Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by tenmillionhardbacks
The Angels of L19 by Jonathan Walker
5.0
It is rare to find a book where you are completely familiar with its settings and themes from the first page, where some of the character’s experiences mirror some of your own. I have a family connection to a similar church to the one at the heart of the story, the only difference being that ours was in North Liverpool and the one in The Angels of L19 is in the south of the city, in Garston.
As The Angels of L19 starts, Robert and Tracey are, like many 80s teens, obsessed by music. Tracey is teaching herself to play the drums, trying to match Stephen Morris’s computer-assisted rhythms via her Walkman and drum kit, while Robert looks for hidden religious meaning in U2 lyrics – as I once did and as every music-loving Church-going kid back then must have done! Robert is a ‘bit odd,’ perhaps, ‘going through a stage,’ as might be said of him. He counts things, walks into church with a paper bag over his head and performs Smiths-influenced skits at church and the summer Merseyside Christian Youth Camp. Some of this is based on the author’s own experiences, as he detailed in this essay ‘I Was a Teenage Christian.’ So some familiar situations, but since being baptised at camp, Robert has started seeing strange things, including what he calls a presence.
As Robert’s visions become more frequent, he tries to ask for help, telling Tracey and his other friend Jenny, a teacher and theology graduate, what is going on with him. Tracey warns Mark too, but what are seen as his eccentricities get in the way of making connections that could help him. While he is sure he is seeing angels, once the revelations come, there is a darker intent. The depictions of Robert’s increasingly disordered thoughts and dreams, and the gulf between what everyone else sees and what he experiences – how frightening and real and uncontrollable it seems to him – are vivid and powerful.
The Angels of L19 is a unique story, blending a coming-of-age tale with supernatural and even horror elements too. Horror isn’t a genre I read a lot of, being a bit of a scaredy-cat about things that might keep me awake at night, but even without knowing all of Jonathan Walker’s influences, I was swept away with the ambition of the novel, which deals with big questions of love, evil, faith and redemption, while creating compelling characters of the two leads and the cast around them.
Read my full review - and many more - at my website ten million hardbacks
As The Angels of L19 starts, Robert and Tracey are, like many 80s teens, obsessed by music. Tracey is teaching herself to play the drums, trying to match Stephen Morris’s computer-assisted rhythms via her Walkman and drum kit, while Robert looks for hidden religious meaning in U2 lyrics – as I once did and as every music-loving Church-going kid back then must have done! Robert is a ‘bit odd,’ perhaps, ‘going through a stage,’ as might be said of him. He counts things, walks into church with a paper bag over his head and performs Smiths-influenced skits at church and the summer Merseyside Christian Youth Camp. Some of this is based on the author’s own experiences, as he detailed in this essay ‘I Was a Teenage Christian.’ So some familiar situations, but since being baptised at camp, Robert has started seeing strange things, including what he calls a presence.
As Robert’s visions become more frequent, he tries to ask for help, telling Tracey and his other friend Jenny, a teacher and theology graduate, what is going on with him. Tracey warns Mark too, but what are seen as his eccentricities get in the way of making connections that could help him. While he is sure he is seeing angels, once the revelations come, there is a darker intent. The depictions of Robert’s increasingly disordered thoughts and dreams, and the gulf between what everyone else sees and what he experiences – how frightening and real and uncontrollable it seems to him – are vivid and powerful.
The Angels of L19 is a unique story, blending a coming-of-age tale with supernatural and even horror elements too. Horror isn’t a genre I read a lot of, being a bit of a scaredy-cat about things that might keep me awake at night, but even without knowing all of Jonathan Walker’s influences, I was swept away with the ambition of the novel, which deals with big questions of love, evil, faith and redemption, while creating compelling characters of the two leads and the cast around them.
Read my full review - and many more - at my website ten million hardbacks