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gloriousbooks's review
5.0
Also reviewed on the blog: http://gloriousbooks.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-angel-fury.html
I really, really enjoyed this read. It was so original I couldn't not.
It had everything I like in a book. Great characters - every single one of them had their own story and own distinct personality as a result of an interesting backstory.
Angel's Fury immediately starts with one of the dreams the protagonist, Cassie, frequently has which prevents her from sleeping.
The dreams are described throughout the book and they get more and more detailed and descriptive and sometimes, downright creepy. However, the focus of the story was the Doctor who is supposed to help with these dreams at a retreat. I felt that too much focus was on Cassie's home life at the start - it lasted for quite a bit of the book so when Cassie did eventually go to the retreat and meet the characters the were important to the story, it seemed irrelevant because I had already read so much about Cassie's home life.
The rest of the novel more than made up for it though. It was a brilliantly intense and original read that always had me on the edge of my seat. I loved it and it's definitely a must read!
I really, really enjoyed this read. It was so original I couldn't not.
It had everything I like in a book. Great characters - every single one of them had their own story and own distinct personality as a result of an interesting backstory.
Angel's Fury immediately starts with one of the dreams the protagonist, Cassie, frequently has which prevents her from sleeping.
The dreams are described throughout the book and they get more and more detailed and descriptive and sometimes, downright creepy. However, the focus of the story was the Doctor who is supposed to help with these dreams at a retreat. I felt that too much focus was on Cassie's home life at the start - it lasted for quite a bit of the book so when Cassie did eventually go to the retreat and meet the characters the were important to the story, it seemed irrelevant because I had already read so much about Cassie's home life.
The rest of the novel more than made up for it though. It was a brilliantly intense and original read that always had me on the edge of my seat. I loved it and it's definitely a must read!
serendipity_viv's review
4.0
Well this was a rather dark book that I really wasn't expecting! Very good, but very dark. In fact, the story line completely took me by surprise as I was expecting something along the lines of Fallen or Hush, Hush, where the angel falls in love with the beautiful but flawed girl. Although there is a little bit of a love interest in the book, it is just a fraction of the story. The angel is this book is a nasty piece of work, hell bent on revenge after thousands of years. Not one you would as your guardian in times of need. Out of all the angel books I have read, (and there seem to be a lot of them) the flavour of this book reminded me more of Anne Rice's Angel Time than any other. It has that dark, historical tone to it, which really made the book stand out from the others.
Told from the point of view of Cassie, a young girl who suffers from horrific repetitive dreams, who has come to a point where she cannot cope anymore. Her parents no longer able to watch her suffer, decide to tell her the truth about elements of her past. After showing her a video of when she was little, it becomes quite obvious that Cassie is an old soul, who has experienced many life times which are now repeatedly haunting her. These life times were filled with violence and hatred and it is no wonder the poor girl cannot sleep.
Within the book there are lots of references to World War II where we witness the suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazi's. This was quite difficult to read at times and played with my emotions quite a bit. I tend to steer clear of books that deal with the suffering that occurred as they just upset me too much. However, the author isn't too graphic with her descriptions, so you only get a sense of what occurred.
There is a religious undertone to the book, but as my knowledge of the Bible is limited, I couldn't tell you if the information provided was true or not.
I really felt for the children in the book, who were supposedly being treated for their unusual conditions. Their parents had paid for them to be kept at the facility and left them hoping that their children would be cured. They were completely unaware of any torturous behaviour that might have occurred. These children suffered at the hands of evil.
I was a little slow to work out who was the antagonist within the book, even though they were blatantly waving out at me from the pages. I think the reason I struggled was because of the author's clever use of gender that had me completely fooled.
I did enjoy reading this book and found myself reading so fast, my note taking got sidelined and aborted. I think this was definitely an original and cleverly written story. I don't think I have read anything quite like it and it really gave the angel genre a new twist to it.
What I also enjoyed about this book, was it's stand alone status. The story was wrapped up and I felt I knew everything I needed to know. In this day and age, stand alone novels are become more extinct than the dodo!
This book made me grateful that when I turn the light out and lay my head on the pillow, I sleep peacefully!
A promising debut from an author who I know has lots more to offer us in the future.
Told from the point of view of Cassie, a young girl who suffers from horrific repetitive dreams, who has come to a point where she cannot cope anymore. Her parents no longer able to watch her suffer, decide to tell her the truth about elements of her past. After showing her a video of when she was little, it becomes quite obvious that Cassie is an old soul, who has experienced many life times which are now repeatedly haunting her. These life times were filled with violence and hatred and it is no wonder the poor girl cannot sleep.
