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The Reapers Are the Angels
ALA Alex Award Winner Nominated for the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award Nominated for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award
In the current crop of zombie stories, the prevailing value for the beleaguered survivors is a sort of siege mentality, a vigilance so constant and unremitting that it's indistinguishable from the purest paranoia. It's astonishing, then, to come across a zombie tale like Alden Bell's novel The Reapers Are the Angels, in which a world that "has gone to black damnation" becomes, somehow, the occasion of a young woman's spiritual redemption. [Bell's] sentences roll and dawdle, as if moving to the rhythm of the stilled, eerie environment. The Reapers Are the Angels isn't in any sense a didactic novel, but there's a lesson in its leisurely manner: if you take the time to see and feel and think, the world, dire as it is, can lose some of its terrors. —Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times
It's zombies meets the Southern Gothic tradition in Alden Bell's dark yet luminous novel The Reapers Are the Angels. . . . If you loved Justin Cronin's The Passage, this summer's vampire hit, you'll get a charge out of The Reapers Are the Angels. It's a literary/horror mashup that is unsettlingly good. —Carol Memmott, USA Today
Bell has created an exquisitely bleak tale and an unforgettable heroine whose eye for beauty and aching need for redemption somehow bring wonder into a world full of violence and decay. —Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
This may be the most beautiful book about zombies this reviewer has ever read. —Library Journal (starred review)
Alden Bell's gorgeously written and bloody tale, which mutates from a zombie story into something of beauty and meaning. . . . Bell clearly owes great literary debt to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and the Southern Gothic school of Faulkner and O'Connor, but The Reapers Are the Angels shows the reader that they need not settle for mere blood 'n' guts when horror tales can, and should, go many extra miles. —Sarah Weinman, Summer Reading Pick, Salon.com
In The Reapers Are the Angels, text flows with a providential force that delivers the story from the temporality of the flesh—and the flesh-eating—into high-stakes biblical territory, where the dramas of the living (and living dead) take their cue from the Word of the Lord, that quirky, time-tested author narrating in the sky—or living and writing in New York. . . . The vision is as towering, awful, and miraculous as they come, written down by a writer whose work is a testament to the lure of language. —Meghan Roe, The Brooklyn Rail
At just over 200 pages, Angels doesn’t give [his heroine] time to wear out her welcome, and whenever the introspection gets too heavy, there’s always another round of satisfying carnage to lure readers down the next dusty road. Grade: A-. —Christian Williams, A.V. Club
The last thing I expected from a post-zombie-apocalypse novel was a book both literary and enthralling, but that’s what The Reapers Are the Angels delivers. The writing is excellent and the characters well developed, rooting around through the ruins of our civilization looking for something more than survival, but playing the hands they’re dealt in the meantime. —Ernest Lilly, New York Review of Science Fiction
I can come right out and say this is the most literary, gorgeously written, and most suspenseful book about a fifteen year old girl who happens to fight zombies you are likely to ever read. . . . The last third of this book is almost unbearably suspenseful, with a shocking (to me, anyway) but ultimate satisfying ending. Alden Bell names Buffy, Deadwood, William Faulkner and George Romero as his influences, and from the first page, his writing simply shines. —Kim Alexander, Fiction Nation
The Reapers Are the Angels sparks the imagination and pulls at the gut. The story is evocatively written and eloquent in its ghastly details. Bell's writing is lyrical, intense and disturbingly violent. The Reapers Are the Angels is more than a grisly and satisfying horror yarn—it's a horror story with a soul. —Julie Williamson, Deseret News
This is a beautifully written book about faith and survival. . . . Bell is an incredible writer. The internal and external dialog of Temple draws a true feeling of empathy from the reader for her and her struggles. The author is able to paint a vivid picture of a world in collapse. Part Western and part southern gothic, Bell's work is the perfect zombie book for non-horror readers. —Scott Jarzombek, Poughkeepsie Journal
It's the same old zombie story but told with a whimsical Deep South flavor some have compared to Flannery O'Connor. Call it "A Good Dead Man is Hard to Find." . . . [T]his is a must-read for those who like their literature both brain-specked and philosophical. And for those who thought Cormac McCarthy's The Road could have used a little zombie. —Micah Mertes, Lincoln Journal Star
Far better than any other zombie fiction I have yet to come across, this book brings its reader into a dark, bleak, zombie-infested wasteland occasionally lit by rays of sunshine. . . . An excellent read I would recommend for those who love zombies, as well as those who love a good story. —Jason Kapp, The Star Phoenix
A lot of people have done the reserved masculinity in which McCarthy specializes. . . . And how many authors have done to death poor, ignorant Southern girls who see beauty and love God? The special genius of Bell is to unite the two archetypes, and many more, in the skin of the most appealing teenage-girl-slayer-of-the-undead since Buffy’s first incarnation (Kristy Swanson, not Sarah Michelle Gellar.) . . . Bell’s central concern is not zombies but a 21st-century extension of the most venerable continuously active theme in American literature: the end of the frontier. . . . One almost suspects a wry joke in Bell’s echo of McCarthy’s distinctive voice. Although McCarthy’s novels are filled with bad men and the men who struggle against them, they are ostentatiously devoid of moral content. When, rarely, his men are good (and there are almost no women), their goodness is more like a tribal affiliation. Their purposeless amorality is mythopoeic. Reapers, on the other hand, is about a woman, and there is almost nothing the living in it do that is not motivated either by the characters’ moral sense or its stepsister, the love of beauty. For a gore-soaked apocalyptic romp, the book has a decidedly 19th-century feel. —Peter Coates, The Second Pass
● From the Blogs ●
Top Pick of 2010. —Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews (Best Female Character)
The Reapers Are the Angels . . . is a haunting and beautifully written vision of fractured humanity that may soon be regarded as a classic within its genre. Alden Bell’s characters are vivid and detailed with both major and minor players benefiting from a pleasant and deserved amount of attention. The narrative, as powerful and eloquent as has been seen in this genre for some time, is stark and commanding with never a word wasted. The reader will find themselves completely immersed within the post-apocalyptic world of the author’s creation which is, despite being plagued by the undead, still vibrant and alive with nature and beauty. Reapers breathes new life back into the post-apocalyptic zombie novel. An oddly beautiful tale (considering the subject matter), featuring an hypnotic narrative and near perfect ending. Very highly recommended. 9.2/10: Fantasy Book Review Book of the Month, August 2010.
