Pen is a demon, a fallen angel, working with her brother
Azael, it’s their role to torment and bedevil humanity. To slaughter and reap
souls and drag as many of them back to Hell as they can.
It’s a good time to be a demon, Hell’s ranks are
expanding all the time and Heaven is in definite retreat. Michael, the leader
of Heaven’s angels, is imprisoned and demons can work almost unchecked across
Earth. More, Lillith has discovered a new way to spread her plague and turn
humans into Lilim, more demon forces to reinforce the might of Hell.
The apocalypse is coming and Hell is sure to win.
But Pen is far from comfortable in her role – and never
has been though she keeps on for her brother’s sake. Then she meets the newly
reborn Archangel Michael, young and innocent and full of questions – and is
given the task to corrupt him however she can. But as much as she turns him
from Heaven, he turns her from Hell – together they begin to forge a third
choice, even as Armageddon begins.
Firstly I’m going to praise the writing in a peculiar
way. Thinking back and even during the book I was making notes that the pacing
was pretty poor – nothing seemed to be happening, we weren’t going anywhere, we
were kind of walking round in circles and having lots of emotional musings.
Objectively, that’s slow. Subjectively, it’s the kind of book that bores me
rigid, two characters briefly meeting then examining their navels for an
interminable period afterwards. It should have bored me.
It didn’t – this is what tells me the writing was good.
Because it can take a style and story that I don’t normally care for and kept me
reading it without complaint; I should have been bored and wasn’t sounds like
an odd compliment, but it’s a meaningful one
That being said, I wasn’t actually sold on the
relationship precisely because not enough time was spent on Penn and Michael
together. I didn’t see why Penn was enamoured of Michael or vice versa. I didn’t
see what they saw in each other as romantic interests. More, since it was clear
from the very first second they set eyes on each other that they were going to
be a romance, it made the story predictable.
But it works without the romance. It works if we take an angel and a demon coming together not because they love each other, but because they have a shared philosophy. Both of them realising that they don’t fit in either realms. Both accepting that the cruel, callous horror of Hell is not for them, but nor is the rigid, compassionless, stifling, impossible perfection of Heaven any more suitable – which is just as callous and indifferent as the sadism of Hell. Both are uncaring, both unforgiving, both lacking in compassion, having no tolerance for doubt or questioning or disobedience. The two being united in their mutual appreciation of the scales of grey, of the wonders and beauty of Earth and the creations of humanity – that worked really well as a story and as a concept. This was the story I read and this was the story I enjoyed. In fact, the romance got in the way of what was a really excellent premise.
Seeing Penn grow as a character was also something I
liked in the story. I liked her growing acceptance that she just didn’t fit in
Hell – just as she realised she didn’t fit in the rigid halls of Heaven either.
She grows away from her brother, even as he achieves all his goals and dreams,
she realises she doesn’t share them and that her brother can manage without
her. She realised that she wasn’t irredeemable, that there was something inside
of her that wasn’t tainted by Hell, that she could pull herself back was all a
nicely told element I appreciated – except that it was all of this was linked
to Michael. They couldn’t have moments of mutual discovery, Michael had to be
the light guiding her way, assuring her she was good and worthy, providing her
love to hold on to. In fact, when they are separated she starts backsliding to
Hell because she doesn’t have Michael so gives up on her growth. I would rather
her life have been about her growth rather than her swapping one desperately
dependent relationship for another.
There’s a lot of literary references in this book which
is something I have complained about in other books – it sounds very
pretentious and like the author is showing off their English degree. But it
worked here – Pen is, after all, the angel who tried to introduce writing to
humanity, who couldn’t accept god leaving them ignorant. That writing is a
major part of who she is - in fact, more focus on literature and less on her
twu lub for the shining Michael would have been far better
There was also a lot of pop culture references between
her and Azael as well as a lot of snark. Normally I appreciate these as
grounding a book, and I do like snark, I really do. But these characters are
supposed to be angels, therefore thousands of years old. They never really felt
it and the snark and references made them feel even younger – and it didn’t
help they were in the bodies of teenagers
And there’s not one iota of minority inclusion in this
book, which is pretty disappointing.
Frustratingly, I think this book could have been excellent.
I think it could have been something genuinely original with some really
powerful concepts, a very different story and some excellent character growth
and presentation. Instead that beautiful potential was hammered through some
very overused romance moulds that it just didn’t fit.
A copy of this book was provided through Netgalley