Title: The Reapers are the Angels
Author: Alden Bell
Publisher: Holt
Genre: Horror
Summary:Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.
Review: 4 stars ****
I had some difficulty writing this review for the simple reason that I’m not quite sure why I liked this book. Don’t get me wrong – I did like it – quite a lot, actually – but I’m at a loss to really put my finger on just why that was the case almost a week after ifnishing it.
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.
Fifteen year old Temple is the focus of the story. We’re plunked right down in the midst of her life among the “meatsacks” as she likes to call the zombies that are now the dominant end of the food chain, without explanation as to how the world ended up in its apocalyptic predicament. Temple doesn’t care what caused it all and soon we don’t either, caught up in her acceptance of it all and fascinated by the glimpses we’re receiving of her day to day existance.
Templar random wanderings put her in touch with the Todd brothers, Abraham and Moses. A violent confrontation with Abraham does not end well and Templar soon finds Moses on her heels, determined to right the wrong he feels she’s committed. This sets up the central conflict in the story, as Moses pursues Templar across the zombie infested landscape.
My inability to quantify why I liked this work so much stems, in part, from the fact that the story feels incomplete somehow. We’re given this glimpse into Temple’s life, but we don’t understand the hows and whys of it all, which robs it of any urgency or compulsion. It’s all too random. It was like the difference between looking through a window, observing the activity within, and actually entering the room and participating in that activity. It all felt one step removed.
Still, if asked if I enjoyed it, I’d have to say yes and would even recommend it to others. Hence the four stars.
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