Like leaving the cinema after an immersive movie, 'Angels of the Deep' finally disgorges its reader onto the streets of reality, as bewildered and blinking as a newborn. This story is exhausting for the reader, yet rewarding.
It's almost as good as revenge, but this book is a dish best served bloody and still-warm. This deserves to be a hardcover. Quite why Ms Crow is writing for small presses is beyond me. While heading into work the day after reading this book, I noticed the moon was a rare bloody orange, as if she knew what words I'd been devouring the night before.
The random lipsalve I'd grabbed from the drawer and stuffed in my bag that morning had been one scented with apples read the book; you'll know why that gave me such a start when I uncapped and used it. This is a book that makes you question reality just a little and look over your shoulder, just to make sure.
The silver screen would adore 'Angels of the Deep'. Somebody needs to tell Ridley Scott that his next opus awaits between these covers. Good first half, terrible second half By M. Jacobs Ms. Crow clearly knows how to write.
Warning: spoilers follow. The first or so pages of the book are very good, introducing us to Beck, his estranged wife Catherine, and his buddy Sean with a deft touch that makes them all believable, interesting, and well-rounded. The plot--a whodunit involving a murderous angel--moves forward nicely, bolstered by good pacing and some truly exceptional dialogue.
The fate of Catherine, in particular, is disgusting and unnecessary; could Ms. Crow not have found another way of freeing Beck up to pursue his interest in Sean? The real kicker is that for the plot's central conceit to work, the reader has to believe in and empathize with the relationship between Beck and Mastema--something Ms. Crow then renders impossible by 1 making Mastema thoroughly loathsome, and 2 demonstrating that Beck in both past and present incarnations has no idea why he bothers to spend time with the angel.
So they have a relationship spanning 6, years that's based on absolutely nothing. And the fight at the end of the book is just a mess, alternating between poorly described physical action and poorly thought-out mystical elements. I'm giving the book two stars because it starts out so well; otherwise I would have given it one. Which is a shame, considering the talent that's on display here.
Angels of the Deep is not one of these. While it does contain homoerotic romance, this book is, in no uncertain terms, a horror novel. Becket Merriday is chief of police of a small town in the state of New York.
He gave up a career as a top-rate FBI profiler and moved to Irenic in an effort to save his marriage. It didn't work. Now, he's headed for divorce, is infatuated with his male lieutenant Sean Logan and has a serial killer on the loose. Someone or something is killing young men, slicing their heads off and cutting out their hearts, and it's up to he and Sean to solve the case.
But that's just the framework of this dark, dark story. Some have called this a love story. And while I've mentioned there is such a component, I call Angels of the Deep an apocalyptic, terrifying look at why we humans can't and don't want to peer across the Veil. God and the angels he created are not like us. We might be made in his image, but we are fundamentally different. Crow shows us this in many uncomfortable ways: from how the angels and nephilim might love to how they might treat humans.
A read you'll not soon forget, Angels of the Deep is well-crafted and impeccably written. My one complaint is that it's just too damn intense. I felt bludgeoned by the time I finished. I also have to warn readers that the book contains a lot of eroticism, multiple and graphic rape and sex scenes, and a few references to past instances of pedophilia. This is not a book for the weak of heart. I recommend it!
In the case of 'Angels of the Deep', however, there simply is no better term than 'rollercoaster ride'. The initial pages of the book, dealing with the terror of a small boy at the hands of a twisted priest ratchet the car higher and higher up the first incline. Approaching the hundredth page, as Chief Becket Merriday's already-complicated life is further convoluted by one brutal discovery after another, the car is poised at the very zenith of the ride; nothing ahead but limitless frightening space.
It's when the reader hits page don't you DARE skip ahead! Every place, too, is a character, with Ms Crow's lush descriptive prose pouring subtle visuals into your retinas until you can taste the darkness that envelops this entire book.
You will learn more sand-pitted ancient history than you ever thought you needed to know, and Ms Crow ties it all neatly with a bloody, vengeful bow. Shot through with anger, blood, vengeance and desire, this story delivers everything you could want, reverberating with subtle and clever semiotics, and the shocking revelation that you are reading the most unexpected and intense study in love.
This is the rub: I can't deliver a detailed review of this book without diving into spoilers. But revelations you will have aplenty, and when they come they are shocking, intense, and delicious. This is a beautifully-crafted book that demands a second reading, just to see if it really happened.
Like leaving the cinema after an immersive movie, 'Angels of the Deep' finally disgorges its reader onto the streets of reality, as bewildered and blinking as a newborn. This story is exhausting for the reader, yet rewarding. It's almost as good as revenge, but this book is a dish best served bloody and still-warm. This deserves to be a hardcover.
Quite why Ms Crow is writing for small presses is beyond me. While heading into work the day after reading this book, I noticed the moon was a rare bloody orange, as if she knew what words I'd been devouring the night before.
The random lipsalve I'd grabbed from the drawer and stuffed in my bag that morning had been one scented with apples read the book; you'll know why that gave me such a start when I uncapped and used it.
This is a book that makes you question reality just a little and look over your shoulder, just to make sure. The silver screen would adore 'Angels of the Deep'. Somebody needs to tell Ridley Scott that his next opus awaits between these covers.
Good first half, terrible second half By M. Jacobs Ms. Crow clearly knows how to write. Warning: spoilers follow. The first or so pages of the book are very good, introducing us to Beck, his estranged wife Catherine, and his buddy Sean with a deft touch that makes them all believable, interesting, and well-rounded. The plot--a whodunit involving a murderous angel--moves forward nicely, bolstered by good pacing and some truly exceptional dialogue.
The fate of Catherine, in particular, is disgusting and unnecessary; could Ms. Crow not have found another way of freeing Beck up to pursue his interest in Sean?
The subtle and nuanced writing with beautifully lyrical prose read like a fantasy, yet the tangible evil and fear within almost mock the lovely, moving and descriptive writing of such deeds. This is an incredible story that I read twice before even attempting to write a review and will likely read many more times in the future From the Back Cover He cannot die.
He cannot be destroyed and he never rests from the pursuit of what he desires. When he's tired of playing with you, he'll bring all of his will to focus on you. You won't be able to resist him. You'll be lost. And if he can't have you, he'll kill you. At least that's what her last four books purport to be. Angels of the Deep is not one of these. While it does contain homoerotic romance, this book is, in no uncertain terms, a horror novel.
Becket Merriday is chief of police of a small town in the state of New York. He gave up a career as a top-rate FBI profiler and moved to Irenic in an effort to save his marriage. It didn't work. Now, he's headed for divorce, is infatuated with his male lieutenant Sean Logan and has a serial killer on the loose.
Someone or something is killing young men, slicing their heads off and cutting out their hearts, and it's up to he and Sean to solve the case. But that's just the framework of this dark, dark story. Some have called this a love story. And while I've mentioned there is such a component, I call Angels of the Deep an apocalyptic, terrifying look at why we humans can't and don't want to peer across the Veil.
God and the angels he created are not like us. We might be made in his image, but we are fundamentally different. Crow shows us this in many uncomfortable ways: from how the angels and nephilim might love to how they might treat humans. A read you'll not soon forget, Angels of the Deep is well-crafted and impeccably written. My one complaint is that it's just too damn intense.
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