Green Angel

This lyrical and lushly descriptive novella captures a young woman’s grieving process with razor-sharp precision. When Green’s family leave for the city one day, she has no way of knowing that she will never see them again, as a terrible disaster destroys much of the city and surrounding country. Green retreats into herself, building walls both mental and physical, tattooing herself with black roses and ravens in an attempt to transform herself into Ash, a girl who cannot be hurt by loss: ”I was making a different sort of heart, one that was black, one that was protected by thorns, by bats, by raven’s wings, by sorrow, by my aloneness, my armor.” The gradual healing of the blasted landscape around her mirrors the process by show more which Green learns to feel and love again, rediscovering herself.

After my indifference to her two earlier children's books, Aquamarine and Indigo, I almost gave Hoffman's Green Angel a miss, which would have been a shame. She seems finally to have hit her stride in this third novel for younger readers, which I found beautifully written, and quite moving. show less

I recently reread this. And I remember that I found the imagery a little ridiculous and the over all telling a little too dramatic. The slight tinge of fantasy throughout and then stronger at the end was great though. It was a little surprising, and in some sense, seemed to spoil the raw dystopia 'getting over it' grove she was getting into.

I liked the contrast of the punk that Ash was and the old woman, she was the wise woman of sorts and really pulled Ash back from the brink of... something.

I have this great image of them sitting at the hearth and Ash getting the first real nutrition in a while...

A story like this will never grow old. It is timeless as the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky. As ageless as the trees and the grasses in all their richness in summer, and all their love in fall. It is the story of rebirth and, most of all, of Hope... and how that hope will grow from the darkest depths of anyone's prisons. Horrors, pain unimaginable, loneliness, sorrow unending--all these ashes that cover our souls, and darken our days.... This is the story we live through. Through the softest, gentlest, most profound of ways, this is the story we read in Green Angel, and it is the story we are born again through.

I do not know where to even begin to describe the profound impact this story had on me. It has settled in my heart show more like the heaviest of stones, but one that I know is not only a mere stone. It is a seed. A seed, or perhaps an egg--there settled in my chest, awaiting the chance to softly break, to steadily expand, to spread itself from the depths of me, throughout every muscle, every strand of nerve and thought--to become actions, to be born of dreams and turn into reality. It is like a magic spell, that captures the mind's attention so surely that you are swept away in this river, and are not aware you've been swallowed whole until in a sudden blink, you awaken to find yourself drenched and heavy with the tale. It brings a hand over one's heart, or a bittersweet tear and smile to our faces; it echoes like sorrow so close, and like laughter in the midst of pain. It is a book of memories. A creation so deeply endowed with emotions and the murmurings of the heart that our own hearts wrench in its presence, are torn from within us, beg to be close--because they know those feelings; they have each been there. We are all a witness to that pain. We have all ached and lost so deeply. We can all walk in the ashes. Sometimes, we still remember or know what it is to be lost in them--nothing but ash yourself.

*Smiles gently* ...and then... throughout the midst of our sorrows, our loss... in this shadowed world we have come walking into... like pale beauty, a sun we cannot see, a moon we long greeted only with cries, the stars we shed tears to--softly the warmth of color shades this world. A faint spot: in the earth, on the shelf, or suddenly looking up and noticing: the sky is blue~ ...how blessed that first recognition is of what we forgot: that this is, and forever will be--ours and ours undeniably!--life. ...how great! How the depth rushes around us, and suddenly we realize like the very earth and its offspring, the saplings that push up from the pallid dirt, that we are moving again--moving forward--and that we cannot stop ourselves. Our hearts, our souls--they will not let us.

...this is the story of life again. Of going through the darkness, and finding the light. Of learning that to live is not impossible, even when silence and loneliness and the veil of apathy have claimed us. It is written elusively, and yet persuades the heart to listen and respond. All we have to do... is give it the chance to speak, and it will unfold worlds for us. Without words, without complications of language, or situation, or happenstance. Like fairy tales and magic, it will give us a meaning deeper than what words can weave. It takes only a willing heart--an open mind--to understand it.

