Author: Dina Rae
First Published: 2021
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: A chain of advertising agencies, a new breed of humans, and a fallen angel to worship... Andel Talistokov is a fallen angel who uses advertising as a form of propaganda for Satan. His growing power emboldens him to break Hell's Commandments by soliciting worship from an ancient angel religion. He changes their rituals forever. Furious with his arrogance and betrayal, Satan commands Armaros to return to Hell after finding his replacement.
Eve Easterhouse, a recovering drug addict, steps out of prison shortly after her mother's fatal accident. She and her sister, Julia, unravel their mother's secretive past. Intrigued, they learn their bloodline is part of a celestial legacy.
The review: Dina Rae, who has been a Guest blogger on TMtV, sent me her novel for review. The book concerns itself with a Biblical source (although there is an aspect to this that I will have to address later) for the vampirism within it and features Fallen Angels, who are primarily vampiric but can pass the vampirism to human acolytes and father Nephilim – offspring of (fallen) angels and humans. This leads to an interesting take on the lore and, of course, it means that religious symbolism is a particularly potent part of warding from and destroying a (human) vampire. As for the fallen angels – they are a different beast altogether but they can be fought. The vampiric connection to animals in this is to birds and both human vampires and fallen can control them.
The part I wanted to address was the fact that, in the book, the leader of the fallen (Satan himself) is also called Malak Tawas and his symbol is a peacock. Melek Taûs is actually believed to be an angelic being and is central to the Yazidi religion. In this book the religion is drawn as Satanists but the religion in reality is not a Satanic religion and, for the Yazidi, Melek Taûs is not a fallen angel within their theology but the leader of archangels commanded by God to take care of this world. The demonisation of the theology of another religion by the Abrahamic religions is not unusual (see the demonisation of pagan deities by Christians) but in this case said demonisation (primarily, but not only, perpetrated by adherents of the Muslim faith) has led to religious persecution of the Yazidi. Personally, I wish the author had invented a Satanic sect but when reading the book please bear in mind that the religion portrayed is a fictional version (taken over by Western characters and twisted to their own goal) and the figure they worship is not Satan in the real-world equivalent.
So, having got that out of my system, let’s get back to the book itself. The writing, at the start of the book, displayed some idiosyncrasies in the turn of phrase used – though I recognised that was the author’s style. I quickly got used to the style and it was not distracting, rather it was the author’s voice. The primary characters are pretty well drawn – with Bell, the 6-year-old daughter of protagonist Julia, being particularly fun, with a balance struck in the drawing of the character between her age and the arcane knowledge she possesses, though the adults almost dismissed her inputs to their peril, which felt right also. The book has a moderate pace, with occasional flashes of action/horror, but picks up a terrific pace towards the finale. I liked the angelic lore interfacing with the vampire myth, as well as the fact that certainly the fallen angels were simply evil and irredeemable, and, with the caveat about the real-world Yazidi religion aside plus a warning that there are themes of rape and incest, it is a book I would recommend reading. 7 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
Eve Easterhouse, a recovering drug addict, steps out of prison shortly after her mother's fatal accident. She and her sister, Julia, unravel their mother's secretive past. Intrigued, they learn their bloodline is part of a celestial legacy.
The review: Dina Rae, who has been a Guest blogger on TMtV, sent me her novel for review. The book concerns itself with a Biblical source (although there is an aspect to this that I will have to address later) for the vampirism within it and features Fallen Angels, who are primarily vampiric but can pass the vampirism to human acolytes and father Nephilim – offspring of (fallen) angels and humans. This leads to an interesting take on the lore and, of course, it means that religious symbolism is a particularly potent part of warding from and destroying a (human) vampire. As for the fallen angels – they are a different beast altogether but they can be fought. The vampiric connection to animals in this is to birds and both human vampires and fallen can control them.
The part I wanted to address was the fact that, in the book, the leader of the fallen (Satan himself) is also called Malak Tawas and his symbol is a peacock. Melek Taûs is actually believed to be an angelic being and is central to the Yazidi religion. In this book the religion is drawn as Satanists but the religion in reality is not a Satanic religion and, for the Yazidi, Melek Taûs is not a fallen angel within their theology but the leader of archangels commanded by God to take care of this world. The demonisation of the theology of another religion by the Abrahamic religions is not unusual (see the demonisation of pagan deities by Christians) but in this case said demonisation (primarily, but not only, perpetrated by adherents of the Muslim faith) has led to religious persecution of the Yazidi. Personally, I wish the author had invented a Satanic sect but when reading the book please bear in mind that the religion portrayed is a fictional version (taken over by Western characters and twisted to their own goal) and the figure they worship is not Satan in the real-world equivalent.
So, having got that out of my system, let’s get back to the book itself. The writing, at the start of the book, displayed some idiosyncrasies in the turn of phrase used – though I recognised that was the author’s style. I quickly got used to the style and it was not distracting, rather it was the author’s voice. The primary characters are pretty well drawn – with Bell, the 6-year-old daughter of protagonist Julia, being particularly fun, with a balance struck in the drawing of the character between her age and the arcane knowledge she possesses, though the adults almost dismissed her inputs to their peril, which felt right also. The book has a moderate pace, with occasional flashes of action/horror, but picks up a terrific pace towards the finale. I liked the angelic lore interfacing with the vampire myth, as well as the fact that certainly the fallen angels were simply evil and irredeemable, and, with the caveat about the real-world Yazidi religion aside plus a warning that there are themes of rape and incest, it is a book I would recommend reading. 7 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
2 comments:
Thanks so much for reviewing and reading!
my pleasure :)
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