✨Book Review✨

The Angel Maker
By Alex North
Release Date: 2/28/2023
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Review:
This one was quite disappointing for me. I have read previous Alex North novels that I loved but this one missed the mark for me, I think because of how much I was anticipating it. I had a really hard time keeping track of all of the characters (due to name changes and such) that it was hard for me to keep up with. I should have made a character map, but thought I could do it without. I felt like I knew what was going to happen most of the book, but not well enough because of all of the characters. I think the ending was well-done but it’s not one I’d feel compelled to buy or give an overwhelming recommendation for.

Thank you to Alex North, @celadonbooks and @netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alex North did it again! I really loved the complexity’s in this one. It felt like there were a few loose ends, but I’ll have to go back and see if I missed them - it was a smart and fast paced book!

I had no idea what to expect when I began this book; but it was fascinating. I love how the book was told in two POVs and intersecting timelines that made for a fantastic story. Every time a new linkage was made between the two timelines, it made it harder to want to put the book down. The plot is very intricate, and if you’re not paying attention- you will certainly miss something.

The story is so twisted, but it’s one that if you’re a fan of mild horror and thrillers- I think you’ll love it!

I was given a copy of this story to read; but thoughts and opinions are all my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon for the chance to read this book!

What a LONG and SLOW book. I almost stopped at 40% but had invested so much time that I ended up pushing through and it was absolutely NOT worth it for me. This book was way too confusing with the separate timelines and characters. In other books that have multiple timelines/characters the authors always clearly state which period of time or who is narrating a specific chapter. I am not sure if it was a combination of the plot line and that but this book was a miss for me.

I was so excited to read The Angel Maker by Alex North. I was a huge fan of The Whisper Man and had big expectations for this new title. Overall, I did enjoy this and definitely shared the same tones as his other work. There were multiple timelines and POVs which I'm a fan of, but I did find it hard at times to follow the characters due to so many names. Sometimes characters would be referred to by their last name instead of first and it was too inconsistent for me to always keep track of. This was definitely a unique thriller that was crime oriented.

I gave this 3/5 stars! It was creepy and wrapped up quickly. Thank you for the ARC Celadon!

A thrilling mystery about whether or not we have control of our future. Tragedy strikes one day when Katie Shaw decides to take off with her boyfriend and lets her brother, Chris, walk home alone. Years later Alan Hobbes is brutally murdered, something he knew was coming. Are the two related? Follow along as the cast of eccentric characters unravel the mystery.

I enjoyed this a lot. It hit al lot of my wheelhouses, family drama, philosophical debates, and murder. It had enough twists and turns to keep my attention. The one truly evil character was written really well, no redeeming qualities at all. I like it when I have someone to loathe. It makes what the other characters are doing worth it, even if they need to do something not so above board.

On the downside, this could be a little hard to follow at first as there are so many different characters, it did help that it is told from multiple perspectives so you got to know the characters better as the book went on. If you don’t like multiple perspectives it might not be for you, personally I love them. If you can overlook that and enjoy a great thriller then give it a try.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC.

I absolutely loved The Whisper Man and The Shadows so I was definitely excited for a new book by North. However though, after seeing A LOT of mixed reviews about this book I was definitely nervous for it and why I put off reading it for a while. I did find the concept of the book to be intriguing and I definitely flew through it with the short chapters and wanting to know what was going to happen. Personally, I didn’t have a hard time following along with the story but I can see why a lot of people found it super confusing and hard to follow. There definitely is a lot going on and multiple POV’s and I honestly found it boring a majority of the time. It picked up a lot towards the end and I found myself continuing flipping the pages.

Overall, I didn’t mind this one from Alex North but it definitely wasn’t my favorite nor his best in my opinion. There were dark parts and made it creepy at times with the serial killer aspect.

This book had way too much going on. I started losing interest in any of the story lines because it just felt so jumbled and disconnected. There were also way too many point of views, it was hard to keep track.

This book talked a lot about philosophy and determinism, which is a topic I could not care less about. Every time it was brought up I just felt myself rolling my eyes. Unfortunately, this book of Alex Norther’s was a miss for me.

