The Reapers are the Angels: Finished

I recently finished Alden Bell's The Reapers are the Angels, my first venture into apocalyptic novels.  More specifically, it was my first venture into apocalyptic zombie novels.  The book doesn't allow zombies and their violence to play a big role, rather, the book instead focuses on emotional and personal stories of its human characters.  Overall, I really enjoyed it, though, like any book, it has a few minor faults.

As I described in an earlier post, the struggle of the main character, Temple, is to overcome the evilness that she believes resides within her.  I find this a very interesting and somewhat unique, but at times, I think Bell goes too far with it.  I understand that it's all part of her journey, but sometimes I think Temple's self-hatred gets too repetitive.  By no means does that ruin the book -- it doesn't come close -- but it did get a bit annoying, especially towards the end.  Also, it didn't seem like there was a real gradual change in Temple.  She sort of came to an understanding in the last thirty pages or so, when we finally heard what happened to Malcolm and when she spoke to Moses.

Not to dwell on the negatives, but I think Moses' motivation was not totally clear.  Obviously, he wanted to avenge his brother's death, but with relationship he developed with Temple over the course of the book, I thought he might have a change in heart, too.  Then, at the end, I wasn't clear why he took Maury up to Niagara Falls.  Wasn't that Temple's dream?  Maybe I just missed something, but Moses wasn't totally clear for me.

I'm a very critical person, so don't get the wrong idea -- The Reapers are the Angels is a very good book.  Though sometimes too overbearing (sometimes seeming like he's writing to show off rather than tell a story), Bell's writing is awesome.  The characters seem genuine, and they stay in character all the time.  Temple's journey is fascinating, and I'm happy to have, in a way, gone along with her and Maury.  This is a great book for summer, and I'd recommend it to anybody looking for a fun, adventurous book.