I am stunned (nearly) speechless by every aspect of this book--the writing, the characters, the plot, every shred of everything. . . . This morning I finished reading, closed the book, let out a big sigh of relief/contentment/sadness and, from the length of my exhalation, realized I must have been holding my breath for half the book. In the past two years or so, I’ve reviewed over 145 books for this blog and I have never read a book like this one. It is gorgeous. It is disgusting. It is just so good. I’m fairly certain it has ruined me for many books to come. 5/5 stars.
One page into The Reapers Are the Angels, it was clear that this was a book that belongs on a shelf with Hawthorne, Dostoevsky, and Calvino. Beautiful images, carefully-crafted phrases, perfectly-balanced nuances--clearly, the work of a skilled writer. . . . Like the best zombie stories (to which it seems somehow wrong to compare this book), the undead here serve to highlight the depravity and soul-deadness of their as-yet-undecayed prey. Unlike its gore-soaked literary forebears, however, The Reapers Are the Angels lives up to the promise of its title and shows how beauty and redemption come, not in the absence of horror and evil, nor even by overcoming or conquering them, but somehow through them and in harmony with them. A paradox, perhaps, but it’s such complexities and their transcendence that sets great books apart from pulp page-turners. 5/5 stars.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a real triumph, a literary fantasy where the zombies are mostly window-dressing. This is a novel more concerned with people and their relationships, with the human spirit and all its flaws and frailties. It's a story driven by the characters' needs to establish some sort of order in their lives, some sort of goal to cling to, and all the pitfalls that arise because of this need. It speaks of resilience and belief, of hope and sorrow, and the need to look for the beauty in life, no matter how hard that might be. An instant post-apocalyptic classic. —James Long, Speculative Horizons
Zombies, much like vampires in recent years, have seen a resurgence in TV, film, novels and comics. Therefore finding something new and interesting can seem like an impossible task, but Alden Bell has accomplished it with style. . . . The Reapers Are the Angels is a haunting, beautiful and engaging story full of moments of horror, where very few of these come at the hands of zombies. It is also a very powerful story about humanity and one that I can see myself reading again. Like I Am Legend I think it will become a classic of the genre and one against which others will be measured.
The Reapers will terrify you, give you nightmares, and make you flinch when someone approaches from behind. The horror and gore is vivid and near nauseating. The revelations and philosophies will make you question your priorities; re-evaluate your motivations; and invoke an insatiable desire to stare at the stars, feel the grass beneath your bare feet and the shocking cold of rain on your face, to sing out loud, and to wander in wonderment. Temple’s world may be sick, but through her thoughts and eyes it is unquestionably precious and awe inspiring. With a poetic depth, brilliant description, and horrifying exploits, Bell presents a distinctive story. I will keep this book, I will buy the final publication, and I will read this book again and again. 5/5 stars.
The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell starts off like a lyrical melody that both fills your head and packs a wallop all in the same breath-a spicy Southern feast wrapped up in soft vowels and a wayward twang. For such a small tale (a mere two hundred and twenty or so compact pages) Reapers has more punch than The Passage, simply because of its soul and its enigmatic lead, and for its finality. . . . Unforgettable in its finality and riveting in its soulfulness. 5 stars (Fiendishly Bookish's Top 10 of 2010).
Every so often a book will just come out of nowhere, grab you right by the brain and whisk you away into its world for a journey that you’ll never forget. . . . When I realised that The Reapers was a zombie book then I knew I was going to have a good time with it. What I didn’t realise though was just how good a time it was going to be. The Reapers Are the Angels is something really special. —Graeme Flory, Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Do not go looking for pulp entertainment: that isn’t to be found here, and Bell neatly bypasses all the zombie uprising froth. Instead he presents us with a connection of haunting images years after the shit has hit the fan, each scene revealing a little more about the world, but never too much to explain it all away. . . . Oh, the zombies. Yeah, they’re there – but as I said, they’re not the stars. Because this is a novel of humanity stripped of any humanity, of the raw limits of existence; it’s a flux of dreamy and bleak images, a blurring of the lines between being a human and an animal. And I loved every word of it.
I'm not sure I can express the enormity of
this book. When I first saw the cover I knew it was no ordinary
zombie post-apocalypse novel, but I had no way of knowing the depth
at which it would touch me. The Reapers Are the Angels
I never thought a zombie novel would make me cry. But, The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell did just that. The Earth is just a shell filled with cutthroats, hunters, and people who are afraid to look out their windows, and Bell's prose captures this flawlessly. I can't quite explain the texture of his writing. Haunting. Lyrical. Macabre. Southern poetry, perhaps? . . . I wish I could conjure the language I need to properly discuss this book, but every time I try, the words escape me. Fans of World War Z, Edgar Allan Poe—fans of horror, sci-fi, guts and gore—literary muses and geeky teenagers alike: this book is for you. —J.P. Wickwire, The Daily Monocle
Folks, this is not your typical George Romero-inspired zombie carnage fest. This is deep, moving stuff, and, in my opinion, it's on par with many of the classic works to which it clearly pays homage. Instead of giving us scenes where helicopters decapitate hordes of the restless undead, or long, drawn-out sequences where characters empty thousands of rounds into rotting zombie flesh, Bell forces us to take a long, hard look at his protagonist, and in so doing, forces us to re-evaluate ourselves, and our own place in the world. . . . Alden Bell's The Reapers Are the Angels teaches us that same valuable lesson, but it does so in a masterful, understated, and ultimately satisfying way that makes this novel one of the best I've read this year. —Robert Walford, Ye Olde Imagination Shoppe
I really enjoyed this story! If you like post-apocalyptic, give this one a tumble. It's a quick and easy read, very well-written, with some fun, rip-roaring moments. And it also increased my vocabulary! Rating: 9/10. —Heather, Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World
Overall, I was flabbergasted when I closed this book. Part of me looked down at the cover, and couldn't believe, I actually read a book filled with zombies. The other part was amazed that I loved it. . . . It was powerfully written, the world was rich, edgy, crude, and credible. The characters were memorable, engaging, and sometimes fricken creepy. . . . But most of all, it was the protagonist, that captured my heart. 5 stars. —Lori, Escape Between the Pages
Alden Bell has offered a moving and fast-paced story. . . . I haven't been in such suspense while reading in a long time. The Reapers Are the Angels has all the emptiness of The Road, set in the grotesque South of Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers; bleak, but rich. A fun, but thought-provoking book with delicate prose, I really enjoyed my first zombie novel. —Bethany Anderson, Words, Words, Words
Awesome Read! I think the author totally rocked out the zombie angle in this one! I have to say that I was really impressed with the overall storyline. I read this one in a day because I just could NOT put it down.
