A bit convoluted and confusing, but still creepy and compelling!
Have you ever taken a GOOD look at the famous MC Escher staircase?
It seems somewhat basic and aesthetically pleasing at first, without feeling complicated. The longer you stare at it, however, the more you begin to realize just HOW intricate it actually is...and that the staircases essentially lead you in a dizzying path that doesn't actually lead anywhere at all.
With a winding and multi-layered plot, this creepy tale from Alex North delves into the paranormal, the mind of a serial killer, and plays with the notion of time and predestination with not one but two families tied together...in ways they could NEVER imagine!
Kate will never forget the day she couldn't protect her younger brother Chris from a terrible attack, and the memory haunts her. With a family of her own to protect, she feels partially responsible for the path he has taken and when she gets a call that Chris has gone missing, she feels like this is her chance to right some wrongs. But when her daughter is threatened and Kate can't quite SEE the threat, can she convince her husband that the violence threat from long ago has now resurfaced...and has some unfinished business to attend to that threatens everything Kate holds dear?
...Perhaps it's Detective Page who is about to find out. Hobbes, a former professor, has been found dead at his home and seems to have been aware of his imminent passing prior to its occurrence...but this was no cut-and-dried suicide. Remnants of documents found in his home lead the detective back to an old serial killer named Jack Lock who supposedly could see the future...and ALSO have some bizarre ties to one Christopher Shaw. Can the detective work through this complicated jigsaw before the grisly events of the past repeat themselves?
My best advice with this book is to go into it well-rested and with a clear mind: the mental gymnastics alone will tucker you out, PROBABLY before you hit 50%. I was warned of this going in from some other excellent early reviews, and at first, I didn't feel burdened. North's writing itself is smooth and enticing, and doesn't waste time on side plots that go nowhere or overly descriptive passages that are in the long run irrelevant: he cuts right to the chase most of the time, and even with several POVs (usually a red flag), I was eagerly flipping pages during the opening 40% of the book and loving all of the backstory and philosophizing going on.
UNTIL it started to get overly convoluted...and I started to feel as though I must have missed about 60 pages somewhere along the way.
The great thing about a thriller that moves backwards and forwards in time is all of the nuance and backstory that can make the present day action that much more intense. However, North takes this to another level in Angel Maker, with characters predicting the future...in the past. And in the present.
Confused yet?
With so many timeline jumps (even mid page sometimes!) it became increasingly difficult as time wore on to know what year we were in, who was narrating, or what was even going on. He starts many segments with "It is 2017. (insert action here)" then on the same page "It is 1986." (insert paragraph here) and then back again. Sometimes we even jump character midpage, and it began to feel like an elaborate house of cards that could take a spill at any moment...and this is where North started to lose me.
Despite these hiccups, there was something about this narrative and the overall concept that was compelling, and I couldn't wait to reach the end to watch the pieces click into place. And they did...for the most part. I still feel that with some retooling, the story could have played out as clearly for the reader as it did in North's mind, because it IS evident he thought this one through...I just wish we all could have been along for the ride.
When you buy an old house or a fixer-upper, one of its main selling points might be that it needs work, but it has "good bones." And when it comes to the Angel Maker, this is one book that, despite a need for some work, truly has those same sort of unique, sturdy, AND good bones. 🦴 🏠
4 stars, rounded down from 4.5
It seems somewhat basic and aesthetically pleasing at first, without feeling complicated. The longer you stare at it, however, the more you begin to realize just HOW intricate it actually is...and that the staircases essentially lead you in a dizzying path that doesn't actually lead anywhere at all.
With a winding and multi-layered plot, this creepy tale from Alex North delves into the paranormal, the mind of a serial killer, and plays with the notion of time and predestination with not one but two families tied together...in ways they could NEVER imagine!
Kate will never forget the day she couldn't protect her younger brother Chris from a terrible attack, and the memory haunts her. With a family of her own to protect, she feels partially responsible for the path he has taken and when she gets a call that Chris has gone missing, she feels like this is her chance to right some wrongs. But when her daughter is threatened and Kate can't quite SEE the threat, can she convince her husband that the violence threat from long ago has now resurfaced...and has some unfinished business to attend to that threatens everything Kate holds dear?
...Perhaps it's Detective Page who is about to find out. Hobbes, a former professor, has been found dead at his home and seems to have been aware of his imminent passing prior to its occurrence...but this was no cut-and-dried suicide. Remnants of documents found in his home lead the detective back to an old serial killer named Jack Lock who supposedly could see the future...and ALSO have some bizarre ties to one Christopher Shaw. Can the detective work through this complicated jigsaw before the grisly events of the past repeat themselves?
My best advice with this book is to go into it well-rested and with a clear mind: the mental gymnastics alone will tucker you out, PROBABLY before you hit 50%. I was warned of this going in from some other excellent early reviews, and at first, I didn't feel burdened. North's writing itself is smooth and enticing, and doesn't waste time on side plots that go nowhere or overly descriptive passages that are in the long run irrelevant: he cuts right to the chase most of the time, and even with several POVs (usually a red flag), I was eagerly flipping pages during the opening 40% of the book and loving all of the backstory and philosophizing going on.
UNTIL it started to get overly convoluted...and I started to feel as though I must have missed about 60 pages somewhere along the way.
The great thing about a thriller that moves backwards and forwards in time is all of the nuance and backstory that can make the present day action that much more intense. However, North takes this to another level in Angel Maker, with characters predicting the future...in the past. And in the present.
Confused yet?
With so many timeline jumps (even mid page sometimes!) it became increasingly difficult as time wore on to know what year we were in, who was narrating, or what was even going on. He starts many segments with "It is 2017. (insert action here)" then on the same page "It is 1986." (insert paragraph here) and then back again. Sometimes we even jump character midpage, and it began to feel like an elaborate house of cards that could take a spill at any moment...and this is where North started to lose me.
Despite these hiccups, there was something about this narrative and the overall concept that was compelling, and I couldn't wait to reach the end to watch the pieces click into place. And they did...for the most part. I still feel that with some retooling, the story could have played out as clearly for the reader as it did in North's mind, because it IS evident he thought this one through...I just wish we all could have been along for the ride.
When you buy an old house or a fixer-upper, one of its main selling points might be that it needs work, but it has "good bones." And when it comes to the Angel Maker, this is one book that, despite a need for some work, truly has those same sort of unique, sturdy, AND good bones. 🦴 🏠
4 stars, rounded down from 4.5