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The Angel Maker
By Alex North
This review (if ya wanna call it that lol) will be for both the ebook and the audiobook
Thank you to you Netgalley, Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio for the ARC and early listen
This was my first Alex North read/listen. I do own some of his books so will be reading those soon.
I really enjoyed the author's writing style. Did a great job on character development. Loved the background history and the mystery surrounding the characters. Will definitely recommend this book to those that enjoy this genre.
As for the narrator in the audiobook she was okay. Hard to differentiate between the characters as she told the story. Had to rewind a few times to figure which character she was at times.

Alex North's The Angel Maker is a great lesson for me in sticking with books that aren't exactly going the way I expect.

This was one of my most anticipated upcoming novels, having absolutely loved the The Whisper Man and The Shadows. But I was a bit disappointed when I started it. There seemed to be too many story lines to engage with and I became easily confused with what was going on. Instead of flying through the book like I did with its predecessors, I found myself putting it down to read other things. But I did like the writing itself, and the author is one of my favorites, so I wanted to stick with it.

And I'm so glad I did! About halfway through things started to come together and I was legitimately impressed with how North tied everything together. It was such a satisfying conclusion. Now, I get it--a lot of people don't have patience to stick with a book for so long if it's not working out, but if you are a fan of this author's, please do.

Thanks to Celadon Books and the Celadon Readers program for providing me with a copy of this book to review through NetGalley.

I had such high hopes for this book, and unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed. I found the story to be overly complicated. Trying to follow along with all the characters, and the timelines took a lot of effort, and made the story hard to follow. The plot also felt very unfinished and vague by the end of the book. I think the author was trying to keep things a little ambiguous, but to me, it just felt like nothing was resolved, and we never understood how events connected together. I kept reading because I hoped that things would start to connect together and make more sense, but they never did, and I was left wishing I’d DNF’d.

This was pretty twisty. It ended up being a completely different story than what I thought I was going to read. Despite this, I was not disappointed. There are entwined storylines that are initially a bit hard to track; however, everything suddenly becomes clear and it is easier to follow. My one disappointment comes from this not being a larger book. I feel like the story would have benefited from being a much larger work. I'm good at gisting information but I really feel like fleshing out out Edward's and Alan's lives would have been fascinating. Whenever a mysterious book is involved, I want to know what's in it!

I found The Angel Maker to be the authors best book yet!

It was a great novel that was such a puzzle to put together. The “Angel Maker” is a very small blip in the book and doesn’t get much backstory but the novel itself is all about tying the past of a fathers sins to future sons.

It also has a lot of elements of philosophy which are very interesting and it was broken down into layman’s terms which was appreciated!

Overall a great fast paced read!

This is the third Alex North book that I've read and it is my favorite so far. North does a phenomenal job creating tension. All of his books have a heavy dose of dark themes that create suspense and unease.
The book is told through several point of views and a non-linear timeline. The dark history begins with a serial killer, John Lock, who murders children in service to honoring God's plan: Deus scripsit— God has written it.
John Lock is caught and prosecuted but his teachings are passed down through his son's Edward and Alan.
Katie has a tense relationship with her younger brother Chris. After Chris is brutally attacked as a teenager, an event Katie holds herself responsible for, he begins to follow a path that leads to addiction, poverty, homelessness, and heartbreak. When Katie learns that Chris is back, and in some type of trouble, again, she finds herself compelled to step in and change fate.
There are a lot of characters and sometimes I had difficulty keeping the storylines separate, but that may have been intentional with the underlying theme of interconnectedness and destiny versus choice that the author repeats throughout the novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one and whenever I had to close it, I couldn't wait to pick it up again.

This was a very thrilling and somewhat strange read about a serial killer and the domino fallout from their horrendous reign of ‘making angels’. I thought the writing itself was very good and it brought a lot to the book as far as the action went. The one, and very big, downfall of this book was that there was SO MUCH going on and not really a whole lot of questions getting answered. There were multiple POV’s and yet none of the characters did much storytelling, or if they did, it wasn’t as cohesive as it should have been. I felt as if there were multiple loose ends as I was approaching the ending and unfortunately some questions did not get answered. I am usually one for leaving something to the imagination, but I didn’t even get a starting point from this book to go off of.

Overall, I think this was an okay read. If you like fast paced character swaps and murderabilia, this is probably a good book for you. Thank you Netgalley and Celadon Books for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out slow. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but then, all of the sudden, it sped up and ended up being one of my favorite books of the year so far. This is my first book from Alex North, but it certainly will not be my last. This is a definite read for anyone that wants twists and turns that lead to an incredible ending.

This is really hard for me to rate. I thought it was really well written, and the story was really engaging. But it was also very confusing. It was more supernatural and metaphysical than I was expecting, and I found it hard to follow at times.

I would recommend it to thriller lovers who also like some magical realism. I haven’t read anything else by this author, so I don’t know if all of his books are like this.

