Brooke Nelson

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m pretty sure the first time I read this book, I didn’t read the entire thing. It’s an odd thought, because now, I would absolutely never DNF this, but I guess that just speaks to how tastes change over the years.

As of today, Angels and Demons is easily one of my favorite books. The constant action and simplistic writing style blend together perfectly into a fascinating story of non-stop questions and clues.

The characters felt real, and I connected with many of them, whether that be through their personality, their work, or some other trait. The story was written in such a way that I never wanted to stop reading. (I think I read it faster than I’ve read a book in a long time.)

The writing style is straightforward. Extra fluff is never used to add to the word count. One of my greatest bookish pet peeves is when fifty words are used where ten would do the job. But there is literally none of that here. Only the necessities.

Every word is necessary, and every POV utilized is important. The story is told from multiple characters’ perspectives, but it doesn’t feel like an overload. The reader is not all-knowing until the very end, but rather, throughout the story, we get a look into the minds and actions of more than one pertinent, essential character. And each of these people are woven together at the conclusion of the story in a way that I can only describe as this: brilliant.

For fans of thrillers and generally exciting stories with complex solutions, this is absolutely the book for you. Dan Brown lives entirely up to the hype surrounding his name, and that is no small feat.

Now onto The Da Vinci Code…