Review Detail

There is a lot to unpack with the first novel in this series. As someone who loves mythology retellings, I was excited to see one more in the Christianity faith. Greek, Norse, and Asian mythologies are everywhere - and I love it. But you don't really see too many about angels and devils without it getting too preachy.

This book did an excellent job creating a dystopian world dealing with Angels, Heaven and Earth. It takes a bit to get used to the writing style but once the realization that the characters are supposed to be that daft and the angels to be that conceited, does the story take off. I struggled at first because I was wondering why the human characters were so.... dumb. But then remembering the description of what they are wearing and learning more about the history, it really is more of a "caveman" mentality. It shows how much the wars have impacted society.

The story is what sucked me in though. At first, I was reading because I was reading and then I found myself reading because I truly needed to know what was going on. How did the world end up this way? Why did the intelligence of humans degrade so much? And when everything truly starts to happen - good luck actually putting the book down.

What was lacking to me was more the writing style. It was very generic, and unlike some fantasy books I read where quotes jump out at you - it's just there. Some of the machinery was hard for me to imagine which made me struggle a bit at towards the end of the book but I just pushed through.

Overall, Ferren and the Angel by Richard Harland was a very unexpected book. When I started, I wasn't sure what to expect but the story just carried me away. I found myself finding it very hard to put the book down because I needed to know what was happening. The characters take a minute to get used to but once I was able to take a step back and try to put myself into the scene itself - they clicked. I wish the writing was a bit stronger to help but the storytelling was strong to cover the generic words. I highly recommend this book if you are a dystopian fan and looking for something you've never experienced before. This story will take you there and leave you wanting more.