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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
Apart from a slightly interesting approach to hell, there's little that's unique or compelling. Reader interest is held by characters deliberately withholding information from one another to draw out the story and, in the hope that this proved meaningful, I read on. Turns out it's just a lazy plot device.
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
Gripping story, interesting characters, unpredictable twists. Everything I could ask for, apart from the fact that I wanted more romance-ugh; I have been deprived!" Other than that, Brilliant book.
Gripping story, interesting characters, unpredictable twists. Everything I could ask for, apart from the fact that I wanted more romance-ugh; I have been deprived!" Other than that, Brilliant book.
Full review at: http://emmamaree.com/reviews/emma-maree-reviews-blood-and-feathers/
The hierarchy laid out in Lou Morgan's universe is gloriously detailed, with angels split into choirs under each Archangel with powers related to their choir. As a lady who's spent far too much time with her nose in books about angelic mythology, the amount of effort put into Blood & Feather's worldbuilding was great to see.
I had trouble empathising with the leading lady, Alice. She seemed to make a lot of decisions without even hinting at her motivations beforehand, leaving me to follow behind her in the dark without a clue what she was up to. But the other characters more than made up for this. The flawed angels are a world apart from their biblical counterparts, with kind-hearted but battle-hardened alcoholic Mallory, a disgraced angel, being the closest to human while cold, aloof angel Gwyn is his apathetic opposite. The conversations between Alice and the angels were sharp and witty, keeping the story going at a great pace.
I loved the world created here, and I'm excited to see where else Lou Morgan takes this story in the sequel.
The hierarchy laid out in Lou Morgan's universe is gloriously detailed, with angels split into choirs under each Archangel with powers related to their choir. As a lady who's spent far too much time with her nose in books about angelic mythology, the amount of effort put into Blood & Feather's worldbuilding was great to see.
I had trouble empathising with the leading lady, Alice. She seemed to make a lot of decisions without even hinting at her motivations beforehand, leaving me to follow behind her in the dark without a clue what she was up to. But the other characters more than made up for this. The flawed angels are a world apart from their biblical counterparts, with kind-hearted but battle-hardened alcoholic Mallory, a disgraced angel, being the closest to human while cold, aloof angel Gwyn is his apathetic opposite. The conversations between Alice and the angels were sharp and witty, keeping the story going at a great pace.
I loved the world created here, and I'm excited to see where else Lou Morgan takes this story in the sequel.
This is a brief collection of Jacques Prévert's poems written from the late 1940s to his death in 1977. I had learned of Prévert from reading "To Paint the Portrait of a Bird" in Alice Oswald's The Thunder Mutters which the editor and translator, Harriett Zinnes, of Blood and Feathers entitled "To Make the Portrait of a Bird." I did some other brief comparisons of translation decisions and I am concerned that Zinnes would not be my choice of translator if I were to determine which translated edition I would prefer.
Jacques Prévert considered himself a surrealist and he trafficked with many names. And some of his poems conjure up what I categorize as a surrealist aesthetic, the decadence, carnivalesque atmosphere of a Federico Fellini (one of a very few European directors I can name). The slippage of reality, the political satire, the seamy eroticism, the violence: Attempt to Describe a Dinner of Heads in Paris-France
It's clever, it's bold, and I find it too clever and to bold. Maybe, it's because of climate change and 'Me, Too' and Trump that it is hard for me to not read depictions of gluttony as perverse in their own right, gluttony turns on itself and makes the poem, the poem's milieu ugly as well. I just have so much I would rather do, though, than figure this all out. And I still love the "To Paint the Portrait of a Bird" and I appreciated reading "Page from a Notebook", also from Paroles, and "Signs" from Spectacle.
So ends my tortured little review.
Jacques Prévert considered himself a surrealist and he trafficked with many names. And some of his poems conjure up what I categorize as a surrealist aesthetic, the decadence, carnivalesque atmosphere of a Federico Fellini (one of a very few European directors I can name). The slippage of reality, the political satire, the seamy eroticism, the violence: Attempt to Describe a Dinner of Heads in Paris-France
A mother with a death's head laughing showed her daughter with an orphan's head to an old diplomat friend of the family who had made himself the head of Jack the Ripper.
