ivinklerkomaric's review against another edition
2.0
Ovo je jedna od onih knjiga koju su hvalili i čitatelji i kritičari i svi redom je reklamirali tako da sam mislila da će biti odlična. Međutim, uopće ne kužim čemu tolika pompa. Meni je knjiga bila strašno spora, umorili su me nekakvi detaljni opisi, a radnja mi je bila prilično nezanimljiva.
lkmreads's review against another edition
I have to say, I didn't like this one bit.
The story might have been interesting, but I honestly couldn't get through it at all. There were pages and pages and pages of (quite pointless imho) description. Sure, you can tell me the stairs were old, creaky and moldy, but do I really need to know the position of it, color, smell of the mold, what that smell reminded the main character of as she headed upstairs, and etc when it's not even relevant to the story?
And do I really need to read it again the next time she comes down 10 pages later?
I don't think so.
The only reason I forgot the description the first time is because there's so much random description of other seemingly random things in the middle that I forgot what was happening ten pages back.
The family history bits also seemed randomly thrown in for me. Like the main character would be talking about something (say, a flower), and the flower reminded her of how her mother/father/whatever did this or that and only sometimes is this even relevant to the story.
I wouldn't mind the info dump as much if it wasn't a 5 pages info dump in some somewhat semi-critical moment that might have finally given the book some action after all the repeat descriptions.
I think once I counted like three or four similar descriptions of the wings of the same character, followed by another two or three of her son. In one chapter.
I think I won't forget what her fantastic wings that you keep saying are fantastic look like from one room to the next. And yes, I get it, wing-envy, but you can show envy without re-describing. With mostly the same words (maybe the Spanish translation had run out of words to describe the same thing differently, I'll give the benefit of the doubt :P).
That said, there was also apparently-I-made-research descriptions thrown in too in places that also seemed random (or at least, if not random, still distracted from the main story).
So yeah, I gave up before the second part, because I skimmed ahead and it did not bode well in the description front.
The story might have been interesting, but I honestly couldn't get through it at all. There were pages and pages and pages of (quite pointless imho) description. Sure, you can tell me the stairs were old, creaky and moldy, but do I really need to know the position of it, color, smell of the mold, what that smell reminded the main character of as she headed upstairs, and etc when it's not even relevant to the story?
And do I really need to read it again the next time she comes down 10 pages later?
I don't think so.
The only reason I forgot the description the first time is because there's so much random description of other seemingly random things in the middle that I forgot what was happening ten pages back.
The family history bits also seemed randomly thrown in for me. Like the main character would be talking about something (say, a flower), and the flower reminded her of how her mother/father/whatever did this or that and only sometimes is this even relevant to the story.
I wouldn't mind the info dump as much if it wasn't a 5 pages info dump in some somewhat semi-critical moment that might have finally given the book some action after all the repeat descriptions.
I think once I counted like three or four similar descriptions of the wings of the same character, followed by another two or three of her son. In one chapter.
I think I won't forget what her fantastic wings that you keep saying are fantastic look like from one room to the next. And yes, I get it, wing-envy, but you can show envy without re-describing. With mostly the same words (maybe the Spanish translation had run out of words to describe the same thing differently, I'll give the benefit of the doubt :P).
That said, there was also apparently-I-made-research descriptions thrown in too in places that also seemed random (or at least, if not random, still distracted from the main story).
So yeah, I gave up before the second part, because I skimmed ahead and it did not bode well in the description front.
hmonkeyreads's review against another edition
2.0
Super lame. Any book would have suffered coming on the heels of Cutting for Stone, like this one did, but honestly. the book stinks.
It starts with a good idea, but then gets absolutely, dreadfully, boring, and then sort of perks up a bit before finishing with a stupid, twist ending that annoys me because it means that there will be more bad books that I am probably going to waste time reading.
Save yourself and stay away!
My biggest problem: I never really understood why the angels were so evil.
It starts with a good idea, but then gets absolutely, dreadfully, boring, and then sort of perks up a bit before finishing with a stupid, twist ending that annoys me because it means that there will be more bad books that I am probably going to waste time reading.
Save yourself and stay away!
My biggest problem: I never really understood why the angels were so evil.
msisintheunknown's review
4.0
Surprising!