I’m going to give this a 3,5/5. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a great read, with many twists and turns. There are numerous characters to remember and keep an eye on. The storyline goes between the present and past which makes it somewhat difficult to keep track of the story. Some characters turn out to be intertwined, but this is not apparent until later in the book. The back half of the book is what will keep you reading, and it is worth it.

📚ʙᴏᴏᴋ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ📚

Genre: mystery/thriller
Format: Kindle/egalley
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
Release date: 2/28/23

I was so thrilled when I was approved for this ARC! I read The Whisper Man a few months ago and really enjoyed it.

The Angel Maker is part thriller/part detective murder mystery. It's broken into multiple POVs with rotating characters and timelines, making this one of the more difficult books I've read in a while. I found myself trying so hard to piece things together between chapters and the alternating stories.
It was a workout for the brain, but when the story finally came together at the end it all made sense. However, it was very abrupt. I would have loved to dig a little deeper in an epilogue.

Synopsis via StoryGraph:
Growing up in a beautiful house in the English countryside, Katie Shaw lived a charmed life. At the cusp of graduation, she had big dreams, a devoted boyfriend, and a little brother she protected fiercely. Until the day a violent stranger changed the fate of her family forever.

Years later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to her brother, Chris, and now with a child of her own to protect, Katie struggles to separate the real threats from the imagined. Then she gets the phone call: Chris has gone missing and needs his big sister once more.

Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is facing a particularly gruesome crime. A distinguished professor of fate and free will has been brutally murdered just hours after firing his staff. All the leads point back to two old cases: the gruesome attack on teenager Christopher Shaw, and the despicable crimes of a notorious serial killer who, legend had it, could see the future.

This thriller was a little too metaphysical for my taste. AND the metaphysical part didn't even really matter. It could have been not included at all and it wouldn't have changed the plotline at all. All in all, not my favorite Alex North.

The Angel Maker by Alex North
Publication Date: 2/28/23

SYNOPSIS: Growing up in a beautiful house in the English countryside, Katie Shaw lived a charmed life. At the cusp of graduation, she had big dreams, a devoted boyfriend, and a little brother she protected fiercely. Until the day a violent stranger changed the fate of her family forever.

Years later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to her brother, Chris, and now with a child of her own to protect, Katie struggles to separate the real threats from the imagined. Then she gets the phone call: Chris has gone missing and needs his big sister once more.

Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is facing a particularly gruesome crime. A distinguished professor of fate and free will has been brutally murdered just hours after firing his staff. All the leads point back to two old cases: the gruesome attack on teenager Christopher Shaw, and the despicable crimes of a notorious serial killer who, legend had it, could see the future.

MY THOUGHTS: This book kicks off with a bang.

I liked Katie's character. I think she did well for herself despite the tragedy that befell her family at such a critical age in her youth. I also respect her for listening to her intuition and analyzing the information provided even when she was treated like she was overreacting.

The detective was open minded and wanted the truth which is preferable over so many stories that portray detectives as simply wanting to close the case, inconsistencies be damned. There was also some humorous banter between the detective and his partner which I always enjoy.

There is a much bigger piece of the story that I cannot really get into without spoilers, which gave some arguments for the nature/nuture debate. And, as with any great thriller, we are treated to an unpredictable twist that explains so much.

Thank you Celadon Books, Alex North and Netgalley for allowing me an early release to read and review!

Review to be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Bookstagram.

So far I have read every Alex North book and they keep getting better in my opinion. I am always a fan of a thriller/mystery involving violence and fear. I like that the book didn’t waste much time and jumped right in to trauma and action. I also liked the family dynamics and how every individual story was intertwined. I did feel that with multiple story lines it did get a bit muddled in the middle. But North did an excellent job of tying everything up with a bow.

I am a huge fan of Alex North’s work. So I was super stoked to be able to read this book.

Let me start off by saying - if you’re a mood reader, you HAVE to be in the mood for this one. There’s a lot of characters & you have to pay attention. But this hit the mark for me! You have a serial killer & paranormal elements. I can't say too much about the book because I feel it will reveal some of the key aspects., but it reminded me a lot of the movie “Frailty” but with North’s own touch. It is a must read if you are a fan of his previous books!

Thank you to @netgalley & @celadonbooks for the advance copy!

It was definitely one of those books that took me a bit to get into which is why I rated it 4 stars. Once I finally got into it it was another Alex North win!

I had a hard time reading this book, it felt like it took forever to finish it. There was too many things going on at once and I stayed confused the entire time. This is not the first book by this author that I struggled with, I did the same thing with The Shadows.

I found this book really difficult to get through, there was so much going on from start that I didn’t follow it easily.

The wins: The author's talent, the mood, and the vibe of this book. The misses (for me): The excessive amounts of points of view, and the disjointed book flow. This author is wonderful, so I look forward to the next book! Thanks again for the ARC!

Overall I can’t really say I enjoyed this book. I found the plot to be extremely far fetched. The relationships between the characters were overly complex and the whole book felt convoluted. As the book went on I found it a little tedious. I can’t recommend it.