The Reapers Are the Angeles is an exciting fast-paced thriller that grips readers from start to finish. —Harriet Klausner, Alternative Worlds
Each book has its own power and uses it to inform, educate and entertain. This book is powerful in a way that I’ve never encountered before.
I loved this book. This is a zombie novel with vision and heart, that can even be considered high literature. It is haunting and beautiful and thought-provoking while at the same time being brutally realistic. I could not put it down and ended up reading it in a day. . . .The story has equal parts action, adventure, and philosophy. 5/5 stars.
When I first opened the pages of The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell I wasn't quite sure what to expect. . . . There have been so many zombie mash-ups lately that I wasn't quite sure where this novel was going to fit in. I couldn't help thinking the story was Cormac McCarthy's The Road with a sprinkling of zombies. But as I started reading I found out that this wasn't your average zombie novel. The Reapers Are The Angels is true Southern Gothic that delivers a haunting story of survival and the longing for forgiveness. —Suzanne Levin, Chick with Books
I love zombies, and I love apocalypses and this story has both. It didn't disappoint in either of those regards. . . . This one isn't for the weak of stomach, but it is a short and enjoyable book on the whole for someone who is looking for something a bit different from the norm when it comes to zombie fare.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a beautifully written book, its prose fat and rich in the Southern Gothic style. . . . All in all, this is a curious and promising debut that will likely attract readers from both the speculative fiction and the more mainstream or literary audiences.
I was hard pressed to find parts of this novel I didn't like. . . . Overall I really enjoyed the novel, and think Alden Bell is someone I'll keep an eye on to see what's next. I recommend for fans of tales from the wasteland.
Overall, The Reapers Are the Angels is well executed and lyrical in its violence and desolation, and with a great character at the core. I enjoyed the book and liked that it didn’t stick to conventions and found the characters fun to mull over. This is a book that will stalk the dark corners of my mind for a while. 8/10.
The story is engaging and very different from what I expected. The Reapers Are the Angels is both well written and engaging. Strong prose mixed with unforgettable characters and an underlying sense of hope for humanity make this book a triumph. . . . I would recommend this book as both an individual read and as part of a book club.
The writing in the novel is spot on. It’s descriptive enough to give great detail to the world contained in the novel, but not so much that it bogs down the pacing. . . . I read this book so fast and couldn’t put it down. I was so engaged in the story and the characters that I found myself reading in every moment possible throughout my day. . . . The Reapers Are the Angels is now one of my favorite zombie novels. 5/5 stars.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a proverbially hard-to-put-down novel as it draws the reader in with a good balance of gentle pace as well as scenes of tension and action. . . . This is a book with a diverse subject matter where the author's style of writing keeps the story moving along, lending itself to the country it is set in. There is suspense, action... and a truly stunning ending. —The Science Fact and Science Fiction Concatenation
Kerouac has nothing on this road novel. . . . Bloody, brutal, frightening and at times charming, this is an excellent read. —Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa
This type of book is not one I would normally consider my cup of tea. That happens from time to time when you do reviews. But, this one really changed my mind about Zombie books. I didn't think I would like them, but I got caught up in this one from the beginning.
In The Reapers Are the Angels, Alden Bell manages to pull off an ambitious novel. . . . The Reapers has a compelling and suspenseful plot, emotional depth, plenty of creepy terror, some graphic gore, horrific apocalyptic tableaux, and a girl who had to grow up much too fast.
This novel, replete with all the hope of the human condition in a time of utter hopelessness, is a good read. A really good read. First, I should probably out myself: I am not a zombie fan and I don't read post-apocalyptic stuff. I teach literature and so, in this book, I dig the extended (and not so extended) metaphors, the allusions to other works (O'Connor, Faulkner and the Bible, just to name a few) and the prose that is, alternately, gorgeous and translucent.
Pick up Alden Bell’s The Reapers are the Angels for a quick read that incorporates some expected or predictable zombie-genre elements as background for the development of a heroine who easily earns the reader’s compassion. It will keep you reading to the end, wanting to see how Temple maneuvers her difficult environment to accomplish her goals.
Between Temple’s voice and the lean prose I could visualize the scenes in The Reapers Are the Angels better than any book I’ve read recently. This is a double thumbs up with no reservations. —Rebecca and TJ, Deuling Review, Dirty Sexy Books
This is a fine debut novel with a distinctive voice reminiscent of the western. It is a call to savour the natural beauty around us even though we may be hard pressed with worry and asks that old question, are we bound to our fate or can we make our own future? . . . A post apocalyptic zombie novel worth reading. —Carole, Midleton & Fermoy Books
In light of the wealth of post-apocalyptic stories like The Book of Eli, The Road, and The Passage, now filling book shelves and movie theatres all across America The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell turned out to be both a pleasant surprise and a real treat to read and in some ways is better than the others I’ve mentioned above. . . . [I] was quite pleased to find what I believe might one of the year’s best sub-genre releases. 4/5 stars.