Not at all what I expected: intelligent, intriguing a page- turner!
Now... Where's Angelopolis?
Not at all what I expected: intelligent, intriguing a page- turner!
Now... Where's Angelopolis?
lithiumlion's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
petitehelene's review
4.0
Este livro caiu-me nas mãos de forma inesperada, por acaso ao procurar um livro, encontrei este. Não me senti particularmente atraída pela capa, mas como sabemos, não se deve julgar um bom livro pela sua capa.
Este livro fala-nos de mitologia, de religião e da relação entre duas sociedades a dos anjos e os humanos, numa luta que é travada diariamente sem que a maioria dos humanos se aperceba sequer disto.
Os anjos não são os serem angelicais que idealizamos, mensageiros de esperança, pelo contrário, são corruptos, caíram em tentação, sucumbiram à atracção e tiveram filhos com os humanos. No entanto estes filhos são mais belos, mas agéis, mais altos e com poderes misteriosos... as suas asas são majestosas, recolhidas e uma misteriosa doença começa a afectar estas criatura, destruindo as suas asas e a sua vida quase imortal. A beleza destes anjos lembra-me a personagem do filme Constantine, interpretada por Tilda Swinton, seres andrógenos, altos, belos e infiltrados nas nossas vidas, e muito cruéis.
Percival, um anjo caído e afectado por essa doença anda em busca de um objecto capaz de curar a sua enfermidade, a Lira de Orfeu, cujo som renova as energias dos anjos, mas que pode ser fatal para o comum dos mortais. A acção avança com Verlaine, um investigador que trabalha para Percival, que tenta descobrir a ligação entre uma freira de um convento, uma senhora de alta sociedade, que trocava correspondência com essa freira. Acaba por ser ajudado pela irmã Evangeline, quem mais tarde vem a descobrir que a sua mãe e a sua avó faziam parte da sociedade secreta de Angelologistas.
Evangeline vai tornar-se a personagem central da história. Teremos momentos da história centrados noutras personagens como Gabrielle a avó de Evangeline, a freira Celestine, que desempenhou um papel central nesta história. Temos vislumbres de pedaços de história e lugares: Paris durante a segunda guerra Mundial, passagens religiosas: Noé e a arca. A maneira como grandes famílias: como Rockfeller e os Harburgo; vêm a sua história interligada a centros acadêmicos e ordens religiosas na luta pela preservação da humanidade contra os nefilins que querem dominar o mundo.
Somos envolvidos pela trama do início ao fim, com um final surpreendente!
Este livro fala-nos de mitologia, de religião e da relação entre duas sociedades a dos anjos e os humanos, numa luta que é travada diariamente sem que a maioria dos humanos se aperceba sequer disto.
Os anjos não são os serem angelicais que idealizamos, mensageiros de esperança, pelo contrário, são corruptos, caíram em tentação, sucumbiram à atracção e tiveram filhos com os humanos. No entanto estes filhos são mais belos, mas agéis, mais altos e com poderes misteriosos... as suas asas são majestosas, recolhidas e uma misteriosa doença começa a afectar estas criatura, destruindo as suas asas e a sua vida quase imortal. A beleza destes anjos lembra-me a personagem do filme Constantine, interpretada por Tilda Swinton, seres andrógenos, altos, belos e infiltrados nas nossas vidas, e muito cruéis.
Percival, um anjo caído e afectado por essa doença anda em busca de um objecto capaz de curar a sua enfermidade, a Lira de Orfeu, cujo som renova as energias dos anjos, mas que pode ser fatal para o comum dos mortais. A acção avança com Verlaine, um investigador que trabalha para Percival, que tenta descobrir a ligação entre uma freira de um convento, uma senhora de alta sociedade, que trocava correspondência com essa freira. Acaba por ser ajudado pela irmã Evangeline, quem mais tarde vem a descobrir que a sua mãe e a sua avó faziam parte da sociedade secreta de Angelologistas.
Evangeline vai tornar-se a personagem central da história. Teremos momentos da história centrados noutras personagens como Gabrielle a avó de Evangeline, a freira Celestine, que desempenhou um papel central nesta história. Temos vislumbres de pedaços de história e lugares: Paris durante a segunda guerra Mundial, passagens religiosas: Noé e a arca. A maneira como grandes famílias: como Rockfeller e os Harburgo; vêm a sua história interligada a centros acadêmicos e ordens religiosas na luta pela preservação da humanidade contra os nefilins que querem dominar o mundo.