It was truly deliciously charming and of such a refined taste that when the President arrived with a sumptuous head of a dove's egg there was delirium.
"It was simple, but you had to think of it," the President said unfolding his napkin, and in the midst of so much malice and simple-mindedness the guests could not contain their emotion; out of his crocodile cardboard eyes a big industrialist pours real tears of joy, a smaller one nibbles at the table, pretty women rub their breasts very gently and the admiral carried away by his enthusiasm, drinks his glass of champagne from the wrong side, munches on the stem of the glass, and his gut cuts, dies on his feet, holding on to the back of his chair, crying out: "Children first!"
It's clever, it's bold, and I find it too clever and to bold. Maybe, it's because of climate change and 'Me, Too' and Trump that it is hard for me to not read depictions of gluttony as perverse in their own right, gluttony turns on itself and makes the poem, the poem's milieu ugly as well. I just have so much I would rather do, though, than figure this all out. And I still love the "To Paint the Portrait of a Bird" and I appreciated reading "Page from a Notebook", also from Paroles, and "Signs" from Spectacle.
So ends my tortured little review.
- (14%) Whiiiiiiiii, this looks like a good one..
- (24%) Ah fuck it..
It had so much potential, I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she didn't seem all that bothered by her father's death..
And suddenly learning about angels and fallen and whatnot, Their existence doesn't even faze her?
- (24%) Ah fuck it..
It had so much potential, I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she didn't seem all that bothered by her father's death..
And suddenly learning about angels and fallen and whatnot, Their existence doesn't even faze her?
It's definitely one of the better angel novels I've read.
Things I liked:
- Angels are enmeshed with hierarchy and politics. I always look for this in angel novels, and this was definitely the most developed version I've seen so far. There are Archangels (leaders of their respective choirs). Under them are the Descendeds, or angels who visit Earth. Then come the Earthbound, angels who have somehow failed in one way or another and have had their wings clipped. Then are the half-angels (I don't remember if they were named anything specific, though sometimes they're called half-breeds). There's also a type of angel who lives temporarily as humans, and report back to their superiors once their stint is up. And then of course, there are the Fallen, who used to be angels but then did something very bad or got cast out (or chose?) to fall. I really enjoyed reading about these differences and the various bickering and so-on that goes on between the ranks.
- Angels are ruthless. Love this idea that angels are warriors first and foremost. They're not these haloed compassionate things full of love and mercy, but rather weapons of war. Mallory repeats this a lot and has the skills to back it up. Angels are ambitious, deadly, and calculating. The archangel Michael
- Angels are flawed. I liked how there was always the possibility to "fall" and that the Fallen are considered their brothers. (Or sisters? There were a few female angels).
Stuff that could use more work:
- Plotting was a bit awkward. There was always something happening, but I didn't really feel like it flowed naturally. It lacked focus and cohesion.
- Things took a long time to get explained, if at all. I'm still not sure why she's so powerful, though I think I know? It just irritates me that it's not made clear, since super special awesome powerful lead characters always annoy me when they're just born that way. What's interesting about that? Plus, I'm not sure why it was so important to keep Alice (and therefore the reader) in the dark about her purpose or her past.
- POV jumped around a lot. It wasn't an egregious error, like head-hopping, but I wonder sometimes whether 3rd person omniscient narrator is now a lost art.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and the potential for it. Could've been better, but compared to so many crappy angel books I've slogged through to get here, I say it's not bad at all.
Things I liked:
- Angels are enmeshed with hierarchy and politics. I always look for this in angel novels, and this was definitely the most developed version I've seen so far. There are Archangels (leaders of their respective choirs). Under them are the Descendeds, or angels who visit Earth. Then come the Earthbound, angels who have somehow failed in one way or another and have had their wings clipped. Then are the half-angels (I don't remember if they were named anything specific, though sometimes they're called half-breeds). There's also a type of angel who lives temporarily as humans, and report back to their superiors once their stint is up. And then of course, there are the Fallen, who used to be angels but then did something very bad or got cast out (or chose?) to fall. I really enjoyed reading about these differences and the various bickering and so-on that goes on between the ranks.