Picture Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird grown up and in a Flannery O’Connor novel filled with the undead. Reapers is a potent, unexpected, and ultimately moving book. Considering that I’m genuinely unnerved by zombies, that’s strong praise.
At face value, this is already the makings of a pretty great read. But why stick to only a pretty great read? After all this is far from being the first zombie story ever told. Well Alden Bell has taken it further and The Reapers Are the Angels is the entrancing result. . . . Bell’s prose is beautiful and minimalist. His descriptions are direct yet vivid and his way with words is often astounding. He even goes so far as to forgo traditional dialogue punctuation opting for a fluid, words-flowing style. . . . This book will mostly attract those in search of a deeper read but really it can satisfy any or all reader -- fan of speculative fiction or not. 4.5 out of 5.
You would think with the countless incantations of zombies, that nothing original can be added to the genre. I mean, how many takes can you have on dead people rising and eating brains? . . . The Reapers Are the Angels is different in that there is a literary flavor to the prose, sprinkled with deep meaning, which totally flew over my head.
This is a good summary of my experience reading Alden Bell’s The Reapers Are the Angels: my boyfriend and I were driving to New Jersey to meet some members of his family at the Cherry Hill Mall. Usually I don’t read in the car when it’s just the two of us, but I’d been reading the book while I was waiting and I was halfway through and I couldn’t put it down. By the time we got there I had about ten pages left, he parked the car and got out but I was still frantically trying to get to the end. “Honey,” he said, “Come on!” “I JUST NEED TO FINISH THIS BOOK OKAY LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” I snapped at him. Then I proceeded to sit in the car until I was done. If this is a new trend–that is, the Southern Gothic style writing and post apocalyptic setting–then I for one am all for it. Bell does it quite well. —Amanda, A Study of Reading Habits
This was a different sort of zombie book. It reminded me a bit of The Road. I have only seen the movie, but it had the same hopelessness to it, and hope.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a deeply moving character study of a young girl surviving on her own in a relentlessly bleak post-apocalyptic landscape as she grapples with her own darker nature. Bell weaves a haunting tale that packs an astonishingly powerful emotional punch for just over two hundred pages. This is easily the most literary zombie novel you’ll ever read, and it’s certain that it will come to be regarded as a classic of young adult literature. Go buy it. Rating: A (100/100).
Reapers was such a great read on so many levels. The uncertainty of what Bell would come up with next in this world and what Temple would encounter had me holding my breath and frantically turning pages. . . . An excellent read for me--definitely 5 stars. This novel would appeal to those who enjoyed Cormac McCarthy's The Road or Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. I can see this being made into a movie as well.
The Reapers Are the Angels is an exceptionally well-crafted novel. It has depth and beauty which is no easy task to convey in a zombie novel. Alden Bell has much to be proud of with this book.
The Reapers Are the Angels was a very interesting book, though difficult to read at times. I appreciated that it was a fresh take on the dystopian zombie novel. Fans of dystopian books will definitely appreciate this book, though it is much grittier than what I’ve been reading lately. Still, this is a well-written novel, and I’ll be on the look out for what Gaylord/Bell comes up with next. 4 out of 5.
I ask you to take a chance on this novel. It's got a soulfulness I have yet to encounter in a book. I remember reading the novel and saying to myself that "there's just so much behind these words." I knew I'd have a tough time writing the review. I knew there was no way to accurately get my feelings across. Hopefully my lack of a deserving review for The Reapers Are the Angels will at least get you curious about it. Read it. Tell me how it makes you feel. I bet it will both shock and surprise you.
The narrative in this book is clean and uncluttered and exactly what I loved about The Road. I think it will and can be enjoyed by those who love fantasy type fiction, but also those (like me) for whom this isn’t their normal genre. . . . In summary, I enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone who likes post-apocolyptic novels and fantasy.
Alden Bell uses a combination of masterful prose with torn and weary characters to sink the reader’s teeth into this novel. . . . Alden’s prose is almost magical, and creates a natural world out of the horrors post zombie. . . . Fantastic lyrical passages mixed with a touch of necessary gore and fear keep the reader engaged throughout the journey. The Reapers Are the Angels is highly recommended; experience the sad, dead and lonely apocalypse through the eyes of a child fighter born into it.
From the entertaining set up Alden Bell keeps the pace flowing, with the minimalism of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road fitting naturally into the God-fearing, Southern state environment. But its the characters which draw you into the book. . . . If The Reapers are the Angels isn’t going to become as renowned, or as essential as The Road, it doesn’t detract from the engaging characters or the sparse prose. But in a world gone insane, The Road and The Reapers are the Angels would at least make fitting companions.
I was going to give you one of those great comparisons of ‘If you like X then you’ll like this book--but I can’t really compare it to anyone else--it’s wholly original in a genre that sometimes lacks for new ideas . . . but not this time! I would give this 4 Bloody Eyeball Martinis out of 5.
The Reapers Are the Angels
is an epic book packed into a small package. . . . Readers will be
enthralled with the zombie-infested world Bell has created. . . .
They will understand Temple’s struggle with spirituality and a
feeling that there is something greater than herself at work and
will admire her sense of immortality in a world where others are
cowering in fear. . . . She is an amazing heroine that will appeal
to fans of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Reapers Are the Angels reminded me of a few different books like The Road and Justin Cronin's The Passage. . . . I'd recommend The Reapers Are the Angels to anyone these books and wants to read a literary take on a zombie apocalypse. 4/5 stars.
