A captivating story of a woman and her fight to protect her family, and her discovery of her brother’s past mistakes and choices

I really enjoyed The Angel Maker. It was a compelling read and I completed it in 1 and a half days. Sometimes it was a little hard to keep up with because of the way the author did the timeline. I really liked the characters. They were well written and believable. The ending fit in well with the book's theme of choice. I will definitely be reading more books by this author

This book has just the right amount of creepiness, mystery, intrigue and clever plot twists. Be sure you clear your daily calendar before sitting down with this one because you won’t be able to stop reading it once you start.

Alex North can weave a tale like no other, and this one doesn’t disappoint. I love his writing style and the atmospheric feel of each setting, like old rickety houses. There’s even a bit to learn about determinism, a philosophy that determines all human beings have no free will and cannot be held responsible for their actions, which works well for a serial killer.

Four stars for this one. Thank you, NetGalley and Celadon books for the ARC.

“If you could see the future, would you want to?”

Where to begin with ‘The Angel Maker’? First off, after having loved North’s previous two novels of ‘The Whisper Man’ and ‘The Shadows’ (especially The Shadows), my expectations were already high. I was also super excited to be able to read an ARC of this book, and Alex North did not disappoint! Once again, the author used his wild and clever imagination and brought us a heart pounding, fast-paced, thriller! Although this book may lean a little bit more toward horror/crime fiction.

This book is broken down into four parts, with each part being more mysterious and intriguing than the first. We deal mainly with two main characters of Katie and Christopher (Chris) Shaw. Katie and Chris have grown apart over the years due to a tragedy and other life circumstances. Throughout this story we get introduced to many more characters who somehow seem to be connected to Katie and Chris Shaw in some way. There were also two Detectives, Caroline Pettifer and Laurence Page, who were involved in a few cases throughout this story as well.

We also have Alan Hobbes who is a professor of philosophy, specifically that of determinism. Because of Hobbes and his teachings we learn quite a bit about determinism, and how essentially our future is already planned out for us no matter what choice we make… Such an interesting theory and topic!

There was so much going on in this book! So many twists. So many turns. I had a hard time keeping up. I never once figured this book out early on. However, I am left with a few unanswered questions which I cannot reveal because that would be a total spoiler alert. So, because of that reason I am knocking off one star. Otherwise, this is a phenomenal book which I highly recommend!!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Celadon Books, and Alex North for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Publication date: February 28, 2023.

This was my first book by Alex North. I’m a huge fan of crime novels and thrillers so this story seemed like it would be right up my alley. The concept itself is wholly unique and extremely well written. The mix of crime, edge-of-your-seat suspense, mystery, and mix of magical (?) realism is sure to engage many readers. For me, however, this book was a lot of work. I found the story confusing for the first half of the book - the changing POVs, time jumps, and initial lack of connections between the characters added to my inability to get invested in the story. Eventually the plot began to pick up and how everything and everyone comes together is cleverly done, but the lack of closure at the end also made the story feel incomplete. I’m sure many fans of Alex North will enjoy his newest release, this story and the way details were revealed was just not quite for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a real page-turner!
It might be Alex North's creepiest book yet!

I don't want to give anything away, so this will be vague. Here's 3 reasons you should read this book (once the strike is over obvs)

1) There's multiple POVs that all tell the story in a different way and all come together in the end, which I really enjoyed because it's cool to read the same thing from multiple views sometimes.

2)There's a dark academia bit that I gobbled right up and wanted more of.

3) the serial killer is super deaky freaky with religious elements and there's a mystery to it alll

Brother and sister Chris and Katie Shaw, Michael Hyde, Edward Leland, baby Nathaniel Leland, and Alan Hobbes - how are they all connected.

Lots of twists and turns and throw in the police - Laurence and his partner Pettifer - and you have a edge-of-your-seat thriller.

I really enjoyed this book, as I have all his other books. The many twists kept me guessing until the very end when everything came together.

The many characters were a little confusing at first, as was the back and forth telling of the story, but it was a very enjoyable took - highly recommended!

Angel Maker was wonderfully written, great characters and a chilling story. Well worth the read and cannot wait for more from Alex North!

This is the best Alex North book to date. Complex characters, fun and twisty plot, mystery, Good vs evil, and enough suspense to keep you up late reading.

Give me an Alex North book any day of the week! Chilling, goosebump inducing reads!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!

