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54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and haunting, but no light read, June 24, 2010
This review is from: The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel (Paperback)
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Well, this wasn't what I expected at all. Having last entered the world of zombies in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, given the age of the protagonist (15) and the rather skimpy information on the review copy, I guess was expecting another young adult "message" horror novel. I like that kind of thing, so why not? I was not expecting this work of art that caught me up and shook me and broke my heart because it is both so beautiful and so sad. Zombies: the new face of magic realism. Who knew? The language is flawless. It is unobtrusive, but lush and almost lyrical. The pacing, too, flawless. Not a passage drags, nothing wasted. The characters are strong and believable; their motivations make sense; their voices are clear and distinct. I will not kid you. This book is intense. Temple may be 15, but the life she lives is very adult, and the situations she encounters are gut-wrenching. The book made me cry, more than once; it isn't going to be a good fit for everyone. It's a pretty grim world, and an unflinchingly violent one, but in spite of the monsters it's *not* a conventional horror story. If you come for catharsis, you'll get it, but maybe not the kind you expect. This isn't spine tingling; it's soul twisting. I won't be surprised if reviews are highly divided; those who are looking for conventional horror or are even further afield as I was may not be universally pleased. This is a great book - a masterpiece, maybe - for the *right* reader. The book left me thoughtful and sad and grateful for what I have. Grateful, too, to have read it. I'm still caught up in the aftermath, having finished it moments before I started writing the review, so it's really too soon to say--but I *think* I may have just found a contender for my shortlist of "favorite books."
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21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Weirdly compelling, June 25, 2010
This review is from: The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I'm having serious difficulty reviewing this book. I liked it. And I'm not sure why. The central conflict strains credulity (even in a book about zombies), it's a bit episodic, and nothing (even why the zombies exist) is explained. This is not a sloppy author and he clearly had backstory in mind to explain these happenings. I just wish he'd shared it with us. There's a distinct emphasis on fatalism or deism (I'm not sure which was intended), so the omission may be deliberate. It could also be the result of over-editing, since the book is intended for cross-marketing to young adults although it's clearly the work of a mature and accomplished author accustomed to writing for adults. The writing occasionally reminds me of those impossible half-page Henry James sentences. A sample: "Even the imprisoned slugs themselves have paused in their perpetual movement to gaze with acquiescent eyes upon the scene of the massacre, as though in harmony with the inexorable and silent melodies of grim decease - as though in deferential recognition of the community of the extinct." Having said that, there are moments of description worthy of Thomas Hardy. The pace is brisk and the tension between the protagonist's situation and her normal, teenage-girl reactions to everything from a swarm of fish to candy-pink nail polish make her character truly able to sustain the story. In fact, most of the characters are lovingly detailed, even the incidental ones. Part of the book's appeal is seeing how the girl's very distinctive yet incompletely formed character interacts with and is shaped by her random interactions with various, very relatable personalities. I came away thinking this was probably not the best work of an extremely intelligent and talented author whom I definitely want to read again.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book Snob Recommends, February 16, 2011
This review is from: The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel (Paperback)
Alden Bell's The Reapers are The Angels is the perfect combination of Charles Portis' True Grit and the classic zombie flick Night of the Living Dead. If you are a fan of the highest quality literature, thought provoking themes and the supernatural than there is nothing lacking in this book. I often pick up a book, hoping for something new, something unexpected, only to be disappointed with another piece of drivel. Now don't get me wrong I'm not above drivel *cough*Twilight*cough* but the quest for quality adult literature is an ongoing one. In fact, I often feel like Don Quixote himself, always trying but never succeeding. For once my high hopes were rewarded with a thoroughly enjoyable and at times profoundly disturbing story. Reapers follows a young girl named Temple who has learned that not only isn't it safe to live in the world because of the "meateaters" but sometimes because the other surviving humans are the worst monsters of all. At the beginning of the book she is living alone on an isolated island, sleeping in an abandoned lighthouse and fishing for food. We are immediately given the sense of desolation that she feels, her language is unsophisticated and she is harder than anyone should have to become. But Temple was born into this world of horror and death, this is where she belongs and the only thing she knows. In the manner of a true survivor she can find beauty in the simple things around her and even in the very monsters that threaten her life. Bell tells a simple tale. A girl is forced to leave her island and travels with the dream of someday seeing Niagara Falls Along the way she meets many different kinds of people and monsters, until in the end she must face what it ultimately means to be human. In Moses Todd Temple finds her counter part: a man as hard on the outside as she is on the inside. Their stories are intertwined and the relationship between them is romantic without any of the complications of sex. Perhaps romantic is the wrong word, what they feel is more like the mutual respect of an honorable enemy or perhaps a brother. There are no shocking twists or sudden revelations. There is no deep mystery. What there is, however; is a story so eloquently written, full of so much truth, that you almost expect to walk outside and see "slugs" slowly lumbering toward you. So what does it mean to be human? When we look at our lives what separates us from the "meatskins" who go about their days simply reacting and moving on instinct? Are we only surviving or is there something more to being human, something beyond eating, breathing, working, plodding through life. For Temple there is. There is something sacred and precious about life; there is a plan and God has seen to it that we're all in the place we're supposed to be. Even id we don't understand God is a "slick" God and he knows what he's doing. Temple has seen the very worst of what people are but she has also seen the beauty of miracles. Temple is a difficult character to relate to. She's tough and hard. She handles herself in a way I'd like to think I would should zombies take over the planet. She kills with precision, both zombie and human when necessary. But she is broken. The world that she lives in is a terrible place and it has been her mother, father and mentor through life. She knows nothing else. Responsibility and honor guide her through a world with no rules. The small havens of normalcy she finds feel as alien to her as the outside world of Reapers would appear to us; she will never belong there, but there is nothing in the world that matters more to her than the safety of those who do. The Reapers are The Angels is a mature book, the violence and gore are intense and the lessons in it are hard learned. It's the moral though; that I think takes an adult mind to truly grasp. Concepts of sacrifice, family, and morality are rarely conveyed as profoundly as they are in Reapers. Bell has managed to give us the perfect Anti-Heroine in a world without heroes in a time without hope. Temple takes us on a journey through the worst parts of human nature only to show us that in the end, all that matters is what you hold inside of you.
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