Alden Bell – The Reapers are the Angels

Temple is fifteen years old, born into a dangerous post-apocalyptic America where zombies roam. She travels alone, but when she stumbles across helpless Maury she decided to try and help him find his family. The trip in itself is dangerous and it is not helped by the fact that Temple is being pursued by a man that wants to kill her.

Temple is a complex character. She is only fifteen but seems older then that as she has had to grow up fast in order to survive. She has done things that she is not proud of and is haunted by that, believing herself to be a bad person. She thinks that if she can help Maury get to his family then that may in some way make up for some of the bad things she has done.

The book is set about twenty-five years after the zombie outbreak. This is the only world Temple knows but we meet several characters who remember the world before. The zombies seem to be growing slower and weaker but they still pose a big threat, all it takes is one bite and you will become one of them. The zombies are an important part of the story but in a way they are more of a background feature, this book is not full of blood and gore like many zombie books it is more about Temple’s journey, both physically across America and mentally, coming to terms with her past and thinking about the future.

One thing that I didn’t like about the book was the lack of speech marks. None of the dialogue has them, which I found very noticeable and odd. There was probably a reason for not having them but I don’t know what it was and I did find it quite distracting.

Overall though I really enjoyed this book. I liked the imagery of it, it was easy to picture the scenes and to immerse myself in Temple’s world. I love post-apocalypse and this is a great example of it.