The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell

Alden Bell’sYA post-apocalyptic fantasy novel The Reapers Are the Angels shares DNA with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Both books deal with the same theme: how to maintain humanity in the face of complete devastation. The apocalypse in Bell’s book is a mysterious zombie plague, which probably means most English professors won’t be adding it to their reading lists. That’s a shame, because The Reapers are the Angels has a lot to say about the human condition, connections, compassion, and hope.

Temple, Alden Bell’s fifteen-year-old female protagonist, was born well after the sudden irruption of zombies twenty... Read More

The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell

What does the United States look like 25 years after zombies have led the nation into an apocalypse? What is life like for a teenager born ten years or so after the apocalypse? What has she seen, and done, and what is the state of her soul? These are the questions first-time novelist Alden Bell attempts to answer in The Reapers Are the Angels, a soul-searing novel that looks at some of life’s hardest questions through the lens of violence so common and natural it isn’t even evil.

Temple is fifteen year old, and she knows that there is a God, and a slick one at that. She knows because of all the miracles that can still be seen in the world, like tropical fish dancing around her feet, “All darting around like marbles in a chalk circle, and they were lit up electric, mostly silver but some gold and pick too. They came and danced around her ankle... Read More