The Reapers Are the Angels transcends genre--the writing is almost too powerful, as if a Ford Pinto were given the engine of a Mustang--and the narrative pace keeps surging forward, carried by the very engaging and rounded characters of Temple and her pursuer, Moses. . . . A world like this--meatskins stumbling around the streets, much of civilization crumbling, little safety anywhere--might seem like a world unredeemed and unredeemable. The story of a girl named Temple, and her journey across the ruined America of the future, suggests there is still room for redemption in any world.
There were times where I felt this book was just wild! Other times, there was this quiet, beautiful thing going on and I would actually linger on the page a bit longer to enjoy it. This is one of those books that you cannot peg at first glance. It has zombies in it, but it’s not a book about zombies. It’s about good vs. evil, trust, responsibility, regret, appreciating what you have, and there are larger themes here dealing with death and religion and life after death.
The Reapers Are the Angels will definitely become an classic within the genre. . . . Read it as soon possible.
Once I started the book I could not put it down – I devoured it in a single night. . . . One thing that Mr. Bell captures brilliantly with his sparse prose is the otherness of Temple – as she’s never lived in the world as we know it, her emotions, decisions, and perceptions are incredibly different from anything we know. And that is really cool stuff.
As I stare at the cover of the book (having just finished the last sentence), I find that I am crying. Very few books have me connecting with the characters to the point of tears. . . . Temple isn’t pure goodness, she isn’t just light, sometimes the dark comes through, yet with it is knowledge of the dark and who she believes she is. Her story is compelling and breathtaking.
As my first post apocalyptic fiction novel, The Reapers Are the Angels was a great introduction. It's made me want to branch out and read more genres of its type, something I shied away from for a while. . . . Highly recommended as a novel that defies convention and sets for itself a compelling character driven journey against the desolation and solitude of this new world.
Excellent stuff. If there is one book you want to rescue from the zombie glut, this may be it. 4.5 scalpels out of 5.
This is not a funny tale. Its not even a scary tale (tho it is scary at points). Its a dark, horrible and terribly tragic story of life, loss and the need for redemption. I could not put it down. It grabbed me from the first page and held me in its icy grip as I rushed with Temple from the things that haunted her. It was beautiful and sad, and left me haunted. . . . If I were to rate it, I would say it was one of the best books I've read this year. Definitely in the top 10. Seriously. I found myself just pausing today at various points and thinking about it. Its a rare book that does that to me. All I can say is bravo, Alden Bell. Your book is brilliant in its darkness.
For a book set in a squalid, run-down zombie apocalypse, many moments of beauty and grace are found by Temple, a fifteen-year old girl searching for safety and solace. . . . Temple has her dark past but also hopes and dreams for the future, even in a landscape of fallen infrastructure and the risen dead.
Reapers isn’t your average post-zombie apocalypse book. Far from it. It reads more like a gothic literary novel than a futuristic thriller. . . . I picked this up one night when I couldn’t sleep, intended to read a few pages, and had to force myself to stop reading half way through. . . . I highly recommend it.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a post-apocalyptic zombie thriller, combining the best of both genres. It is a stunning, character-driven, evocative narrative that shares more in common with Jack Kerouac than George Romero. . . . The Passage is a painstaking replication of genre standards; Reapers breaks the mold entirely. In ten years, I suspect that only one of these books will be remembered - and it won't be The Passage. The Reapers are the Angels is a daring, moving, captivating book. Selfishly, I want it to be longer - to be a trilogy - to be one of those infinitely-long fantasy epics that never ends. Alden Bell has written a crackerjack miracle of a first novel.
Reapers is well written, there’s not doubt about that, and author Bell has the kind of way with words that most writers only dream about. In fact, the entire work has a lyrical, almost poetic sense to it, even when bone is smashed and blood flies, and if I had to categorize it, I’d say it was a literary horror novel with all the contradictions that implies. 4 stars.
I read this book so fast and couldn’t put it down. I was so engaged in the story and the characters that I found myself reading in every moment possible throughout my day. . . . The Reapers Are the Angels is now one of my favorite zombie novels. 5/5 fishmuffins.
The Reapers Are the Angels looks at the pursuit of beauty, the pursuit of God, the flight from inner demons, and the fact that none of us can ever see the whole truth at any time. We are too small and truth is woven too large. It isn’t Flannery O’Connor but it doesn’t need to be to accomplish the same thing that O’Connor always wrote about. The Reapers Are the Angels is a book about being human with all the questions and struggles that humans have had throughout time. Highest recommendation.
It is the story of changes in the world, with every human aspect taken into account. The novel is a study of character on a powerful setting, matched by a wonderful and flowing prose that takes the reader into a pleasant reading. . . . Alden Bell’s The Reapers Are the Angels is a story of life, tragic in places, but engaging and beautifully written. It is a confirmation of the beauty of literature.
Comparisons with classics such as an A Canticle for Leibowitz and I am Legend for once are justified: this is a haunting, poetic tale in which the zombies (or meatskins, as they’re known here) are almost irrelevant. Alden Bell charts a tragic tale, which has echoes of Of Mice and Men and Crime and Punishment – not the sort of novels that would normally inspire such fiction. . . . Verdict: 9/10. Not to be missed.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a book that defies expectations in a good way. . . . It's a story that offers finely-tuned suspense balanced with a terrific philosophical sensibility. It is, without a doubt, the best book I've read this year so far. . . . [It] is a such a well written book that if you don't find yourself reading it and wondering whether you appreciate your own life enough, then you just don't have a soul. I'd give this book a rare (for me) but well deserved 5/5 stars. —SQT at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews
Alden Bell's (a.k.a. Joshua Gaylord) debut genre novel does for zombie fiction what Cormac McCarthy's The Road did for dystopian fiction, or John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In did for vampires: use the clichés of the form to tell a deeply psychological, literary story. . . . In the end, The Reapers Are the Angels is simply an extraordinary book. —SMD at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews
The Reapers Are the Angels is a tour de force, the kind of literary triumph that doesn't come along too often and rarely in genre novels, truly it deserves spectacular success. . . . It's not an action book by any means but there is always something going on and it will draw you in relentlessly to the end where I defy you not scream out loud such is the surprise that awaits. The Reapers Are the Angels is a fabulous read and, for me, a book that redefines the zombie genre into something intelligent, thoughtful and powerfully dramatic. Already one of the best books of the year, it'll be a major mistake if you let it pass you by.
