers, which should have been spoiled and a pile of cheesy mush by then.
Ashley: See? I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed… and all that. But, it’s the little things that bug me! Like the fact that she could barely string a coherent sentence together, then used words that I had to look up in the dictionary! Like: shoal. WTF? No one knows what ‘shoal’ is! And palaver, and cartograph… I DO know what these mean, but with her limited speaking ability- you’d think she wouldn’t have such a broad vocabulary!
Smash: That’s one of the things I loved most about her though! She was wise beyond her years. Simple minded but sharp. She was hella fierce but you caught glimpses of her compassion. She tended to reason her way through everything, and I was constantly amazed by her positive outlook: “But you gotta look at the world that is and try not to get bogged down by what it ain’t.” That chick went through serious Hell and continued on like it was another day at the office.
Ashley: Yeah, but when that’s your reality- then that’s what you do. Right?
Smash: ‘Tis true, and you’re right. It was the only reality she ever knew.
Ashley: Okay, so what’d you think of Moses? I liked him, dude. Does this make me wicked insane? This guy tracks her with an intense sadistic passion across what is now America with the intent to kill her under any circumstance… but I liked him!
Smash: I agree. Moses was an interesting character and he really propelled the story forward. You never knew when he was going to pop up and try to bring Temple to her knees.
Ashley: Obviously, I didn’t want him to kill her… I just felt that he was doing what he thought needed to be done, no matter how ridiculous the reason.
Smash: It was a little much, but he was a passionate man! :)
Ashley: Right? All the references to the Bible weren’t lost on me either… (the nuns would be so proud!) Almost every character had a biblical name, and even the title: ‘The Reapers are the Angels’ refers to a passage in the Bible if I’m not mistaking…
Smash: I had to look it up, but it sure is a Bible passage. I’m not a religious person, but I really enjoyed the religious undertones throughout this book. It was not a light, fluffy zombie book, in any way. Temple never lost her hope though: “Ain’t no hell deep enough to keep heaven out.”
Ashley: Yeah, usually religious type ‘messages’ irritate me… I think it must be all those years I spent at Catholic school… ;) But this one oddly didn’t. Perhaps I was too busy staring at the lack of quotation marks!
Smash: And we’re back! “I shall use quotes throughout the review from this point forward.” Ok, so quotes aside, what did you think of the description of the “slugs, meatskins, creepers” and whatever other cool term was used to call the zombies?
Ashley: The “meatskins, slugs… etc” were alright… To be totally honest, every time she said “meatskin” I thought of a penis. No joke dude. :D I mean what else would you think of???
Smash: I shall now be plagued by nightmares of walking penises with teeth! EEEEEEEEP.
Ashley: Well, I mean really… I cannot be held responsible for the imagery created in my head while reading….
Smash: And you love to share, which I love about you. :)
Ashley: Right?? I’m totally open like that! So what were those things on the mountain? Like mutant zombies?
Smash: Holy Shite! That entire part of the book was INSANE. I have no clue WTF Temple stumbled upon on the vast mountain range, but it reminds me of The Hills Have Eyes meets Redneck Zombies.
Ashley: Oooooh PERFECT description dude!!!! They were WICKED creepy! Okay, so what about the END- before this turns into a rendition of name the freakiest movie you’ve ever seen… What’d you think?
Smash: Speaking of movies, I think this book would make a stellar movie!
Ashley: I think it’d make a better movie than it did a book- just sayin! At least I’d know who was talking. ;)
Smash: You never know. It could be a movie with miming or deaf folk.
Ashley: Or subtitles!!! *gasp*
Smash: Ok. The ending took me by surprise. I am not sure I enjoyed how it ended. It was shocking, and I remember being angry, but then I felt a calmness about it. :/
Ashley: I’m still trying to work out if I liked it or not… I think I sort of expected it to end that way- I’m not sure I liked WHO was responsible for doing it! So I do RATINGS and you don’t, but since were not posting this on our blogs… would you recommend this one or not?
Smash: Personally, I would recommend this to zombie fans. As you’ve stated in the past, there are so many different types of zombie books. This is one of the most unique, and I think people should read it just cause. :)
Ashley: I agree… I’d recommend that people read it, just to say you’ve experienced it. But, I didn’t LOVE it. But, you knew after you read it and I hadn’t that this wouldn’t be one I’d LOVE, didn’t you? I go more for “gore and blood” or “hilarious awesome” in my zombie books… rather than… uuuuuh? What is this? Emotional and thought provoking?
Smash: Definitely. And for me, I prefer BOTH. I thought this was a great mix of gore and horror along with some great character-driven storyline.
Ashley: You know, it was rather gory at times wasn’t it??
Smash: In my notes, I jotted down that I loved the “nice, gory descriptions.” Nice and gory. Only me. And hey, I just used QUOTES!
Ashley: I HONESTLY think that’s my biggest beef dude. I just can’t get past it… It took so much away from the book for me!
Smash: And with that, I think it’s safe to say that for those of you wanting to check this one out, be prepared for some serious irritation over the absence of quotes. But in the end, a really “insane” story unfolds and you are left scratching your head and wondering WTF you just experienced. My kinda book, indeed!
Ashley: Agreed! (except… I don’t like thinking WTF just happened? lol!) Still worth the read!
The book cover put me off but in the end I enjoyed this way more than I supposed I would. It was very decent for a zombie novel at least. Temple, the main character, was like a mix of Katniss from the Hunger Games and Daryl Dixon from the Walking Dead, so of course I liked her a lot. The male characters, Lee, James and Uncle Jackson were all quite similar to each other. I liked the bad guy, Moses, but there could have been fewer moments where they sit down and have a talk about life because those didn't make him feel threatening at all. Maybe he wasn't supposed to.
Spoiler
I also wish that the mutants had been left out of the story. They didn't make much sense.
I loved it up until the ending. I then tried to read the sequel, but couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll try it again. I just found the ending so disappointing, it was hard to care about the sequel. A shame because I otherwise really, really enjoyed this book.