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A review by sammystarbuck
Conspiracy of Angels: Novels of the Shadowside 1 by Michelle Belanger
3.0
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this in return for an honest review.
I did not know anything about this book, or the author, before I started reading, and with it not being a genre I read much in any more, I had very little in the way of expectations.
It was definitely a very easy read, and I enjoyed the story and the whole mythology around the angels. The pace was super fast, and the writing itself not bad at all. The characters were distinctive and pretty well fleshed-out considering the main character suffers from amnesia. (A concept that shouldn't have worked, but does!)
My only real problem was with the constant clumsy references to sci-fi pop culture. Ok, I get it. I'm a fan too. But it really started to get annoying very quickly, and gave the book a bit of a self-indulgent fan-fiction feel. Not enough to put me off reading, but just enough to annoy a little from time to time.
I intend to pass the book along to my teenage daughter, who I am sure will love it (and who loves fan-fiction, so won't mind that aspect at all!)
Oh, and it would have been nice if the editor had picked up on the antagonist's name and kept it constant (instead of it changing between "Dorimiel" and "Dormiel"). It's the kind of thing that's hard for an author to see, as you get so familiar with the names you don't really read them as such, but a half-decent proof reader should have picked up on it. It's not a big thing, but when the amount of syllables in a character's name is as important as here, it would be nice to keep it straight!
I did not know anything about this book, or the author, before I started reading, and with it not being a genre I read much in any more, I had very little in the way of expectations.
It was definitely a very easy read, and I enjoyed the story and the whole mythology around the angels. The pace was super fast, and the writing itself not bad at all. The characters were distinctive and pretty well fleshed-out considering the main character suffers from amnesia. (A concept that shouldn't have worked, but does!)
My only real problem was with the constant clumsy references to sci-fi pop culture. Ok, I get it. I'm a fan too. But it really started to get annoying very quickly, and gave the book a bit of a self-indulgent fan-fiction feel. Not enough to put me off reading, but just enough to annoy a little from time to time.
I intend to pass the book along to my teenage daughter, who I am sure will love it (and who loves fan-fiction, so won't mind that aspect at all!)
Oh, and it would have been nice if the editor had picked up on the antagonist's name and kept it constant (instead of it changing between "Dorimiel" and "Dormiel"). It's the kind of thing that's hard for an author to see, as you get so familiar with the names you don't really read them as such, but a half-decent proof reader should have picked up on it. It's not a big thing, but when the amount of syllables in a character's name is as important as here, it would be nice to keep it straight!