The Angel Maker by Alex North just didn’t keep my attention with with the various point of views. Just give me a straight strong story line and take off with it.
While it is murderous, mysterious and those are the things I enjoy in my stories, there was too much confusion for me to develop feelings for a specific character until right at the end.
I need that connection with a character at the beginning of the book until the end.
I am a fan of Alex North, but this was a miss for me.

This book was really well written. It was a bit difficult in the beginning to keep up with all the characters and times going back and forth but it got easier to piece together. It was definitely a good read. It was different from most other thrillers I’ve read.

An ideal thriller:
Couldn’t put it down or sleep
until I’d finished.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟

I write haiku reviews on Instagram but I’m happy to provide more feedback, if desired!

Thank you Celadon and NetGalley for the e-Arc.

This was my first Alex North book. It was very suspenseful and an easy read with the short, thrilling chapters. I enjoyed the story telling but it was a few too many storylines tying into each other and I would get confused every so often. I found it very chilling but I also felt no resolution at the end. I wish there was more resolution on what if anything was actually in the “book”.

This is my third Alex North book and like his others, I enjoyed it. It's dark and creepy.
The only thing with this one is, I got a tad confused. There's a lot of characters talking and I had to go back at certain parts to retain the story properly. I still enjoyed the story. Well, as much as one can with the content involved.

It has its twists and reveals during this intricately woven story. Everyone is connected. Everything is pre-determined..or so the philosophy professor who is brutally murdered believes. And how does he tie into Katie Shaw and her brother? To a notorious serial killer?

Alex North knows this genre and puts their own twist on it so it's not the same copy/paste thrillers we are used to.

Katie Shaw always protected her brother growing up. Until one day when she didn’t and he was attacked. Now years later she suffers from guilt. A new case a detective is investigating seems to point back to Katie’s brother’s case as well.

Another serial killer read from Alex North! This one is a bit different than the previous books. I saw a spoiler online so I am going to avoid telling you how it’s different, but it has some genre mash-up subplots to it. I had a hard time following and it was complex for my little brain but it was entertaining and I wanted to know what was going on so I kept at it!

“Something that had always been coming for you, but which you wouldn’t even see until it swerved in out of nowhere and changed your world forever.”

The Angel Maker comes out 2/28.

Thank you to Celadon and Alex North for this ARC!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

I loved this story and I LOVE Alex north’s writing style. His style is the perfect blend of a.) descriptive writing to set the scene, b.) dialogue, and c.) inner thoughts of characters. I was STRESSED reading the last 10% of this book because I really grew to care about the characters, and I felt like I was with them in those last moments!

Aside from being a suspenseful thriller, this also had a philosophical side. It brought up the idea of predeterminism vs. free will, but philosophical chatter didn’t overpower the book. It simply added an extra layer of meaning to the events that happened throughout.

The only con was that there are quite a few characters, so there were around 5 interconnected storylines. I know some people don’t enjoy stories like that, but I didn’t mind it. They flowed well, and they made sense. I felt like one storyline could have been elaborated upon a tiiiiny bit so that’s why I docked 1/2 a point

Angel maker

Phew was this a complex book! A large cast of characters with multiple perspectives, many sub plots and timelines make this book one you have to really pay attention too. Found myself having to search back a few times to figure out who was who but it was absolutely worth it. I throughly enjoyed this one.
Alex north is def a must read author

thank you to net galley for the chance to read and review this fantastic book!

OMFG!! What kind of childhood did @writernorth have?

This book is everything it should be, a page turner, well written, unpredictable, and will scare the 💩 out of you! It is written from many POV and has many time lines running through it. All of which I found very easy to keep clear and help unravel the story. The book is classified as a thriller but it was definitely borderline horror for me.

In a complex and engaging manner North weaves many of the characters together in unexpected ways. I didn't know from one chapter to the next what was going to happen but I wanted to. I read it as a buddy read and we were reading it in parts with dates to discuss. It was so difficult to stop between parts. It was a great book to read with a group.

The only complaint I have is that one character's involvement was not resolved enough for me and I would really have liked an answer to that one.

The Angel Maker is my first North book and it won't be my last.

Thank you @celadonbooks and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. And thank you as well to @thenerdybooksworms for making it a #sqafbookclub read

I really wanted to love this one - I loved the Whisper Man - however this one left me a bit wanting. The premise is built over multiple perspectives. I truly wanted more of the serial killer viewpoint - but that was not to be. Instead I got the slow building impression that I was trying to be deceived. There were red herrings all around that were unnecessary - and in my opinion they detracted from the book. It left me feeling uninterested and uninspired, and I just wanted resolution. I may try this one again at a later date - hoping it was just my mood. Thanks to NetGalley for the early read.