Joshua Gaylord

I have a love hate relationship with zombies. On the one hand I hate them because they scare the bejeesus out of me. On the other hand though, I love them because as soon as the zombies arrive I'm 99% guaranteed that the story takes a turn towards one of my most favourite genres. Apocalyptic. I LOVE end of the world scenario's!

It's catch 22. I WANT to read about the fall of civilisation but I'm not so keen on the resulting nightmare's which usually involve me fending of a pack of stinky dead show more guys who are keen to disembowel me and are smacking their lips at the prospect. I'm usually a bit wary of starting a zombie book. However, I'd read a lot of reviews for The Reapers are the Angels that mentioned that the zombies were not the focus of this book so I gamely gave it a whirl.

Soooo glad I managed to man-up! LOVED it! So much!

It's true, it's not about the zombies. They're there, and they're just as stinky and dead as you'd imagine but I felt 'safe' walking amongst them because I had Temple with me. Temple is so amazing. From now on in my nightmare's I'm going to take Temple with me. Temple has fear of nothing and/or nobody and despite being just a little girl, a teen, she's one of the most kick-ass heroine's I've read about in a long time.

She hasn't known any other way of life as she was born after the dead started rising and has been pretty much alone her whole life. We're told that she spent some of her early life in an orphanage and that she's had a few companions on her journey through the wasteland but when we meet her she is on her own. Having Temple as a guide made me just relax and enjoy the ride. She's Street-Smart and infinitely capable. She takes everything in her stride, doesn't freak out and above all get's the job done. Always. In a way she's even more deadly than the zombie's.

Along the way she meets two men who are to become central to her story. Maury is a grown man with the mental age of a very young child and Temple takes him under her wing and looks after him (initially unwillingly), and their relationship is very touching. Moses is an older, male version of Temple herself and their relaionship is based on friction but there's some grudging respect there too.

I'll be honest, I thought I was going to hate this book for the simple reason that within the first 2 pages I spotted my pet hate in written text. THE WORST TEXT CRIME. The word 'of' instead of 'have' - "I should of known that was wrong" instead of "I should have known that was wrong". I kept going though and quickly realised that it's mostly told from Temple's point of view and is written exactly as if spoken, text crimes and all. Having said that though, the story was so good and I was so engrossed in it that I was halfway through before I noticed there's nothing to indicate speech. Sound's crazy but I honestly didn't even notice that to begin with and when it suddenly dawned on me I didn't even miss a beat. It's weird but I didn't have a problem with it...which in itself is weird because that sort of thing usually rubs me up TOTALLY the wrong way.

Anyhoo, it's a fantastic story and I really, really wish it could be the first in a series. I know that's not possible though, due to the ending and I'm quite sad about that. I'd happily have read more of Temple's adventures.

I'd recommend this as a great read if you're into zombie apocalype, road-trip type books. I really, really liked it. show less

Blurb
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“A slug dressed in black with a white preacher's collar lifts his hand toward the sky
as if calling upon the god of dead things, while a rotting woman in a wedding dress sits
open-legged against a wall, rubbing the lace hem against her cheek.”

You trapped me, Mr. Bell; and you did it with glee, and the most unabashed lack of remorse.

I innocently picked up this utterly addictive tale by Alden Bell, aka Joshua Gaylord, on an evening in which I had urgent and dire projects to show more complete. I never got to them; I was immediately bewitched. The pleasantly disconcerting imagery quickly owned me, and soon thereafter, I became intrigued with the protagonist, Temple. Temple is a mesmerizing, psychologically intriguing young girl, who we follow as she traverses the US, trying to stay one step ahead of the living dead. Temple relishes her curses at least as much as her redemptions, and this is her draw. You’ll remain fairly off-balance throughout the tale, never quite sure if she’s a saint or a devil, never quite sure you should really dig her as much as you do. The other characters in the tale are no less amazing in their depth.

The Reapers isn't your standard zombie treatment. Very few zombie cliches are utilized, and the ones that are quickly become unrecognizable. This novel is part zombie fun and mayhem, part philosophy on the human condition. No punches are pulled; the ball hits the target every time, and you end up dunked in ice-cold water. With sharks. Thanks for the meatskin tango, Mr. Bell.

Read it.
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Full Review
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“See, God is a slick god. He makes it so you don't miss out on nothing you're
supposed to witness firsthand.” -- Temple

You trapped me, Mr. Bell; and you did it with glee, and the most unabashed lack of remorse.

I innocently picked up The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell (a pen name for Joshua Gaylord) on an evening in which I had urgent and dire projects to complete. I never got to them; I was immediately bewitched. The pleasantly disconcerting, trenchant imagery quickly owned me, and soon thereafter, I became intrigued with the protagonist, Temple. I'd never encountered Temple’s particular psyche, in real life or in lit; yet Alden made her completely believable and human, without sacrificing her unsettling charm. You’ll remain fairly off-balance throughout the tale, never quite sure if she’s a saint or a devil, never quite sure you should really dig her as much as you do.

“Those are the times you do something because you're tired of thinkin on it. And
that's when the devil better get his pencil ready to tally up a score, cause the time for
nuances is gone... You think, all right then, hell is my home.

And she raises the gurkha and brings it down.”

