​THE MAN WHO WITH TWO NAMES, EXPLORING:‘REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS’ AND ‘WHEN WE WERE ANIMALS’

The man who with two names, exploring:
‘Reapers Are The Angels’ and ‘When We Were Animals’

I recently read two very different novels by Alden Bell and Joshua Gaylord only to discover they are in fact the same person. Those novels were Reapers Are The Angels and When We Were Animals and had me wondering which guy was the real deal; Josh or Alden? Or both maybe? I enjoyed both books mainly because they both had very strong female protagonists who both moved me in different ways. What else did they have in common? Not much really, except that they were both brilliant and I highly recommend them.

My favourite leading female of the two was most definitely ‘Temple’ (from Reapers) who was the ultimate free spirit. A fifteen-year-old girl seeking redemption, who had lived her entire life in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, trying to survive in a world slowly beginning to recover. She’d lived by herself for most of her life, struggling to connect with the other people she met along her journey. On the other hand, we have ‘Lumen’ (from Animals) who narrates her story in first person and has a different kind of inner strength. Lumen was a very introverted person, in many ways the opposite of Temple, who hangs in the background, watching from afar and never quite sure whether to join in, or whether she would be wanted.

The Reapers Are The Angels follows Temple as she is hunted down by a man called Moses after killing his brother, who tried to rape her. Along the way she runs into many characters including Maurey, who has special needs, and takes him with her on her journey or race away from Moses. Throughout the story flashbacks reveal why she decided to help Maurey and the underlying reason for her guilt. One of the most memorable scenes in the novel, which truly creeped me out, was when Temple ran into new, different type of zombie which I like to call ‘zombie hillbillies’, an inbred super-zombie which had been experimenting with other substances.

The beautiful novel, which ranks amongst my favourite books, is very much a journey for Temple both literally and figuratively. It seems weird to call a zombie novel ‘beautiful’ but there was just something about it which really moved me. Another powerful scene was when Temple goes on a date with a random boy she met at a town that is beginning to reclaim areas street my street. She has a cola-cola with ice, hangs out, although deep down she feels she doesn’t belong and wants to hit the road again. I also enjoyed the moments between Moses and Temple, even though he’s the villain because they were so similar to each other.

What sets this book apart from other zombie fiction was that the creature aspect of the novel is not the centre and lurks in the background leaving space for plot development and the characters to breathe. I recommended that you keep some tissues nearby while reading it because I cried my eyes out at the end of it. My dad, who recommended the novel, was very pleased with my tears.  

When We Were Animals is a strange novel about a small town where when teenagers reach a certain age, they go ‘breaching’. Although the concept of breaching is never fully explained, it is best described as a pull where the teens lose control, running wild in the streets, sometimes naked, losing all normal inhibitions. Their parents don’t do anything about this because they did it themselves years earlier and it is seen as a peculiar right of passage into adulthood.

Lumen, however, swears she’ll never breach because of her mother. Soon everyone around her is breaching apart from her, including her only friend Polly. When the sound of the teens howling echoes the streets she hears her classmates calling her name and the pull becomes almost irresistible. The story also has many notable characters such as: Blackhat Roy, who is a personal favourite of mine and a real standout figure in the story. The novel also flashes forward to see Lumen as a married adult with a son, as she reflects back on her past and begins to feel the urge again.

I felt both novels had similar aspects; both are coming of age stories that include love, death and teenagers with strange types of freedom. Both also spend a lot of time alone.  In the world of 2019 technology is a huge part of life but in these stories it is barely ever mentioned. Allowing the plot to flow and the roaming of the characters to be rich and be grounded in reality. Though Lumen and Temple live in two very different worlds, they are both young girls growing up in hard places and in the end they are both human and very fragile characters which really touched me.

It was very hard to tell whether both books were adult or Young Adult novels, my dad gives me a mixture of both to read. When I get into a book I have real tunnel vision for it and I had that feeling for both these stories.

One of the stands out of When We Were Animals was the bad boy Blackhat Roy. He wasn’t a main character but his shadow dominated the book and I felt myself pulled to his dark, irresistible, side. Blackhat Roy was nasty, interesting, layered, violent and very human character that was entertaining to read and was the only true choice of Lumen. (RIP Peter).

I’m not too sure how well-known Angels Are The Reapers and When We Were Animals are, but I would recommend them for strong teenage or adult readers who enjoy clever horror about people in tough situations. My dad is a massive fan of this author also and we both hope he brings out another book soon.

I wonder how Lumen survive in a zombie-apocalypse? Or what would Temple make of the drama of high school? Maybe Alden or Josh will tell us in the accompanying interview.
AJ

Check out our interview with Alden Bell here