Reviews with content warning for Violence - Angels & Demons

Wow, a long book but it went (mostly) fast! Action mystery/thriller, this is a prequel to the Da Vinci Code with a violent showdown between the Illuminati and the Vatican, plus the two MCs (symbology at MMC and physicist FMC) trying to stop them.

Characters- bland, dialogue is funny in a cliche hokey way. Our main characters each suffered a Traumatic Event as a child that gave them very specific worldviews for the rest of their lives… meh. Also, FMC Vittoria the Bio Entanglement Physicist was particularly ludicrous, with her incessant references to “ah yes I know this Obscure Skill that comes in handy during Plot Event because a dolphin taught it to me” or some shit. MMC is The Hot Professor who does water polo, is super smart, but just doesn’t have a need for women in his life right now. Plus he’s fucking indestructible. Anywho, this is a plot book, just laugh and move on.

Plot- whew, so many twists and turns! I was hooked for a long while even though I don’t like history. The first really tense portion (for the first cardinal) and then the last portion were the best. In between the action lagged a bit, and the author has a habit of interjecting flashbacks or wordy descriptions of scenery into what *should* be tense scenes.

Writing- a step up from the Da Vinci Code, which I found almost unreadable when I tried it years ago. Yes, there are some cheesy cliffhangers and foreshadowing. (“Robert was scared now. Little did he know, later that day he’d be in more danger than ever before. <chapter ends>”). Skimming is your friend. I can only read about Roman architecture for so long.

There’s some messaging about religion vs science that got a little preachy imo, though the author ends on a fairly neutral stance.

One pet peeve: FMC in danger of rape by villain, MMC must save! Like.. this is a historical mystery thriller, did we really need that.

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pearlnavratik's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

excellent book, but was slightly thrown off by the sensualization of the sole female character

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shetland_pone's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

If you don't pay any attention, it's fun, but the moment you start to think about things it all falls apart. Langdon is a Mary Sue, most of the characters are seriously unlikeable, and the ending was a shitshow.

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kit666's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Ich muss ehrlich sagen, dass ich nicht mit dem Ende gerechnet habe! Sobald Kohler zum Vatikan kam, dachte ich es ist klar, was Sache ist. CERN sind die Illuminati etc etc. Ich war sogar leicht enttäuscht, dass alles so ein "Happy End" hatte und habe nur noch auf die Aufklärung gewartet wir Kohler alles geplant und ausgeführt hat. Doch dann kam der Plottwist.
Anfangs habe ich den Camerlengo sogar gemocht! Es wurde also super geschrieben!
Am Ende hat mir besonders die logische Erklärung für alles mit einem Hauch von Mystik gefallen. Das war genau das, was ich haben wollte und weswegen ich vor dem Plottwist so enttäuscht war.
Ich finde es schade, dass Vittoria eine vergleichsweise kleine Rolle hatte. Sie hätte definitiv weiter ausgebaut werden können/sollen. Man weiß so gut wie garnichts über sie und das obwohl sie doch fast immer mit Langdon zusammen unterwegs war.
Zwischen Langdon und Vittoria ist natürlich gaaaaanz viel Trauma-Bonding zu sehen, was aber nach allem was passiert ist verständlich ist.
Warum ausgerechnet Langdon so viel gemacht hat, macht in meinen Augen wenig Sinn. Ich verstehe, warum er als Berater hinzugezogen wurde, aber darüber hinaus?
Es wäre sehr interessant und cool gewesen, wenn der Hauptcharakter jemand wie Rocher oder Oberst Olivetti wäre. Wobei ich sagen muss, dass ich Olivetti nicht sonderlich sympathisch fand haha. Wobei der wohl nervigste Charakter Glick ist. Meine Güte. Die Rolle hätte man auch einfach als No-Name Rollen verteilen können.
Es war unglaublich spannend, sich die Bilder von den echten Skulpturen usw. anzuschaue, während sie im Buch beschrieben werden! Das transportiert einen natürlich sofort ins Geschehen!

Das Buch hat mir sehr gefallen! Ich weiß, dass der Film sehr beliebt ist, habe ihn selber aber nie gesehen. Wenn man es also ohne Vorwissen liest, kann es super als alleinstehenden Roman lesen! Ich würde gern mal nach Rom, um mir die Orte auch in echt anzuschauen. Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass das sehr Spaß machen würde!

Doesn't pass the Bechdel Test tho..

Content Warnings

naiu_cs's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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francisca_pitterle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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literallysam's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

The novel focuses on the ongoing war between science and religion for centuries.
The thing i absolutely loved about the book is that it's all based on facts.
It gives an exciting introduction to the world of conspiracy theories (before this book i had never even heard of Illuminati lol).😂🙈
This book is so exhilarating, thrilling, and imaginative! I love how the author has mixed scientific and religious elements perfectly.

I think you should definitely read it if you're a begginer. This book will definitely get you into mystery-thriller books. So if you're looking for something like that then i would highly recommend reading Angels and Demons.
I'm giving it a 4.8 star rating because some of the plot twists are so predictable- though it didn't stop me from reading and was still very exhilarating.
So yeah, apart from that the book is a real page turner!

Also, the movie based on the book sucks! I don’t think this counts as a con for the book, but still..
Don’t watch it. Especially not if you haven't read the book yet because then you might not even want to read it.

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