Kim
Rating:
Review
Angels figure prominently in this story, which one might figure given the title, but it's constant to the point of distracting. The first part of this story takes place in 1985, beginning with heartbroken Margaret Quinn opening her front door late one night to a 9 year-old girl needing shelter, which, conveniently, is during a raging snow storm AND the little girl is being followed by someone. They quickly construct a story that the girl is Margaret's long lost daughter's child named Norah and well, one would think the story would take off from there, but no. Margaret quickly settles into a second chance at motherhood, even as a grandmother figure, and Norah shows her true colors, first to neighbor boy Sean, then with her teacher and classmates, when she claims to be an angel. The story then switches gears and goes back ten years to 1975, and Margaret's daughter Erica is 17 years old and in love with a boy named Wiley, whom she runs away with to meet up with a revolutionary group called the Angels of Destruction. The final two-thirds of this book is back in 1985 with Margaret and Norah, adding Margaret's sister Diane to the mix, because she wants to find out what happened to Erica, and to bring her back home to her mother. This is Mr. Donohue's follow-up to his first novel,
The Stolen Child, and does not even compare. I still would have read it though, mostly because
The Stolen Child was a spectacular story and I was hoping lightening would indeed strike twice. No dice, unfortunately.
Best Line:
"Mothers keep their eyes fixed on their children in the bright blue sky and are dumbfounded when they break their hearts."
Suzanne
Rating:
Review
Two kinds of angels inhabit this book, and neither is all sweetness and light. First Margaret Quinn's teenage daughter Erica runs off with a new recruit of an anarchist group called the Angels of Destruction in the 1970's, committed to saving the world by destroying it. Years later, never having found Erica or recovered from her loss, Margaret takes in a preternaturally wise little girl named Norah. Norah's origins are a mystery, and as the story unfolds she reveals some disturbing supernatural gifts that Margaret tries to keep a secret, not wanting the little girl taken away from her. This second book of Donohue's starts right off with a darker undertone than
The Stolen Child did. Guardian angels don't operate like you might think; at times the impression even reminded me a little bit of the Bible's Book of Revelation. Angels are often reflected in other winged creatures like birds, and references to the atom bomb as a power of destruction are threaded throughout the story. I wasn't drawn into this story nearly as much as I was in
The Stolen Child until the second half. Too bad, because the angels theme is an interesting premise.
Best Line:
"Not even the true believers want to see an angel in their midst." (pg. 329)