Though my review is cryptic for some, and too elusive for others, the book is one that speaks and is written from the heart. You have only to read the first few pages to realize why I have written in a manner so unfitting the everyday language of honest critique. *Smiles* I feel that this book deserved an emotive response, because for me, it is my memories, my present, my heart, and my soul it touched.

Readers, give this book a shot. It is beauty without the need to describe itself as such. And it is a miracle of life that no one should turn away, even if you end up not enjoying some aspects of it. Look beyond that. Give it a chance. It can be liberating. show less

"Green Angel" is a lyrical, beautifully written story that is full of imagery. Hoffman's simple prose creates a gentle, whimsical, almost fairytale, atmosphere despite the tragedy that Green faces when she loses her parents and younger sister in a tragic accident. Full of emotion, the reader follows Green's journey as she struggles with her grief and loneliness, and it is impossible not to feel her devastating sense of loss and pain.

However, it is also a story of hope and renewal. While this book will not appeal to everyone, I was surprised how deeply it moved me. A haunting story about a young girl's search for healing.

When reading another Alice Hoffman book, I'm reminded that she is one of my favorite authors. She consistently weaves magic into characters that have a mystical, yet down to earth, quality about them.

The setting of this haunting book is a town and countryside destroyed by a terrible conflagration.

Using metaphorical symbolism, Hoffman tells the tale of Green who stayed behind on the day her mother, father and sister went to town to sell their vegetables. Resentful, Green does not say goodbye. Thus, when her family perishes in the fire, she bears tremendous guilt.

As the sky is gray, blocking the sun, the land is unproductive and societal rules seem to fall apart. What remains is a band of people who eek out a living, some of whom cannot show more overcome their grief and live sad apathetic lives.

Green remains cut off and lives alone, hardened and thorny. As slowly she reaches out to a neighbor, a dog, a few birds and a forsaken emotionally distraught young woman, Ash begins the process of healing.

In her usual style, Hoffman transforms the character in a fairytale fashion. Thorns and nettles are replaced with new growth of food as the ash is pushed aside to allow earth that produces and inner strength that rejuvenates. show less

Glancing down I can see not everyone loved this. One review complained about how Green's sister is described as made of "laughter and moonlight." But after all, it was quite obvious to me very early on this is a fairy tale. One set in a near future contemporary world, yes, and told by Green herself, who has become "Ash." A 15 year old girl who after she loses her family in an apocalypse tattoos herself with images of vines and bats, studs her boots with nails and her scarf with thorns. She attracts to herself a greyhound she names "Ghost," sparrows and a hawk and a boy she calls Diamond.

The language is very spare and stark--even primal in its imagery. The tale is very short, I doubt it's above 20,000 words. And even though it's in the show more language of the "Once Upon a Time" fairy tale it also spoke to me very much as a tale of 9/11. This was published back in 2003, and the silver city across a river sounded a lot like New York City to me. Of the apocalypse, Green says that "People who were close by said they could see people jumping from the buildings, like silver birds, like bright diamonds." Later she says she heard people saying that "the people who had destroyed the city...had been living among us pretending to be good neighbors." So when Hoffman talked of grief and slow renewal, I did feel she was talking to me. show less

I read this book for the first time when I was around thirteen or fourteen, and it gutted me in the most satisfying way. For such a short novel, it is incredibly impactful, and gorgeously written, full of so much emotion and eloquence as to move between being prose and poetry seamlessly. A beautiful novel for a young adult.

Until just now when I searched the title to review it, I didn't know it was a series! Green Angel unto itself is a satisfying standalone, that leave the reader in a slightly bruised and cathartic state, but with hope for the future before the main character. I am excited to track down the other installments and see that future finally become flesh!