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stevia333k's review against another edition
3.0
it was cool, mainly interested by the cover but it was good once we found out about some more secret details about eric & his best friend.
abetterbradley's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed this book. It's a suspense filled gay tinged page turner. The main character wakes up from a car accident with amnesia. He quickly learns that his ex-friend, a friend he know bullies, was found in the backseat dead. I was hooked from the jacket copy.
apostrophen's review
4.0
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Lambda award-winning author Greg Herren can spin a good mystery - and grab you from the start. Anyone who has read his Chanse or Scotty mysteries can attest to that. That he can do the same thing with a YA novel - a genre that, quite frankly, has even more challenges to do well - speaks to his skill as an author.
What might seem like a topic done before - an amnesia victim potentially holding the vital clues to a murder - gets a fresh breath in "Sleeping Angel." Eric Matthews wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and a serious problem: he was found in a car with the dead body of Sean, a former childhood friend - a friend he has been cruel to for years. Did he - like so many people believe - kill Sean?
He doesn't know.
Herren gives Eric a realistic rude awakening. Sure, his parents think he's a good kid, and he's popular and an athlete, but as one character in the book puts it - people do love to tear someone down when they've put them up high in the first place. Eric's self-examination is from his own point of view and a stranger both - he doesn't remember his life - and he's chilled by actions he doesn't remember taking. More importantly, he's got a lethal catch-22 to face: he might be a murderer on the one hand, but on the other, if he's not - then there's a murderer out there who'd definitely like him dead for what he might know, but can't remember.
The teens all read well, the parents and police aren't bumbling idiots (a trope that annoys me in much of teen fiction), and Eric's struggle for the truth - and to accept that maybe he wasn't a nice guy - rings true. There's a dash of paranormal to the mystery as well, but not overwhelmingly so, and it adds an interesting quirk to the tale. I'd intended to read this over a few days, a chapter here and a chapter there, and ended up devouring it between one late night and one early morning. It's solid, and tight, and well paced, and I hope Herren gives YA more of his time in the future.
What might seem like a topic done before - an amnesia victim potentially holding the vital clues to a murder - gets a fresh breath in "Sleeping Angel." Eric Matthews wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and a serious problem: he was found in a car with the dead body of Sean, a former childhood friend - a friend he has been cruel to for years. Did he - like so many people believe - kill Sean?
He doesn't know.
Herren gives Eric a realistic rude awakening. Sure, his parents think he's a good kid, and he's popular and an athlete, but as one character in the book puts it - people do love to tear someone down when they've put them up high in the first place. Eric's self-examination is from his own point of view and a stranger both - he doesn't remember his life - and he's chilled by actions he doesn't remember taking. More importantly, he's got a lethal catch-22 to face: he might be a murderer on the one hand, but on the other, if he's not - then there's a murderer out there who'd definitely like him dead for what he might know, but can't remember.
The teens all read well, the parents and police aren't bumbling idiots (a trope that annoys me in much of teen fiction), and Eric's struggle for the truth - and to accept that maybe he wasn't a nice guy - rings true. There's a dash of paranormal to the mystery as well, but not overwhelmingly so, and it adds an interesting quirk to the tale. I'd intended to read this over a few days, a chapter here and a chapter there, and ended up devouring it between one late night and one early morning. It's solid, and tight, and well paced, and I hope Herren gives YA more of his time in the future.
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