If Cormac McCarthy and Joss Wedon teamed up to write a book about zombies, this would be that book. . . . Temple is my favorite character since Buffy. Who was my favorite character since Starbuck. Who was my favorite character since Katniss.
My first thought upon starting Reapers was basically that I wasn't sure the world needed (or that I could handle reading) another zombie book. Temple won me over.
I could write this entire review in quotes alone, simply because The Reapers Are the Angels is so beautifully written and utterly profound. . . . [It] is a brutal tale that is absolutely startling in the beauty of its telling. It truly blew my mind. . . . Graphic, violent, brutal, honest and even humorous, at times, The Reapers Are the Angels is, quite simply, a work of art. It is deep, dude -- quite spiritual, in fact. Highly recommended, but be forewarned . . . it's a hard, hard read and it will break your heart.
Temple’s a vivid character, brought to life by Bell’s elegant and evocative storytelling and overall Reapers will surprise you, as it did me, in the best possible way whether you’re a fan of dystopian fiction or not.
The Reapers Are the Angels offers a fresh voice in the zombie genre. The book, relatively light on plot but heavy on thought, stands out among a myriad of middling zombie currently books flooding the shelves of our bookstores. . . . The philosophical considerations of a zombie-infested world, the reflections on nature's persistent beauty in spite of the evil that strides across it, and the struggles of Temple as she looks for her place are not the standard markings of a zombie novel; paired with the guts and gore that one expects when killing the un-dead, this is sure to be enjoyed by zombie lovers and by those a bit skeptical of the genre to begin with.
The Reapers Are the Angels is part Faulkner, part Cormac McCarthy's The Road, part The Walking Dead. . . . I don't know if it resonated with me because I am a Southerner or because I like zombie tales (or both), but this is definitely a book I'd revisit. It's more "literary" than I'd originally expected, but that's actually a welcome surprise. Recommended.
The Reapers Are the Angels is a superior post-apocalyptic novel whose literary ambitions are intriguing and impressive. 4 1/2 stars.
After The Passage
The dead live. Wherever you look, there they are: easy fodder for creative types stuck for a Big Bad in their books or movies or games or whatever. And wouldn't you know it, they're in The Reapers Are the Angels, too. Which, rather counter-intuitively, just so happens to be singularly the best thing with zombies in it in... oh, years. . . . The Reapers Are the Angels is a superb novel - transcendent, you might say. Surely it will stand in a few short months as amongst the year's very best, and not least because of Bell's delightful use of language: his register... his approach to character, setting and narrative... the wonderful Southerness of it all. . . . Alden Bell's book is an unqualified masterclass. So often in criticism it proves difficult to decide which of a host of problems to foreground in a review, but there's simply nothing about The Reapers Are the Angels not to sing the praises of. I'm telling you: not a single, solitary sausage. Absolutely bloody marvelous.
Alden Bell’s zombie novel The Reapers Are the Angels wears this thematic heart on its sleeve. Temple, a fifteen-year-old girl who doesn’t remember anything from before the zombie apocalypse, wanders around the world trying to see its mostly wasted sights while also trying to stay out of trouble. . . . Her adventure is a hopeless one—and also one not necessarily all that different from the one being shared by the people she meets along the way—but this doesn't make it any less riveting, and the layers of this novel are many and deep. —Richard Larson, Strange Horizons
This is one of the best novels I've read
all year. . . . Just as Let the Right One In was a literary
novel that had a vampire, so Reapers is a literary novel with
zombies in its landscape - they're not central, it's not really
about them, they're just part of the landscape and yet they define
the landscape and the story. Bits and pieces of this novel remind me
of Mark Twain and, oddly, True Grit
Think James Lee Burke filtered through Cormac McCarthy's The Road with zombies. Boy, that really wasn't very helpful was it. Let me try another pair of words: unexpectedly lovely. . . . Go and find this novel and read it. Grisly, ghastly, gory, gruesome, and lit all through with some of those miracles you've just heard about. Unexpectedly, unaccountably lovely. One last point, and I hope this speaks as loudly as I would like it to: I borrowed this book from the library, but I need to go out and purchase my own copy. Need, not want. This book warrants closer reading. Highly recommended to an adult audience.
I started reading it because I heard that it was similar in theme to Rot and Ruin, another zombie book I loved recently, but I had no idea how much I would love it. . . . More impressive than the episodic plot, however, is the completely gorgeous prose this book is written in. There were passages that literally made me gasp because they were so well-written, and it probably took me twice as long as usual to read this because I spent so long soaking up Alden Bell’s sentences. This book may have just become my favorite book of all time, and I plan to immediately re-read it to enjoy it all over again.
It is rare . . . to find a book about the zombie apocalypse that addresses the larger themes that one finds in science fiction apocalyptic literature. The Reapers Are the Angels is just such a rarity. Author Alden Bell looks beyond the popular appeal of zombies to the depths of the human soul.
Well this book is definitely a zombie book. But it’s more than that too. If I said that this is a zombie book with heart, would that be too cheesy? Because I think it’s an apt description. 4/5 stars. —Clarissa Foss, The Books We Read
Temple is an intriguing character. At times almost sweet, she's usually brusque and has no trouble saying what she means. She's got a good sense of self-preservation, and yet shows compassion. . . . I loved Temple. Read this. Before I send meatskins after you. 4/5 stars, excellent.