We follow Temple as she traverses the US, trying to stay one step ahead of the living dead, grimly determined to experience life in the process. Temple relishes the dank at least as much as her redemptions, and this is her draw. And who's worse -- The plague-ridden monsters, or the unaffected? The folks Temple encounters are unexpected, amazing, and pure – whether they're cutting off Temple's finger or bedding her – and this makes for a dizzyingly fun and disturbing tale.

“His will to destroy her, and her will to remain undestroyed –
both things are beautiful and holy.”

The Reapers isn't your standard zombie treatment. Very few zombie cliches are utilized, and the ones that are quickly become unrecognizable. The story is part zombie fun and mayhem, part philosophical allegory about the human condition. There are shades of Objectivist and Humanist philosophy, though whether Bell's tale is an allegory for them, or an allegory against, is up for debate.

“A slug dressed in black with a white preacher's collar lifts his hand toward the sky
as if calling upon the god of dead things, while a rotting woman in a wedding dress sits
open-legged against a wall, rubbing the lace hem against her cheek.”

Here is a tale in which no punches are pulled; the ball hits the target every time, and you end up dunked in ice-cold water. With sharks. Thanks for the meatskin tango, Mr. Bell.

“... and the thick throb of pain comes back into her hand, and she grabs
on to it and doesn't let go because it feels like an earned suffering.”

Grab hold and enjoy the ride. show less

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2015/04/30/review-when-we-were-animals-by-joshua-...

When We Were Animals is a beautifully chilling story about humans and the animals within us. I absolutely love the prose and Gaylord’s way with words. He takes you right into the town and into the mind of our protagonist, Lumen. Lumen Fowler grew up in a small town with a peculiar nature. For three nights of each full moon teenagers “breach”, which means they run wild show more through the night and succumb to a carnal and predatory nature. They become animals free of of the bonds that hinder more base instincts and desires within humans in a civilized society. This stage usually lasts about 1 year and starts about age 15 but can vary per person. It creates an interesting setting where the people of the town know to stay indoors and away from these kids as they go crazy, free of restraint.

Lumen is an absolutely captivating character. She is a thinker, one great example is how she explains the meaning of her name, defines herself in terms of her name (which has numerous definitions). She loves words and maps and books. She has always feels a bit different from all of her friends and peers. She is absolutely sure she will be different in that she will not breach, she will not become one of the teenagers that runs wild in the night, she will not abandon all civilized ways to explore and rejoice in the night with the others in the wild where there are no rules to confine them. In some ways it reminds me of that “it can’t happen to me” type of outlook. She sees this thing that the teenagers become a part of and she just can’t reconcile that with any version of herself.

She is complex and quite conflicted trying to rectify the version of herself she wants to be, the version of herself everyone else sees and expects her to be, and the version of herself she can’t help but let come the surface even if she doesn’t want it to. We are told this story as her older adult self recollects her early teen years. Because of this we also get glimpses of the woman she becomes. It is a very interesting perspective, especially since it is not necessarily a reliable or unbiased one. We see the intelligent, beautiful and heart warming aspects of her personality as well as the darker ones.

Almost every teenage character, regardless of how sweet or nice, had moments of raw, visceral meanness. And I really felt that was part of the story. No matter how good someone is, everyone has a bit of evil, a bit of animal in them. And what happens when you try to suppress some innate part of yourself? Or worse, what happens when you don’t suppress that part of yourself? Kids learn these things and often make mistakes as they go. Not nearly to the extremes portrayed in the book. But sometimes people (particularly young people) go through a phase where repercussions don’t mean as much as fulfilling their desires or fitting in. They experiment and figure out what they can and can not do. They test the limits. People can turn on each other, they can be incredibly cruel and often groups can make it worse. I think this is part of what I loved about this book, it can be an examination of how teenagers grow up and experiment as they leave their childhood behind.

I enjoyed seeing how relationships in this change and evolve as so often happens. We find ourselves suddenly in a different place or stage of life and grow apart from people in our life. I think this is a terribly common thing, especially as kids grow up. There’s a loss there and we see Lumen as she deals with this change. There is also her relationship with her father which is incredibly important. Her mother died when she was very young, so her father raised her on his own. They are very close and her father has an incredible amount of respect for Lumen. You can’t help but love him as much as Lumen does.

I really can’t say enough great things about this book. It grabbed my attention from the beginning, and Lumen’s character just fascinated me. I found an examination of coming of age and relationships in this. But even at a surface level read it is incredibly engaging. Highly recommend. show less

Of all the books I've read so far this year, THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS is one I keep coming back to. I can't stop thinking about Temple, a young girl in the barren wasteland that is America, who can't remember a time when she wasn't trying to outrun zombies and stay a step ahead of would-be predators. Temple forges ahead against all odds, sometimes with only faith to keep her going, encountering character after character -- a wealthy family holed up in their estate, a "dummy," show more post-apocalyptic cowboys, and a man named Moses, who will follow her to the end of the earth in the name of revenge. REAPERS is a striking novel, as creepy as THE ROAD but also as artfully written and emotionally intense. With a fiery female protagonist, a twist around every corner, and enough monsters to keep you awake all night, Alden Bell's novel isn't one you'll soon forget either. show less