I really like this author, but I struggled with reading this book. I did not finish as it did not hold my interest like The Whisper Man did and I just could not get invested in the story or characters. I felt it was all over the place introducing different characters, but really wasn't giving me anything on the story or why I should care as to the events that happened.. You got bits and pieces of things, but nothing that grabbed my attention or made me want to continue the story.
I will continue to read other books by this author, just this one wasn't for me.

So, this one is tricky. The plot is intricate, and I found myself getting confused at times.

And the pacing was a bit slower than I’m used to. It was hard to stay engaged with those two factors.

However, I love stories with interconnected characters. It makes this story so much better.

Overall, a good book. Not my favorite by the author, but worth the read.

When Celadon Reader on NetGalley approved me for this ARC I was thrilled because I loved “The Whisper Man”. My excitement was soon diminished as I realized how tough the first half of this book was to trudge through, but thankfully the last half flew by. I really wanted to love this book, but it fell very flat. I’m so glad I take thorough notes when I read ARCs, because I needed to go back and reference them as I continued to read this book, just to remind myself of where I left off with a character, and who the characters were in general.

There were so many time jumps (sometimes mid page) that weren’t expressly noted and hard to follow, i.e. suddenly you are in the past and you figure it out because of context, not because it’s expressly stated. I understand that the jumble was relevant for some twists and turns, but it was so convoluted that I thought I was missing information, but it was just information not provided. Additionally, there were multiple POVs, which I usually like, but there were so many characters to remember, that nobody was fleshed out and I found myself not caring about what happened to anybody.

Because of this, there were so many fascinating plot lines that got touched on then abandoned, and I wanted to know more! Either the book needed to be longer, or some of the plot points shouldn’t have been included so we could get more information on the motivations behind each character’s actions. <spoiler> Why did Edward wait so long to try to kill Chris, when he knew Chris didn’t die in the fire? Why did Michael ever feel compelled to try to kill Chris in the first place? (Perhaps because he tried to kill Chris for Edward in the past, but that’s never confirmed.) Why did Michael feel compelled to hurt Siena after prison? Why didn’t Edward ever break into Alan’s house to try to steal back all their father’s (The Angel Maker) belongings, when Edward felt compelled to complete his father’s mission of child murder? </spoiler>

Read if you like:
Paranormal Vibes
Multiple POV
Multiple Timelines

Thank you Alex North, Celadon Reader, and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.

I was super excited to see I got an ARC for The Angel Maker! At first, but after I started reading it I found it a lot more difficult to follow than I had anticipated. I usually enjoy books with multiple time lines but this felt a bit disjointed and hard to follow. I found myself having to scroll back to earlier parts to put things in order. I also found it hard to grow attached to any characters. I wasn't rooting for anyone which felt unusual for me as I tend to be over empathetic and get very invested in characters stories.

There was a lot more trudging through to the end on this one for me at least.

The Angel Maker has it all. Suspense, Edge of your seat thrills, Serial killer, family drama. REVENGE!

Alex North wrote a very intense book that keeps you wondering what will happen next. Well written suspense. Two families at odds with each other. One a family with addiction problems and the other products of a vile evil person. A lot going on and then you get that ending that makes you gasp a bit.

This is hard to write because you don't want to give anything away. Suffice it to say it's pretty good. Starts out a bit confusing but quickly becomes clear what is going on.

Thank you #NetGalley, #AlexNorth, #CeledonBooks for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts.

Four stars and I recommend it to all that love a good edge of your seat thriller.

Similar in creepy content and bizarre happenings to the prior Alex North books but not quite as thrilling and page turning. It intersects two families one the descendants of a horrible man and the other a family that has struggled with addiction. Just didn’t resonate as much as the other books.
3.5 rounded up.
I was given a copy by Netgalley opinions are my own.

