I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Angel Fever
by
L.A. Weatherly
urban fantasy in Paperback edition that was published by Candlewick Press on November 26, 2013 and has 496 pages.
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Third and last in the urban fantasy series for young adults and revolving around Willow and Alex Kylar and their merry band of Angel Killers. It carries on seamlessly from Angel Fire, 2.
My Take
It’s a lightweight drama with a gentle lap of shallow melodramas with an interesting premise: deadly, life-sucking angels with no conscience. Angel Fever will grab your attention but there’s very little fear of tears in spite of the many scenes which Weatherly could have exploited and really dug for an emotional response.
I did like Willow’s eventual reaction at the end, how very real and honest it was. Weatherly treated the love angles well: the in-love-with-an-idea, the substitute love, Willow’s jealousy as Seb moves on, Willow’s reaction to Alex in Pawtucket. The greatest emotion in Angel Fever are Seb’s feelings for Willow. He can’t help how he feels nor can Willow help her own, and it makes for such a sad situation. Weatherly was also quite diplomatic in Alex’s responses to Miranda, very sweet and very careful.
Then there are the niggles…
It seems a stupid question for Meghan to ask of Willow, if she can fall in love with a human. What’s Alex? Chopped liver? All the drama about Kara’s return got left in the dust. So many questions and possibilities about what her return could mean, and it was nothing. After her reactions to the camp wanting to scan her, they just leave her alone? Hullo? She won’t say how she escaped, so they drop it? I’d also like to know how Kara hid a cellphone.
There were a few sentences I didn’t understand, one of which was how did Raziel’s Edens make it clear who the scrappy rebels were? I keep going over that sentence and still can’t figure it out.
Why didn’t they train their people for interrogation? Weatherly mentions guards or lookouts every once in a while, so…where were they that fateful day?
As for Cully’s message…what the heck? It’s sounds so contradictory.
Why did Raziel keep dreaming about Miranda? Did Alex’s foot heal up? I do find it fascinating that Alex spent three weeks in angel world with so little interaction. I couldn’t believe how long it took Willow to figure out where the gate was likely to be located. I mean, duh.
I can understand wanting to face Raziel as who you truly are, but couldn’t the makeover have waited until she got to Pawtucket? Given herself the best chance to get there??
The stupid tropes were surface as well. They still irritated me, but not enough to make me rage. More of a sigh and an oh, brother. Don Quixotes tilting away at windmills. The primary one was that of leaping into action without thought. Ooh, I can feel something! I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if we’ll die if we run over there, but let’s go without telling anyone. Yeah, ’cause it’s so much more fun that way *eye roll*. But even that is surface. No one makes a real big deal of it, well, except for that one instance. Even the whining is surface.
I must say that the angels created a very dull world in which to live. It would’ve been interesting to see how long it took the angels to realize how badly they’d screwed up. I was also curious that people were so “paralyzed” by it all that they couldn’t do anything on their own.
It’s all more ooh and ah as your daughter hangs out on her bed painting her toenails as she reads through Angel Fever.
The Story
The world as they knew it was destroyed. The quake that hit Mexico City was felt around the world and took out power stations, roads, and towns. No Internet, no television, no communication. Whole cities razed to the ground.
It’s a grief-filled year for Willow and a struggle for Seb. Both are mourning for the one they love, only Seb’s true love is still alive.
And both are still determined to battle the angels, even if it does look impossible.
The Characters
Willow Fields learned she was nephilim: half angel, half human. Her father is Raziel. Aunt Jo Fields took in Willow and Miranda when her mom’s mental health worsened.
Alex Kylar is/was CIA and an Angel Killer, and he and Willow are in love. His father, Martin, raised him and his brother, Jake, to battle against the angels, their group so effective that the CIA took them over. This life is all they’ve ever known. His father died of too much exposure to angels; I assume the same happened to Jake. John “Cully” Cullpepper was a compatriot, practically a father figure to Alex, and he has figured out how to get to the other side. He’s also dead of angel burn, although how he got from the family camp to Austin Eden, I don’t know.
Sebastían Carrera is a survivor and also nephilim. He’s been dreaming of the angel-girl almost his entire life — Willow.
The rest of the Angel Killers (AK)
Kara Mendez escaped Mexico City with Brendan. Sam and Liz, who loves to cook, are the only others who escape Mexico City. In the Nevada bunker, they gain Paul, Chloe, the generous Meghan, Matt, Claudia who is training to be a paramedic, Grant, Tracy, Chris, Eric is their computer guru, Heather, and dozens more. Brendan died shortly after Mexico City in Angel Fire.
Pawtucket
Nina Bergmann had been Willow’s best friend. Scott Mason was the high school football star. Rachel, Leslie, David, and some two hundred others are still there.
Jonah Fisk was Razel’s assistant in Denver.
The Voice of Freedom is a solitary radio station that broadcasts the truth about the angels and exhorts people to stay away from the Edens.
The angels
Raziel is the angel who leads the Church of Angels in the U.S., and he has his own plans that included angel assassination. If angels can look like thugs, it’d be Bascal. Margen was one of his. Summer and Lauren are the A1-rated beauties Raziel has appropriated for himself. Lamar is one of the unhappy angels. Gallad and Therese are allies with Raziel but aren’t happy with the Separation either. Turns out Zaran is Seb’s father, and he has a more humane approach as a father than Raziel. Paschar was the angel who prophesied that Willow would be the one to destroy the angels.
The Edens are essentially concentration camps, albeit pretty ones where people are herded per their usefulness. Yes, they’re cared for, like cattle. Marshalling is a way of making a human unappetizing to an angel. Angel burn is what happens when an angel feeds on you long enough. Final parties are suicide parties, for the angels can’t stand not having that psychic connection to each other.
The Cover and Title
The cover is shades of orange with Willow and her blonde hair swirling as she turns. The white-filled letters of the title are surrounded by swirling tendrils of copper foil.
The title is a reflection of where the world is heading, deep into Angel Fever as they succumb to the addiction of the angel touch.
