The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell
Alden Bell’s YA 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… In The Road, the boy says to his father, “We’re the good guys, right?” In The Reapers are the Angels, Temple asks, “Am I evil?” In each book, characters wrestle with the gap between survival-based behavior and moral behavior. Is it possible to have morality, community, connection, when you are fighting for survival?… Read the rest.
English professors might, but I’ve been planning a course on political theory and fiction, and I think this might fit for Hobbes quite nicely.
I’m rather fascinated at how different our reviews are, even though we both liked this book. I guess no two people ever truly read the same book. Great review, Marion.
Terry–we commented on several of the same things, though–especially Temple’s view of spirituality. I thought Bell captured that so well!