The Reapers Are the Angels is an unexpected treasure, and might easily be overlooked by otherwise avid horror readers. A gothic southern tale of a girl who lives alone after the zombie uprising, it does for zombies what Interview with a Vampire did for vampires. . . . Intensely strange, deeply emotional, this is a zombie tale not to be missed, or underestimated in the sea of knockoff bio-horror/apocalyptic books. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Readers should be aware that Bell’s intoxicating tale will pull you in and make it very hard to let go. An absolute must-have for modern horror collections. Highly recommended. —BookLove: A Bookseller's Book Journal
Holy cow, guys. I'd heard (you know, around the online water cooler or wherever) that The Reapers Are the Angels was good, but I hadn't realized to what degree of good. It's seriously, seriously . . . well, it's not your average zombie novel. . . . As I read it, I kept thinking of Flannery O'Connor. And of Faulkner. Not just because of the Southern Gothic feel, but because Alden Bell captures that same beauty-in-the-midst-of-horror and resignation-to-tragedy-beyond-our-definition-of-tragedy that I think of when I think of Faulkner and O'Connor. The dialect is flawless, the stylistic choices feel natural and unpretentious and satisfying, and in general, it's gorgeously, impeccably written. . . . It's a heartbreaker of a book -- it put a lump in my throat for a good 200 pages and made me cry buckets when I'd finished -- and it's a special one. Temple herself -- deep-thinking, angry, broken-and-unbroken at the same time -- is a character I won't forget for a long, long time.
This is one of the oddest and best zombie novels you will ever read. . . . In some very strange ways, this book is almost a prayer of thanks for all that remains when the worst has happened. You’ll think that that is a strange reaction to this book when you start reading it, but as the pages fly by, and when you reach the end, you’ll realize that a blue sky looks more beautiful than before; and you’ll think about how wonderful it is that you can read, that you can sit peacefully by a still lake, that the Grand Canyon exists, and you will realize that Alden Bell has touched your deep heart’s core. 5 stars. —Terry Weyna, Fantasy Literature
In The Road, the boy says to his father, “We’re the good guys, right?” In The Reapers Are the Angels, Temple asks, “Am I evil?” In each book, characters wrestle with the gap between survival-based behavior and moral behavior. Is it possible to have morality, community, connection, when you are fighting for survival? The father in The Road, and Moses in Reapers, would give you one answer. Temple would give you another. Who is right? The Reapers Are the Angels will help the reader decide the answer to that question. —Marion Deeds, Fantasy Literature
I enjoyed reading this book, and I like the risks the author took in the story. It's really unusual and interesting. It has all of the checklist items of a zombie story, and somehow defies the more irritating stereotypes. I would definitely recommend it to fans of dark fiction or science fiction! 4/5 stars. —Em and Emm Expound on Exposition
I have to say, Temple is one of the most interesting characters I’ve read. The writing was vividly descriptive and unapologetically raw. It brought to life a bleak and desolate world overrun by the undead who were themselves more pathetic and sad than scary. The pockets of survivors that Temple came upon showed the best and worst of humanity.
But what I like best about this zombie road novel--and there are lots of things to like, from his southern gothic style, to the pathos of the starved dead heeding only raw animal instinct--is that Bell doesn’t give in to the urgent desire of the popular genre for a closed circular narrative.
This book is beautiful. It was kind of like was a 15-year-old Salander (from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) would be like if she was born into a zombie apocalypse. The destruction is amazing--like watching a firework.
The Reapers Are the Angels lives in that tender moment just after you’ve looked too long into the eyes of the monster. . . . It would be a mistake to think that Reapers is merely a melodrama retold among the undead. It doesn’t lack for dark humour or even graphic brutality and, let’s face it, if you are reading a zombie novel then that’s probably what you have come looking for. It is no great achievement for a horror survival story to leave you with the feeling that you are happy to not be dead – that’s what they’re supposed to do. Alden Bell’s take on the genre really does leave you glad to be alive, but for all the right reasons. —Shane Collins, Civilian Reader
The Reapers are the Angels is simply written but wonderful in its simplicity. . . . [D]espite the dark and seemingly hopeless world, Bell manages to give us a complex heroine who sees the beauty and wonder in the world. And it’s that same heroine that makes this book worth reading and impossible to forget.
I could not put this book down. I fell in love with this tough, damaged, illiterate, street smart girl as she made her way across a wasteland filled with not only unspeakable horror (there are some genuinely scary, disturbing moments), but also oasis' of beauty and humanity. Alden Bell has created a zombie novel of the highest order. In addition, he's created something rarely seen in this genre, a literary gem.
This is a zombie novel, but it's not your run-of-the-mill gorefest. . . . Instead it stands as one of the most beautiful uses of the English language I've ever read, with a story that's something like Of Mice and Men or Huckleberry Finn, just with a zombie plot. 4.75/5.
Almost immediately we’re dunked, zombies and all, into that rich vein of Southern speech that writers south of the Mason Dixon line have been mining since Augustus Baldwin Longstreet published his Georgia Scenes in 1835. As Temple narrates, we hear a voice of twangy, adolescent innocence and experience soaked, steeped, and filtered through Twain’s Huck, Faulkner’s Sarty Snopes, Harper Lee’s Scout Finch, Capote’s Joel Harrison Knox, Padgett Powell’s Simons Manigault, Denis Johnson’s Fiskadoro, and countless other avatars of gritty, low-down, “free bird” authenticity. It’s Bell’s powerful ability to dwell within this matrix of voices that makes The Reapers Are the Angels more than just Huckleberry Finn with Zombies. Bell brings a cherished, culturally canonized voice and narrative into contact with one of the ugliest, dirtiest, bloodiest, goriest, drive-in movie denizens of our time: the zombie flick. This is the real mashup: a Ree Dolly who wades through the pop cultural detritus (literally and figuratively) of Romero, Lucio Fulci, Dead Snow, Planet Terror, 28 Days Later, Resident Evil, and The Walking Dead. And, amazingly, The Reapers Are the Angels works – as both a zombie narrative and a significant contribution to contemporary fiction.