Having read this authors two previous novels and loving them, I had to read this one as well. I'm typically drawn to writing style over plot in most cases and although the plots in the other two were done quite well, I thought this one ended up being a tad confusing and almost felt like he was maybe trying to hard, if that makes sense? There was ALOT going on and if you don't stay focused I think it would be very easy to get lost. Its one of those books that you would benefit from reading a good chunk of the book in one sitting to really get yourself familiarized with the characters and the story. With that being said, the writing did very much hold my attention and in the end I did enjoy it. Alex North can create a super spooky scene that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

3.5 ⭐️

Alex North will continue to be an auto read author for me!

Shoutout to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Katie had a great life and her future looked bright. Until a terrible event happened and it deeply affected her family. The tragedy that occurred happened to her younger brother Chris, who she adored. She moved away from her hometown started a new life. Her brother Chris turns up missing and there are no clues to this crime. Another crime happens and the police are trying to piece together these events. A serial killer is on the loose and the killer has a special skill set. A compelling horror suspense story, a fast-paced page turner and has appealing characters. The author is my automatic buy for horror/suspense stories.

Disclaimer: Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for this review copy and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

i'm a little disappointed in this one! I loved The Whisper Man so much. This one though just didn't do it for me.

This was just a pretty overall confusing book. The audio made it hard to differentiate between past and present. I honestly feel like I shouldn't even be writing a review since I can't even tell you what this book was really about like a week later as I write this.

I would suggest the print copy of this book versus audio - I just don't think the audiobook translated well for me.

Thanks you @celadonbooks for gifting me this copy for my honest review.

Alex North became an autobuy author for me after loving The Whisper Man. North’s writing has such a dark quality to it that I always know I’m in for something unexpected and twisty.

This is going to be a hard book to talk about without spoiling any of the details, so I’m going to keep things a bit vague and go with a pros and cons list review.

Pros:
📚 The setting! I loved that everything had a small town vibe where people and stories were interconnected. I thought this setting lends itself to making the characters' interactions and location choices for different scenes seem authentic.
📚 Multiple POVs! I’m a sucker for multiple narrators because I love that it allows the reader to fully understand the author’s vision from all sides. I’m always eagerly waiting for how they’ll finally connect as well.
📚 The writing! I honestly didn’t fully understand what was happening in this book until around the midpoint, but North’s writing is so good that I knew I needed to keep going. I think this might be a case of me zoning out on the audio, so perhaps people who chose the physical copy didn’t have this issue. Despite that hiccup, when I hit my ah-ha moment, nothing could stop me from wanting to know how this book would end!

Cons:
📚 The multiple POVs not being labeled at the start of the chapters. I listened to this one on audio and with each chapter constantly switching narrators, I would have loved an addition of labeling who was going to narrate at the start of the chapter.
📚 The amount of characters. Whew! Ok, once I finally got where things were going, this was fine, but I was confused for probably the first half of the book trying to figure out who was who and what they had to do with the story.

A huge thank you to Celadon Books for my gifted copy!

[Review to be posted on blog & social media on 4/24]

Katie Shaw has spent her life regretting the consequences of one decision she made when she was a teenager. The aftermath and the damage done to her brother Chris is immense and life altering. One day out of the blue she gets a call from her mother that will set her life on a completely different course as she tries to find the brother she hasn’t spoken to in years.
Detective Laurence Page is placed on the case of a bizarre death of a reclusive professor and by chance, is looking for Chris as well. Through investigating and delving into the professor and Chris he goes back in time to the accident that forever changed him. He finds out how the secrets kept by one family can come back to haunt you.
I really did enjoy this book as I have all the rest by Alex North! This one took me a little while to get into but once I did I was hooked.

I was really excited for this one since The Whisper Man is one of my favorite thrillers. Unfortunately, this one did not blow me away.

It was really hard to keep track of all of the characters and their storylines, which left me really confused in the beginning. I feel like so much information is thrown at the reader. It does get easier to digest, but at that point I was just trying to make it through the book.

I didn’t feel the same spookiness I felt while reading The Whisper Man. I also did not feel connected to any of the characters at all. Katie constantly made dumb decisions, which drove me crazy.

Overall, this book was a bit of a let down. I also feel like some things were not really explained and the ending left me unsatisfied.