Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore
Review by Kara Grant
Jake's the new guy at school. The boy next
door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for
corruption.
Something more than fate has brought them
together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding
in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what's going to happen. And a
beauty brighter than either Brielle or Jake has ever seen is calling them to
join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.
A realm that only angels and demons-and
Brielle-can perceive (from Amazon.com).
It takes one devastation to change the life you know. It only lasts a moment, but it can affect you for a lifetime. Have you ever experienced something that traumatized you later on? Have you ever encountered a moment where you know innocence has been lost and you’ll never be the same again? That’s what Brielle is going through when the story begins. Her best friend is gone and life will never be the same again. No matter what her friends, her father, and the community do to comfort her and welcome her home from
This story did not immediately grab my
interest because I didn’t connect with Brielle (short for Gabrielle). She has been traumatized and the first part
of the book is about her coping with that grief. Symptoms of this grief are:
she’s very distant with everyone
guilt consumes her and makes her shake (especially her hands)
fear of seeing her best friend haunts her dreams/sleep deprivation
she won’t talk to anyone and she cries
very easily
she panics easily
she thinks she has new phobias
she can’t stop feeling cold
It was difficult for me to endure that
part of the story because of the heaviness it entails, but then I considered a
time or two in my life when something broke my heart and I realized that what
Brielle is feeling is normal. She’s
afraid of everything, she no longer trusts her emotions or her instincts and
she slowly goes back to her daily routine.
She is a talented ballerina and does not believe in God, but she’s about
to discover her role in spiritual warfare taking place in her small town of Stratus
What’s it like to fly with an angel? What’s it like to witness spiritual warfare? What’s it like learning to trust someone when your instincts tell you he’s safe? What does a human see when wearing an angelic halo? This book has all of that and gives the perspective from all three types, human; angel; and demon. The setting of this story takes place in both the terrestrial realm (earthly) and the celestial realm (spirit).
What I learned from this story…
demons sense despair and it smells like
salt and rust, tears and corrosion
they also sense fear and enjoy inflicting
fear in humans/taunting their fears
when demons linger there are feelings of
anxiety and dread
The Prince of Darkness forgives slowly,
and he never, ever forgets (basically the complete opposite of God, which makes
sense)
demons learn to please the Prince of
Darkness by using and corrupting humans to fulfill their plans
an angel is also called a shield and there
is a hierarchy of roles they fill, the angel (Canaan )
in this story is assigned to protect humans
It’s back: The darkness. The fear.
Jake sits on his bed, facing the
girl. She’s on the phone, her back
stiff, the black tar of fear soaking through her shirt and pouring thickly onto
the floor. A fog rises like steam from
the muck and settles heavily around them.
From under her blond hair, the clingy substance oozes, running the length
of her body. Her hands shake, desperate
to be rid of it.
She isn’t alone in her distress. It’s leaking from Jake as well—his pants
saturated. Fear is pooled on the floor
of his room, but is not content with only two victims. Like a heat-seeking missile, it runs into the
hall looking for someone, anyone to attach itself to.
If human beings could only see the
manifestation of such a weapon, they would understand how it paralyzes,
literally holding them captive with the glue of it.
Like every being of light, Canaan hates fear.
It has little effect on him, but humans can’t make such a claim. Only celestial eyes can see it for what it
is. Black and thick. Like tar, but icy and alive. It clings and oozes. It weighs down its victims until they are
either frozen in a trench of indecision or worse—they make the first possible
move, no matter how unwise, simply to rid themselves of it.
It’s the deadliest weapon the Fallen
possess. They can inflict it, to be
sure, but the tragedy of fear is that since the Fall, humans have held it
inside their very being and can unleash it, even unwittingly, on themselves and
on others.
I was very satisfied with
how Angel Eyes ended. I had trouble with Brielle’s unbelief after
witnessing so much of the supernatural world, but she eventually comes to
understand and fight for The Throne just as her shield does. It was a clean story overall. There’s violence in the story, but I found it
appropriate to the plot (one villain is shot to death, angels and demons fight,
Brielle trips over a tree root and breaks her ankle, children are kidnapped,
demons inflict pain and fear on the humans and it is revealed that corruption
exists in this small town), it wasn’t offensive. Brielle lives with her dad who is absent
throughout much of the story, but the few times he’s available it is apparent
how protective he is of Brielle. He
calls the police twice when she doesn’t come home in a reasonable amount of time,
he encourages Brielle to find her way in her comfort and timing, and he asks
her friend Kaylee to keep her company when he has to be at work. Her mom dies when Brielle is young and that
is another form of grief she has to deal with despite having no memory of this
parent.
This book will be available in May from your preferred retailer.
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