Somos envolvidos pela trama do início ao fim, com um final surpreendente!
vera_1993's review against another edition
4.0
Heel mooi verrassend boek! Goed verhaal, alleen valt de spanning soms beetje weg door overdaad aan details en bijbelse passages. Kan daarom, ondanks enkele overeenkomsten, niet tippen aan de boeken van Dan Brown. Zou vanwege bovenstaande opmerkingen 3 sterren willen geven, maar omdat je bijna gaat geloven dat engelen écht leven EN vanwege het verrassende einde toch gekozen voor 4 sterren.
toastea's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Audio: (5) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
& Story: (3) ⭐⭐⭐
Yeah... now that it’s over, I can say overall it wasn’t a bad read. But the beginning was too slow & the book was just way too long in general. Really think the narrator saved this story for me, I was on the verge of dropping this book & returning it back to the library unfinished. Quite happy to be done with it & don’t see myself picking up the next sequel.
& Story: (3) ⭐⭐⭐
Yeah... now that it’s over, I can say overall it wasn’t a bad read. But the beginning was too slow & the book was just way too long in general. Really think the narrator saved this story for me, I was on the verge of dropping this book & returning it back to the library unfinished. Quite happy to be done with it & don’t see myself picking up the next sequel.
fat_girl_fiction's review against another edition
2.0
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
Although I've given this book two, it's more two point five, but I was so disappointed that I thought I round down rather than up.
I was recommended this book by my Aunt, who is usually a genius when it comes to giving me good books but with this one, it got worse as it went along. It recovered itself a little bit at the end, but when I was reading a book, within a flashback, I was ready to give up!
The first problem with this book, is that Trussoni cramms as many long, intelligent words she can in each sentence. It's as if she's showing off her vocabulary, but really it's completely unnecessary and it makes it harder to read.
When I started I thought it was going to go well. I liked the characters of Evangeline and Verlaine and I was intirigued by the mysterious letters. However it went back sixty odd years, in the mind of a senior nun Celestine. That's when it lost me. What could have been done as several conversations took up the middle of the story and what made it worse was that the interesting bits (like the expedition to get the lyre) were shorter than the boring 'talky' bits. Then I found I was reading a translation by one of the characters! That was unnecessary as well! It could have been shortened, or it could have just been the paragraphs that were essential to the plot. In fact, the whole flashback could have been a separate book, and I wish it was.
When we came back to modern times, it did get better. We were back on track, even if the way the characters spoke was a little iffy. Trussoni also introduced a load of characters that weren't needed and just complicated things as I tried to remember what everyone looked like.
I will admit, I was surprised by the end, but the journey, wasn't really worth it!
Although I've given this book two, it's more two point five, but I was so disappointed that I thought I round down rather than up.
I was recommended this book by my Aunt, who is usually a genius when it comes to giving me good books but with this one, it got worse as it went along. It recovered itself a little bit at the end, but when I was reading a book, within a flashback, I was ready to give up!
The first problem with this book, is that Trussoni cramms as many long, intelligent words she can in each sentence. It's as if she's showing off her vocabulary, but really it's completely unnecessary and it makes it harder to read.
When I started I thought it was going to go well. I liked the characters of Evangeline and Verlaine and I was intirigued by the mysterious letters. However it went back sixty odd years, in the mind of a senior nun Celestine. That's when it lost me. What could have been done as several conversations took up the middle of the story and what made it worse was that the interesting bits (like the expedition to get the lyre) were shorter than the boring 'talky' bits. Then I found I was reading a translation by one of the characters! That was unnecessary as well! It could have been shortened, or it could have just been the paragraphs that were essential to the plot. In fact, the whole flashback could have been a separate book, and I wish it was.
When we came back to modern times, it did get better. We were back on track, even if the way the characters spoke was a little iffy. Trussoni also introduced a load of characters that weren't needed and just complicated things as I tried to remember what everyone looked like.
I will admit, I was surprised by the end, but the journey, wasn't really worth it!