Within the book there are lots of references to World War II where we witness the suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazi's. This was quite difficult to read at times and played with my emotions quite a bit. I tend to steer clear of books that deal with the suffering that occurred as they just upset me too much. However, the author isn't too graphic with her descriptions, so you only get a sense of what occurred.
There is a religious undertone to the book, but as my knowledge of the Bible is limited, I couldn't tell you if the information provided was true or not.
I really felt for the children in the book, who were supposedly being treated for their unusual conditions. Their parents had paid for them to be kept at the facility and left them hoping that their children would be cured. They were completely unaware of any torturous behaviour that might have occurred. These children suffered at the hands of evil.
I was a little slow to work out who was the antagonist within the book, even though they were blatantly waving out at me from the pages. I think the reason I struggled was because of the author's clever use of gender that had me completely fooled.
I did enjoy reading this book and found myself reading so fast, my note taking got sidelined and aborted. I think this was definitely an original and cleverly written story. I don't think I have read anything quite like it and it really gave the angel genre a new twist to it.
What I also enjoyed about this book, was it's stand alone status. The story was wrapped up and I felt I knew everything I needed to know. In this day and age, stand alone novels are become more extinct than the dodo!
This book made me grateful that when I turn the light out and lay my head on the pillow, I sleep peacefully!
A promising debut from an author who I know has lots more to offer us in the future.
andye_reads's review
4.0
I really had no idea what Angel's Fury was about when I started reading it. I assumed it was about Angels, but I didn't actually read the synopsis (I don't like to be spoiled), so I wasn't sure. As I started reading, I became totally mesmerized by Cassie's dreams about Zillah, and the horrible things that happened to her. As the story progresses and different things are revealed and understood, I began to realize that this book is not your typical Angel book.
There are so many things that I enjoyed about Angel's Fury. Part historical fiction, part paranormal, and part psychological thriller, it kept me interested on many different levels. As Cassie has dreams of Nazi Germany, we often see back in time to World War II, getting glimpses of the horrors that one Jewish girl faced. The paranormal elements were just as fascinating. Although I don't personally believe in past lives, I still found it exciting to try to figure out who each of the kids at the manor were in their former lives, and how that affected (effected?) them in this life. I also really liked reading the Angel "lore" that was present. There were lots of biblical-ish references and a different Angel mythology than I've ever heard before. I think my favorite part, though, was the psychological thriller aspect. There were things in this book that seriously gave me the chills!! Can you say psycho creepy doctor?! I feel like if this book were made into a movie, it could easily be one of those eery, suspenseful thrillers like Shutter Island.
On top of all this, there was also an element of romance, which you know I'm always happy about. I liked that even though Cassie and Seth seemed familiar to each other, and there was an instant attraction, they still actually took time to develop feelings. I didn't feel like it was insta-love, which I'm thankful for. I appreciated how strong Cassie was as a main character, and also how strong Seth was, considering all that he had to overcome.
Overall, I thought this book was a fantastic and unique read and I'd definitely recommend picking it up. It's actually published by Egmont UK, and has some pretty rad (;-P) British slang, which always puts a smile on my face. But it is available on Amazon (CHEAP!) for the US and on Kindle, so don't let that stop you from checking it out!
Andye
readingteen.net
There are so many things that I enjoyed about Angel's Fury. Part historical fiction, part paranormal, and part psychological thriller, it kept me interested on many different levels. As Cassie has dreams of Nazi Germany, we often see back in time to World War II, getting glimpses of the horrors that one Jewish girl faced. The paranormal elements were just as fascinating. Although I don't personally believe in past lives, I still found it exciting to try to figure out who each of the kids at the manor were in their former lives, and how that affected (effected?) them in this life. I also really liked reading the Angel "lore" that was present. There were lots of biblical-ish references and a different Angel mythology than I've ever heard before. I think my favorite part, though, was the psychological thriller aspect. There were things in this book that seriously gave me the chills!! Can you say psycho creepy doctor?! I feel like if this book were made into a movie, it could easily be one of those eery, suspenseful thrillers like Shutter Island.
On top of all this, there was also an element of romance, which you know I'm always happy about. I liked that even though Cassie and Seth seemed familiar to each other, and there was an instant attraction, they still actually took time to develop feelings. I didn't feel like it was insta-love, which I'm thankful for. I appreciated how strong Cassie was as a main character, and also how strong Seth was, considering all that he had to overcome.
Overall, I thought this book was a fantastic and unique read and I'd definitely recommend picking it up. It's actually published by Egmont UK, and has some pretty rad (;-P) British slang, which always puts a smile on my face. But it is available on Amazon (CHEAP!) for the US and on Kindle, so don't let that stop you from checking it out!
