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sandygx260's review
2.0
There were so many great ideas with this book. By all means I do admire when a book stirs in different aspects to make a savory word stew. But as the book moved along the different ideas started to trip over each other.
For me, the huge problem with this book was the author never committed to one character enough to make them real. In the end, the characters all seemed cliched and trite which came as a great disappointment. The author never really got into any character's psyche. He treated his characters as pieces to move along to further the story. When the author doesn't seem to care about his characters, the reader certainly doesn't.
There were also times when the story roamed too far away from the central core. Yes, fine, I understand about the KKK being involved, but there was one grimace-inducing KKK chapter which acted like a deadly storyline anchor.
Sections where one character tells a story for, no lie, two solid pages of just her talking while the main character says nothing or even blinks really threw off the reading. What, during those sections had she taped the usually impulsive main character's mouth shut?
A disappointment.
For me, the huge problem with this book was the author never committed to one character enough to make them real. In the end, the characters all seemed cliched and trite which came as a great disappointment. The author never really got into any character's psyche. He treated his characters as pieces to move along to further the story. When the author doesn't seem to care about his characters, the reader certainly doesn't.
There were also times when the story roamed too far away from the central core. Yes, fine, I understand about the KKK being involved, but there was one grimace-inducing KKK chapter which acted like a deadly storyline anchor.
Sections where one character tells a story for, no lie, two solid pages of just her talking while the main character says nothing or even blinks really threw off the reading. What, during those sections had she taped the usually impulsive main character's mouth shut?
A disappointment.
scheu's review
3.0
An Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever, supposedly a failed military experiment, wipes out most of the world's population - with the exception of people of African descent, who are immune. The story takes place in rural Illinois, where some lament the loss of baseball and movie stars, miles from the desolate emptiness of dead Chicago. Radio is mostly gone as well, but one woman (the Archangel of the title) keeps a pirate station going, playing old tunes, and telling it like it is.
In the middle of all this you have a murder mystery, too. Doesn't it all sound great? Conner had a lot of great ideas. Unfortunately, the story was mediocre and the plot pretty predictable. The book did not live up to the fabulousness of the setting and the premise.
In the middle of all this you have a murder mystery, too. Doesn't it all sound great? Conner had a lot of great ideas. Unfortunately, the story was mediocre and the plot pretty predictable. The book did not live up to the fabulousness of the setting and the premise.
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