Hummingbirds
IndieBound Indie Next Notable, November 2009 Daily Beast Hot Read
In Gaylord’s winning debut, teenage girls and their male teachers vie for power at a Manhattan prep school. The author, himself a teacher at a Manhattan prep school, is a keen observer of this privileged world. He captures [the adult] point of view in such lush language that readers might overlook his shrewd, subtle presentation of the students. A very grown-up novel about adolescence and the folly of adults, by an impressive new voice in American fiction. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Provocative and well-written. —People
The Carmine-Casey prep school girls flutter through Gaylord's debut, but they're not alone; their teachers are insecure flirts and cheats amid divorces and trysts. . . . [T]he complicated web of loyalties, attraction, competition and camaraderie provides much tension as things play out—but not in an expected way. . . . Gaylord's tale of overeducated men and the teenage students who exhibit the finesse and understanding their teachers lack hits all the right notes. —Publisher's Weekly
Especially good at characterization, Gaylord has delivered a story that's ripe with acute and wry observations on men and women, competition, sexuality, and secrets. He's created a slippery slope, but readers will find the terrain surprisingly navigable as the novel ends. Highly recommended. —Library Journal
The book is a languishing and lovely read about the people who spend their days in the hallowed halls of Carmine-Casey, and sometimes their evenings as well. It is also about what they do when they leave these hallowed halls. It is about friendship, gender, age, love, sex and wanting—wanting to be something different, something that is colorful and special, that all will notice and admire. —Bonnie Brodie, MostlyFiction Book Review
If you're the kind of smart reader who likes complex . . . grown-up books where people have complicated relationships and are confronted by morally ambiguous choices, this book is a must read. —Heeb Magazine
A Nabokovian Gossip Girl that is refreshingly smart in how it is less about the labels and more about the lust exhibited by students and teachers. . . . There are male authors who write such believable female characters and conversations that you know they must have some female friend informing the editing process. . . . What’s even more impressive about Gaylord’s female insights is that they are mostly about teenaged females, an even more elusive breed. . . . Hummingbirds entertains with an intellectual edge that will surely satisfy the educated reader wanting some fun. —Corrine White, The Dartmouth
● From the Blogs ●
It’s hard to believe that Hummingbirds is Joshua Gaylord’s first novel. He writes with such confidence and grace, he seems like a seasoned fiction writer. This is a book that should appeal to a lot of different people, and it’s one I definitely recommend picking up.
Gaylord has created a truly believable, interesting and strangely lovable cast who each have their own faults and quirks. . . . I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys beautiful, clever composition – I enjoyed Hummingbirds so thoroughly that it made me want to start writing again.
A Gossip Girl for the thinking woman or man.
This book is well written and dialog is used well to propel the story along. The conversations between the students in particular are good: what they are worrying about, caring about, lying and exaggerating about. It's all about the posturing and trying to figure out if they are "keeping up" with the other students. The adult relationships are also good. They are complicated, stiff, confusing, and "normal". There are misunderstandings, competitions, and people who just put up with one another. Just like in life. The book is real, I guess that's one of the things that makes it so good. 4 out of 5.
Hummingbirds is beautifully written, with prose that is effervescent and clear. Gaylord strikes just the right tone in writing about the relationships between teachers, the rivalries and shared rapport. . . . Gaylord handles his plot with tightrope ease, creating an ending that is surprising but also just right. Hummingbirds is compelling, intellectually engaging, and fun to read. Recommended for those who like good contemporary fiction in an academic or urban setting, or for those who just love good writing.
It's clear Gaylord is such a literary nerd, and I would've killed to have him as an English teacher in high school (my high school's English department was embarrassingly weak). He peppers his novel with literary references to novels and authors and poems...such a booknerd's dream! . . . Bottom line: solid literary fiction.
Recommend - This may sound odd but this story reminded me of Glee. . . . This book is hard to discuss without sharing plot twists (good twists) but I will tell you there are plenty of twists in the book to keep you wanting to know what will happen. . . . It's a story of many messed up lives but I confess I did enjoy reading it.
Have you ever read a book that you really really liked, but yet you had an incredibly hard time describing it well enough to someone else so that they would be excited about it too? Yep, this is one of those books. . . . I would recommend this one to my friends. It's quirky, weird, but yet excellent. 4/5.
Author Joshua Gaylord handles the omni viewpoint masterfully, showing just how little difference there is between the girls and the adults in their lives. . . . Gaylord keeps the tone light and ironic, with an undercurrent of pathos. The novel has a distinct neo-Dickensian quality, though not as tightly plotted—Hummingbirds is more of a portrait gallery that you drift through, admiring the charming, sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving interplay of flawed personalities.
Joshua Gaylord’s novel Hummingbirds, is a sly look inside the world of an exclusive girls prep school during the course of one very eventful year. . . . Initially, this novel took me back to my own high school years at Ladywood High School, and our token male English teacher, Mr. Malone. I clearly recalled groups of us fluttering around his desk, innundating him with giggles and our most flirtatious behavior. But eventually Gaylord strays into territory my classmates and I never ventured to go, with consequences far more serious and long-lasting.
|
can easily stand beside novels like The Road
,
Earth Abides
,
and A Canticle for Leibowitz
,
as a modern day classic. Yes, there are zombies and yes, there are
scenes with blood and mayhem, but those take back seat to the human
condition. [It] is a character driven story that reads more like
literary fiction than genre fiction. . . . I'm putting The
Reapers Rre the Angels on my "keepers for life" stack of books,
and yes there were a few tears shed during the reading of this book.
5/5 stars.
.
by Justin Cronin, any zombie novel has a long lurching walk ahead of
it to meet the high bar I've set for a book that's not . . . well,
brain-dead on arrival. My love
for The Passage was deep and wide; but, if any book can
meet my expectations, Bell's 2010 novel about a young woman named
Temple on the run from marauding "meatskins" might be the one to do
it.
,
but Reapers has its own literary sensibility. The story of
Temple, a girl who is trying to figure out her place in her world
and her travels through it, Reapers elevates itself far above
its genre and brings with it a multiplicity of pleasures for the
reader. You need this book.