Andye
readingteen.net
sinamile's review
1.0
I’ve started to have dreams while I’m awake. I remember music I’ve never heard… I’ve got all this extra stuff in my head, but I’m forgetting things from my own life. I feel like I’m being taken over.
Angel’s Fury is a tale about a girl suffering from insomnia and waking dreams and such. As a result of that she is sent to a place where they’re supposed to cure her of her but that’s not exactly what happens. Instead of getting the cure she was looking for, our heroin has to fight the same person who claimed they could help.
This here story is mediocre at best. It barely moves from one chapter to the next. It's so damn slow. I could literally skip whole paragraphs without really missing out on anything, I could just read all the dialogue and I'd still know what's going on. I don't want to say it’s boring, but it kind of is. It really only starts going in the last few chapters, I did enjoy those chapters.
All the characters are bland, none of them are memorable, and none of them do anything that would make me remember them three hour from now without looking through the book. I read the book, spent days reading through it, but the only characters I remember are Cassie, Seth and Pandra. The only reason I even remember Pandra is because I was holding out hope that she and Cassie would get together. Even when Pandra turns out to be too taken over by her past life I was still holding out hope, thinking that Cassie might talk her out of her past life and they'd get together, live happily ever after as girlfriends with a shared life experience for errant past lives trying to take over current lives. But sadly, it didn't happen.
Seth is instead the love interest. He is the most boring love interest I have ever had to read about. There's no vavavoom or anything. I'm not even sure if Seth was supposed to be a life interest because he was just THERE. I feel like his love interest badge was placed there just to add a little more drama to the pinch of salt flavouring that was happening in this book.
I mean, sure, he was a change from the brooding/mysterious guy who doesn't like MC for some reason, but then whooop, it might actually be that, just that it only happens in the last chapters of the book when his and Cassie's past lives are revealed.
I. Don't. Know.
Seriously though, why were the other characters even written into this book? They did NOTHING the entire time, like they were just there to add surface area to the book, they didn't push the story forward, didn't make it more interesting, I don't even remember most of their names, I mean I remember Max and I think he was American, but who even knows! And why did Pandra kidnap Lenny? Coz he's the smallest of the group? Also, why the heck was this poor baby always being tortured by everyone? I mean, honestly, why? Because he's whiny and weak? HE'S TEN YEARS OLD! He's a child! What do you expect a ten year old child living in a prison like place to act like? Good heavens!
(You may notice that I have strong feelings about Lenny, enough to remember his name)
Oh, and again WTF WAS EVEN THE USE OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS!?? WHY WAS THIS STORY SET IN THIS PLACE??? LITERALLY NONE OF THE STAFF IS MENTIONED BY NAME! WHY ARE THE NURSES NOT FREAKED OUT BY THE DOCTOR'S METHODS???? WHY DOES THIS READ LIKE FALLEN!???? (sorry about the all caps, but guys!)
Guys, gang! Honestly?
They really tried it with us in this story, hey. I'm so disappointed in it. Between this and Fallen I don't know what I was expecting. Fallen didn't do the past lives thing well enough either (that was is kinda sitting in the DNF pile for now, maybe I'll go back and finish it, just because my anxiety won't let me sit knowing I have a book I haven't finished reading). It was rough.
And I'm going to ask again: WHAT WAS THE USE OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS?? They're literally only mentioned doing like two things, they help not at all, miss the big revelation, don't get cured in the end like Cassie and Seth, and I don't know, they just disappear. Two of them get mentioned in the Epilogue but it's such a throwaway comment thing, it doesn't even matter. I don't even know what happened with the others, where they ended up. Did everyone go home? Did they find new doctors to help them. Did the cops get involved? What about Lenny? A whole child got kidnapped and thrown in a pit of dead animals and he doesn't get mentioned again. Even Pandra gets a passing mention at the end guys, just that, just an 'I don't know where she is, probably off to find the other children'. Excuse me, what?
Look, I don't expect Cassie to suddenly be the great angel hunter, keeping tabs on everyone's whereabouts, but I would've liked to know what ended up happening to the CHILD THAT WAS KIDNAPPED AND THE OWN INTO A PIT OF DEAD ANIMALS! But nothing, no mention? He gets zero mentioned? Nada?
Wow.
But this book, this book is filled with so many clichés I think I'd win at the YA Cliché Bingo Card. No guys, seriously, I'm pretty sure I'd win; it goes right down to 'Hero rips off top for no reason'. It's a mess.
I might forgive the book a little bit because it was written in 2011 and maybe it fits better in the MG category but like WOW, there are certain things that I can't forgive, like the surface area increasers and how everyone was hating on the little boy who was scared and alone in a house filled with teenagers. Wow guys, it was tough. But I read it and I got through it all and I would not like to go through it again!
PS: Sorry about all the all caps, I just have strong feelings about this.
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