Halo
by Alexandra Adornetto
Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. But she is the most human, and when she is romantically drawn to a mortal boy, the angels fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone—especially herself—from the Dark Forces.
Is love a great enough power against evil? (description taken from Amazon.com)
I am conflicted about this book.
On the one hand I really love the premise. It is a great story of a "baby" angel coming to Earth, having to fight the forces of evil, and accidentally falling in mortal love while she's here. The characters are well drawn, compelling, and feel like they could jump right off the page.
On the other hand...Adornetto gives us too much. Every thing, person, and place HAD to be described. Every one. Every adverb or adjective I have ever learned was used in this book...in fact, I have an extensive vocabulary and there were several words used here that I had never heard before in my life. Not that that in itself is a bad thing, but when you have to pull out obscure vocabulary to get variety just because of the sheer volume of descriptors you use in a book...whew! Maybe it's a sign to edit.
That's what this book needed...one more edit. As I said, I loved the storyline...but at almost five hundred pages, this book could have been cut down to a more concise version. It may be partially due to the author's youth (she's eighteen) but I hope that Hades, coming out next year, is a little more...well less.
BTW - I love this cover!
Full disclosure: ARC originally received at BEA 2010, but audio book sent for review for AudioFile Magazine.
I heard the same from others about this book. I'm not sure I'll ever read it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I kept putting off reading it because of the reviews...it wasn't til I got the audio to review that I finally "read" it.
ReplyDeleteI heard the same thing. Wait...the author is 18? I didn't know that! But, don't you think that the editor would have helped, actually to edit? What happened?
ReplyDeleteYeah, she's really young and sometimes you can tell - kind of like you could with "The Prophecy of the Stones." I don't know what happened with the editing, but it prob. could have been at least 50 pages shorter.
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