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Fifteen-year-old Megan Laughlin has a gift; or what seems like a curse at times. Megan sees angels and demons. Megan knows her destiny is to protect her friends against dark angels who try to sway them into situations that can destroy their souls, their lives, and their eternity.
At school, she recognizes Judas, another popular boy, as a demon hell-bent on destroying her and everyone she loves. As Judas spreads horrible rumors and overdoses two of her classmates at a rave, Megan realizes the enormity of his power. While classmates die, Megan, with the help of an angel, Johnny, and a team of friends will face the fight of their lives as they battle Judas. Megan thinks God hasn't given her any "special" powers, but discovers she has what she needs as she confronts Judas and his seemingly unconquerable power.
Statistics
- Title - Angel in the Shadows Book One
- Author - Lisa Grace
- Genre - Fantasy/Young Adult
- Publication Date - November, 2009
Review
Personally, I'm not that big into the idea of "Christian alternatives". I prefer a work of art to stand on its own, to not be created for the sole purpose of providing a product for those consumers who will only buy something if it's "Christian" (which has its set of expectations and stultifying requirements). The tagline for Angel in the Shadows reads: "The difference between vampires and angels? Angels are real." Writing a book is often a labor of years. So while obviously the marketing campaign is targeting the current popularity of the Twilight series I'm not sure if Lisa Grace intended this from the start. Fortunately, Angel in the Shadows, while targeting the same demographic as Twilight, is a different style of book with its own path to blaze.
The first interesting twist to the plot is of course the presence of angels and demons in human form. This does have a Biblical basis, and the author provides references to Bible verses justifying any statements on spiritual matters, but somehow I doubt in real life that angels are all around playing a regular part in this human drama. At least not to the extent that they are portrayed in the book. For example, demon taking the name of Jude, or Judas, or Damon has cast himself as a popular kid at a local high school. While angels are present they are more in the background, acting as protectors.
An increasing number of Christians see a demon behind every bush. Some even go so far as to view all the problems of life as demonically animated. I've even heard of one local lady who adamantly believes and teaches that to stare into a fire will cause you to become possessed by a demon. This reminded me of this quote from C.S. Lewis in the preface of The Screwtape Letters: "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."
Fortunately, I don't think Lisa Grace has this mindset. The portrayal of angels is for fictional, literary purposes only; the main selling point in fact. The world of the characters is "normal" to all appearances with all the normal triumphs and heartaches of high school life. What the book reveals are the spiritual battles behind these supposedly normal events. The good news is that while demonic activity may heighten the level of disaster the choice is still left open to each human involved. So while the overall plotline is very average in many respects this subtext gives the story a new way to shine.
When I read a book written by a Christian (note I did not say "Christian book") I prefer that the thematic elements be likened to Jesus' parables. Like the parable of the sower "those who have ears can hear" but the point of the parable is never made absolutely clear except for hints. Maybe this makes me an "nose in the air artiste" but I prefer books to make me think and ponder on the message. Unfortunately, with Angels in the Shadows every point is made abudantly clear, from political to spiritual, and your face is rubbed in it. While I felt this did not need to be spelled out the Biblical elements would be hard to miss...they're cross-referenced in fact! Fortunately, the author never reaches the point where the story is derailed in favor of a sermon break. Instead, these elements are weaved in fairly seamlessly without seeming forced.
The author chose to write the narrative in first person. This is fine except that the author tends to break the writer's "show, not tell" rule. In the words of Wikipedia, "Show, don't tell is an admonition to fiction writers to write in a manner that allows the reader to experience the story through a character's action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the narrator's exposition, summarization, and description." Because of this the prose and dialogue almost felt dumbed down at first in order to appeal to a younger, or casual, reader. This improved as the book went on but still left many of the emotions and characters feeling shallow. Of course, I'm used to reading thousand page tomes and not Youth Fiction. I also realize that many authors will get out of balance in the other direction where every single little thing is "shown" when a simple "telling" via narrative would have helped the pacing.
To my annoyance I cannot end my literary critiques here. I've noticed that the writing quality of many of the books sent to me by writers who are Christians all suffer from poor grammar, spelling, and other editing mistakes. Angel in the Shadows is the same. Some readers may not overly care but to me this is very distracting. I can understand if the author is self-published and/or cannot afford an editor but Angel in the Shadows is apparently undergoing mainstream publishing and distribution. I'm hoping Lisa Grace or her publisher will fix such errors before publishing the next book in the series.
Now as for the content of Angel in the Shadows I can say I'm fairly pleased. I say fairly because the book leaves you with a cliff hanger. This is not a bad thing normally, in my opinion, but the event that was used as the culmination of the self-contained story of the first book in the series did not have the climatic power it could have managed. This is primarily caused by the character this involves being introduced as an important character--a best friend--part of the way through the book but then disappearing for a good portion of it. While this "disappearance" from the story was also an important element of the story it also means the reader does not know this character as well and perhaps does not feel as much empathy for her situation.
To finish off I'll sa I was surprised to receive a copy of Angel in the Shadows in the mail since I had not requested it. Still, I'm glad it was sent since overall I enjoyed reading the book despite my personal quibbles. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series...which will hopefully be another surprise in my mail!
Author Lisa Grace is a former children's musical theater director and is currently writing her second book in her Angel series. She is married, has a daughter and resides in Florida, Wisconsin and Tennessee.
Look for excerpts of her novels on www.lisagracebooks.com
Publisher's website: http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/AngelInTheShadows-BookOne.html
(In addition to editing the publisher and author websites should be overhauled to be more professional and not so "90's website" looking.)
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