Blood Angel

I have had this book on my TBR pile for a long time and was happy to finally read it. This is one of those slightly ambiguous paranormal demon themed books that is a blend between dream and reality, horror and fantasy. I actually enjoyed the writing style and thought it was an intriguing and unique read. It was very similar in tone to books I have read by Elizabeth Hand or Caitlin Kiernan. It also had a bit of that same dreamy quality to it that Catherynne Valente’s Palimpsest had to it.

This book is definitely for adults only; there is a ton of drugs, sex, deviant behavior, abuse, etc. I would also only recommend to those who don’t mind an ambiguous, dreamy, and bizarre tone to their novels. If you only like stories that are show more clear-cut and easy to follow mentally this is not the book for you. This book will stretch your brain and imagination a bit.

This is one of those demonic urban fantasies where an age old race of beings, that are either defined as angelic or demonic depending on their life choices, start possessing people and trying to take over the world. The three main characters we follow end up bound into this demonic war either by circumstance, bloodline, or possession.

The above makes for a strangely engaging and immediate story. The chapters are brief but I had a lot of trouble putting the book down because there was so much tension and everything built to a climax so nicely. This is a very creative story and the writing style was unique but still easy to read.

The story wraps up well. Although the Epilogue does introduce elements for a follow-up book.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was one of those different types of paranormal books; it’s a bit ambiguous and straddles the line between horror and fantasy. There’s a lot of metaphysical talk here and possession; so things can seem a bit muddled unless you are really paying attention.

If you are a fan of Elizabeth Hand of Caitlin Kiernan I think you would enjoy this book. Many scenes have the same dreamy quality as Catherynne Valente’s books but in general the material in this book is a lot more violent and vicious than Valente’s books. I probably won’t read the next book in the series because it looks like the series was dropped after the 2nd book and I have enough to read without getting further involved in a dead end series. show less

Even though the book was a gift from a friend I let this lie on my bookshelf for years, reluctant to pick it up. The title, the cover and back blurb made this sound like hundreds of other urban fantasies complete with vampires.

I was wrong.

First, look ma, no vampires. Now, don't get me wrong, I rather like the creatures in many iterations from Stoker to King to Rice to Hamilton and Harris (but not Meyer.) But just how many such books are out there? And if not the bloodsuckers, well, then it's weres. No weres here either. And yes, that's a lot of what I did like. That this is not like other urban fantasies I've read and there's a really well-thought out magical system featured. This does remind me somewhat of many a Buffy episode in that show more there is a threatened apocalypse in the offing, but it never felt too predictable. I should warn this is of a rather dark hue of fantasy, rather violent and gory at points although within lines I could stand.

It did take a bit for me to get into it, because there are several narrative strands. They eventually converge, but I found it hard in the first hundred pages to feel connected to the story and characters as the story bounced between New York City artist Jess Shepard, Minnesota teen Ramsey Doe and California musician Lucas Maddox. Each did come into focus for me eventually, but if this misses a fifth star, it's because even though the writing and world-building was strong, the characters themselves didn't pull at me emotionally. Maybe because most of them came across as too detached. (Or at least most didn't. I felt most for Ramsey, but he wasn't given enough face time to quite suck me entirely in.) But I certainly would be interested in reading more of Justine Monk and the sequel, Lord of Bones. show less

BloodAngel (BloodAngel #1) by Justine Musk is an interesting, dark urban fantasy with new intriguing creatures of both good and evil. I like that there is something new out there, not the same old thing. I have read Musk's books before and enjoyed them. A good dark fantasy once in a while lightens things up, lol. She has new creatures, great plot, twists, turns, some gore but yea, it's a dark fantasy. I enjoyed the wondering of who is the boy in the painting, who is the summoner, who is this singer, and what is a Dreamliner? The book was scary, fun, twisted in a good way, good vs evil, suspense-filled, and had lots of magic/fantasy. What more could a good dark fantasy want? Oh, did I mention the angels and demons?

The first novel in an urban fantasy series dealing with the threat of an incursion of demons from another dimension. This one is written in third person, shifting perspective between both 'good' and 'bad' characters.
The novel is wellwritten with a satisfying climactic resolution after a slow build-up that never becomes dragged, partially due to the different storylines and frequent jumps in perspective. The characters are curiously detached, making it difficult to care too deeply about them.
The visualisation of magic is interesting and original, and adds to a semi-original setting.
The 'evil' is more nuanced than is usual, and comes across as more lost than evil despite the atrocities she commits. The violence is the, but never show more explicit.
A destuctive evil contained for 700 years has won free, and have to be defeated again before earth is remade in blood and death. To do that, her ancient foes has to awaken the latent magic of a mostly human art painter, and find the vessel carrying an angel summoned from another dimension to defeat her. Jess is approached by a stranger, yet not a stranger, with an outlandish tale of magic and demons and her role in it. She accepts the summon, and her magic is awakened and trained, while she tries to locate Ramsey, a orphan adolescent whom she is magically bound to, and on whom the fate of the world hinges.
Both Jess and Ramsey has very little say in the matter - and are in fact acting very detached and passive in the face of annihilation and threat of world destruction.
The characters are prone to make profound statements. show less

I wasn't in love with the progress of this story; it seemed rather disjointed and episodic - but each episode was very well done, well imagined. I'm a little puzzled about the mythology, by how the angels of the book, some fallen (or all fallen?) are intended to relate to better-known manifestations of angels, but in the end it doesn't really matter. I liked the protagonists (though it's never fun not knowing whether main characters can be trusted or not); they had solidity and depth, and I enjoyed spending time with them, investing time in them. The demon Del was a little masterpiece. The writing carried the day, coolly handling every eventuality… maybe a little too coolly, in a way, leading to an ending which was intense, but not as show more intense as expected - it was almost detached. I was involved, but not rapt; mildly horrified but not actively repulsed; glad but not to a personal level. There was a lot of background that felt skimmed over, but … It was a unique story, well told. Overall, very good job. I'll look for Justine Musk's other books. show less

A complicated story of horror and strange people and powers.

All about an evil that's been hidden for years and now is going to come back and about a group of people trying to fight it.

It's more in the horror than the urban fantasy end of things and not really to my taste. Not a bad read but it didn't really resonate with me.

I feel a little bad for rating this so low because it's probably only contingent on my having glutted myself of this genre, but I found it just so profoundly meh.

No more urban fantasy/horror books by unknown/new authors for me, and I'm sticking to it! ...At least not unless it comes hugely recommended.