- Angels are ruthless. Love this idea that angels are warriors first and foremost. They're not these haloed compassionate things full of love and mercy, but rather weapons of war. Mallory repeats this a lot and has the skills to back it up. Angels are ambitious, deadly, and calculating. The archangel Michael
Spoiler
appears in the end, and he's probably the most ruthless of them all. And why shouldn't he be? He's the most powerful and ought to be the most terrifying. I was more scared of him than Lucifer!- Angels are flawed. I liked how there was always the possibility to "fall" and that the Fallen are considered their brothers. (Or sisters? There were a few female angels).
Stuff that could use more work:
- Plotting was a bit awkward. There was always something happening, but I didn't really feel like it flowed naturally. It lacked focus and cohesion.
- Things took a long time to get explained, if at all. I'm still not sure why she's so powerful, though I think I know? It just irritates me that it's not made clear, since super special awesome powerful lead characters always annoy me when they're just born that way. What's interesting about that? Plus, I'm not sure why it was so important to keep Alice (and therefore the reader) in the dark about her purpose or her past.
- POV jumped around a lot. It wasn't an egregious error, like head-hopping, but I wonder sometimes whether 3rd person omniscient narrator is now a lost art.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and the potential for it. Could've been better, but compared to so many crappy angel books I've slogged through to get here, I say it's not bad at all.
"I can't be an angel. I'm a librarian. That's absurd."
"You? One of heaven's brutes. Unthinking drones, that's all you ever were, and all you'll ever be. A coward who didn't even have the courage to stand with us and Fall. Now look at you! Neutered. A little puppy dog waiting for its master to throw it a scrap."
I came across this one quite by accident poking around looking for something else. Anything with blood and feathers in the title is going to get my attention. Not because I have anything against birds, mind you; this has much more to do with my on-going fascination with bad-ass angels and when they get to warring with each other in a most epic way and humans are caught in the crossfire.
I could blame all the Catholic catechisms I was forced to endure as a restless child who would have much rather been reading Stephen King, but no. Quite simply, if you extract all of the awesome potential of these creatures away from the sticky, rigid confines of religious canon, what you end up with is a tremendous mythology to fuel a thousand stories and then some. Vampires? Werewolves? Fairies? Shapeshifters? Piss on that. Give me glorious, prideful, warring Angels and their Fallen Brethren any day of the week (and twice on Wednesdays when the CW's Supernatural airs).
This isn't one of the best angel/demon books I've read, but I did enjoy parts of it very much. Lou Morgan has set up her "world" and the rules that govern it quite nicely. I liked her application of angel lore. Figuring out the differences between Earthbounds, Fallen, and Descendeds kept me interested for the first half, and her vision of Hell and its frigid, demented landscape kept me turning the pages for the second half.
Where this one is lacking for me is with character and dialogue. If you're going to introduce Archangels and Lucifer, you better give them some awesome things to say. They shouldn't speak (or act) like anybody else. Just about everything that pours out of their mouths should raise the hairs on the back of your neck. There was a little touch of that, but not nearly enough for my liking. For comic relief, Vin is adorable, but I've seen his character done many times before, and done better. Alice and Mallory should have more chemistry. In fact, for all the main characters I kept expecting to feel more. Even when Alice descends into Hell itself I didn't feel worried or afraid ... just curious, as in ... this should be interesting.
The series shows promise however, and I'll probably seek out the next book. Blood and Feathers is very cinematic and plot-driven. I can see it making a decent movie.
Action-packed urban fantasy with some of the most charming, flawed (and all too often, psychotic) angels you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting - and a heroine who doesn't need to dress in leather or kick ass in order to be strong and awesome. Highly recommended!
(Disclaimer. Yes, Lou is a friend. No, I don't say nice things about books just because a friend wrote them. I'm mean that way...)
(Disclaimer. Yes, Lou is a friend. No, I don't say nice things about books just because a friend wrote them. I'm mean that way...)