Review: Angel Fury

Book: Angel Fury
Author: Bryony Pearce
Publication Date: July 2011
Pages: 340

Summary: 

In the tradition of The Book Thief and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a tale of sleepless nights and present day haunting, giving voice to the horrors of the Holocaust and the nature of persecution I've started to have dreams while I'm awake. I remember music I've never heard. . . . I've got all this extra stuff in my head, but I'm forgetting things from my own life. I feel like I'm being taken over. One fallen angel walks the earth to bring mankind to its destruction, turning love into hate, forgiveness into blame, and hope into despair. Through the fires of hell he will come to torment one girl's dreams. Every time Cassie Farrier tries to sleep, she is plagued by visions of a death: A little girl called Zillah. A victim of the holocaust. In desperation Cassie is sent for treatment in an old manor house. There she meets other children just like her. Including Seth, who looks so familiar. Her dream becomes a nightmare—and then reality. This stunning debut from a talented young author contains controversial and thoughtful themes that teenagers can relate to, including bullying and victimization in a contemporary and historical context. With its mix of mythology, fantasy, and real-life terror, this is a book unlike any other.

My Thoughts:

As soon as I saw this book was "In the tradition of The Book Thief" I reserved it in a second! When I went to the library and saw it was available for collection I was really excited to begin reading.
I am disappointed.

This book had so much potenntial! The idea of a girl having a memories, nightmares of  a past life is in my opinion a really unique idea. For me, the writing was rather distant and boring at points. I didn't think the parents were realistic, like I understood that they were desperate to help their daughter, but some of the choices they made were plain silly. Don't get me wrong the book was all right but it was nothing to scream about and I felt like it COULD have been. It's so frustrating to see an amazing premise overshadowed by unemotional writing. Cassie's thoughts in italics drove me nearly crazy. There was no need for it to be in italics. Cassie and Seth's sexual frustration made me laugh, it was so random. Also Cassie seem to do a lot of things 'unthinkingly' like putting her hand on his pyjama trousers. The epilogue was pointless, I thought It should have ended with the last line of the last chapter. What happened in the epilogue was irrelevant.

 I'm really annoyed I feel like the book was missing something, I was waiting and waiting for something fun to happen and my waiting only came to an end when I realised the book was finished. I feel so unsatisfied. The language  The bits I did like was that I could see how having no sleep was deeply affecting Cassie. Also I thought the Doctor was one hell of a strange woman which was no doubt what the Author had intended. Apart from that, I felt like I didn't even read the book because nothing has hooked itself into my mind. To conclude I, myself wouldn't recommend the book but as their are a lot of good reviews on Good Reads maybe it would be worth reading to see what you would gain from the book.

Food Rating: 3/5
Page Rating: 4/8