Daniel. Dan. My guy – what’re you DOING to me?? Up til 2:00 a.m. again, breathless and weeping, because I could. not. stop. reading!! How do I even talk about this book coherently?*deep breath*Okay.Angel Down. Immediately, page one, you’re plunged into a fever dream of WW1 front line trenches – bullets whizzing too close, the unearthly whistle and crash of artillery fire, bodies and mud and death. Then comes the shriek – an unending howl driving the soldiers mad. Five are ordered to find the cause, and they do – but it’s nothing they could have ever predicted. An angel is down. What follows is a gut-spilling, reality-warping, soul-searing clash with divinity that will bring you to your knees. It’s gonna take me days, probably weeks, to process this incredible book. Angel Down is set during WW1, but the questions it asks are exactly what we’re asking today: how do we break the systems of war that prop up the world? Do individual lives still have meaning when destruction and violence seem unstoppable? What do we do when confronted with the true, untameable, terrifying divine? Make time to read this book in one sitting, and don’t forget the tissues. And if, at the end, you find yourself devastated and elated beyond words….me too, friend. Me too.
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus, (List Price: $28.99, Atria Books, 9781668068458, 2025-07-29)
Reviewed by Rachel Derise, Friendly City Books in Columbus, Mississippi