The city in which Rebecca Roanhorse’s forthcoming and fascinating novella takes place is the historical site of the long ago war between God and Lucifer. Celeste and Mariel are two sisters who work in one of the city’s gambling halls, and when Mariel is accused of murder and taken away by the angelic justice system, Celeste is determined to save Mariel from execution. She ends up being aided by Azrael, one of the demons who survived the long ago,war, and who was once Celeste’s lover. What ensues in this quick read kept me glued to the page.

While I have two of the author’s recent books on my TBR list, this is the first book I’ve read by her. The world building is absolutely solid, and the character development was excellent. The book’s length is just perfect.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book.

3.5 rounded up. Rebecca Roanhorse is one of my favorite authors and she has written some of my favorite characters of all times. What shone through most in this book was the characters. I loved how Celeste was motivated by her care for her sister and how that propelled her to make various choices in the world. The length of the novel caused this story to be a quick read for me, but I almost wish it had been longer to explore more of the lore elements that felt very complex. The reader is thrown into this universe and a lot of systems, names, and labels are given and I would have liked more of that to be explored. The mystery kept me engaged throughout, but the ending could have used more polishing and closure in my opinion. However, I still enjoyed reading this book and Roanhorse still remains one of my favorite authors.

A huge thank you to Gallery books for an eArc in exchange for an honest review! Be on the lookout closer to publication date for my B2Weird tour post on https://www.instagram.com/ariel_reads/

This is very solidly a 3.5 for me. I appreciated Roanhorse’s commentary on family dynamics and the grayness of good/evil. The more main cast of characters get some very interesting development during the story, but many of the other characters fell a little flat for me (including the love interest). The best characters for me were Mr Ibriham and Mariel. They both had a lot of layers to work through and learn. Our main character, Celeste was also interesting, though some of her decisions didn’t make a lot of sense to me but I can understand what the reader is supposed to think is the reason why she did those things.
The world building was both too much and not nearly enough. It wasn’t sinking in for me. I understand the concept of a town of what is essentially angels and I guess the damned (Again, a little fuzzy on that. I don’t think the Fallen are actually demons but more like the damned?? Abraxas is the only one that was referred to as a demon multiple times), but there were a lot of societal things that were thrown out that I wasn’t sure the significance of pointing out or that needed more explanation for me to fully understand. Maybe a reread at some point may help clarify more.
I did really enjoy the mystery and investigation that Celeste does as someone who really enjoys these kinds of plots. As well as the kind of courtroom drama that happens that can also be a good time.
I think this is a good crossover novella for people looking to transition into more adult fantasy. I also feel like people who enjoyed Holly Black’s YA Folk of the Air series would like this story for the commentary on sister relationships, the brief romantic scenes between Celeste and Abraxas, and the behind the scenes machinations. The vibe is similar, and I think this would be a good one for fans of that series who might want to dip more into Adult Fantasy without having to invest in a long series with very complex world building and 500+ page books.

Tread of Angels was an interesting read. It was a pretty fast read as well. But I think that its length was something that also hinder this story. There just needed to be a bit more character development and world building to make this a truly outstanding read.

Celeste was an interesting character who was hard to like. She was tough, but she was also a bit naive when it came to some of the situations she found herself in. She was also a bit rash and also made decisions that were not always the best, which she knew, but made them anyways. She wasn’t very likable, but she was someone who I could understand. There was adequate background given but there needed to be a bit more in order to understand her fierce loyalty to her sister. Their relationship was interesting, but Celeste really did not know her sister as well as she thought she did.

The focus of the story was on Celeste and her journey to discover what had really happened to her sister, but she meets some interesting characters along the way. I did like her ex-boyfriend, Abraxas, and would have liked to see more of him. They had an interesting relationship and while I can understand why Celeste used him the way she did, I felt that she could have done better by him.

I liked the setting of the wild west mining town. The world building was adequate for the length of the book, but there was a lot of room for more. There is definitely a class system between the Fallen and the Virtues that needed just a bit more information to understand a bit better. I wasn’t entirely sure if the Fallen were half demon and the Virtues half angels, or if they were human but classified by which side their families had fought on in the war. There was also a bit of a steampunk feel to the story, with some interesting inventions that some of the characters created.

The story is of course beautifully written with wonderful detailed descriptions of the setting and the plot. The mystery was well done, with a surprising twist at the end. Celeste goes through a lot to help her sister, and even though I didn’t like how she eventually solves her dilema, she was pretty smart about it.

If you are a fan of Rebecca Roanhorse this is one you should give a try. The main issue was maybe the length, which keeps it from really exploring the world and the characters, but it is good considering how short it is.

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Tread of Angels is a new stand alone fantasy novella by author Rebecca Roanhorse, known for her Navajo inspired Sixth World fantasy series and her pre-Colombian inspired epic fantasy Between Earth and Sky (Black Sun) series. Unlike those works however, Tread of Angels is a stand alone novella, featuring a noir-esque mystery in a world in which Demons and Angels are present on Earth to some extent, and their byblows - the Elect for Angels, the Fallen for Demons, and hybrids in between, - form the basis of this society in Colorado.

The results is a story that starts out with some familiar beats - the Angel/Demons thing among us, with prejudice for those with Fallen blood is something I've read before, as is the Noir-ish story with the sister looking to save the accused of murder criminal by finding out a truth - but then shifts to something a bit more interesting and unique along the way. And this winds up working really well, as the investigation reveals corruption and people being not what they seem, and a main character who makes choices you might not expect....to what turns out to be a pretty crushing ending. If there's a fault here other than parts of this having been done before, it's that this is so short that some of the impact is blunted by not being together with characters long enough....and yet the shortness also allows this to form a pretty efficient complete story, so yeah this is a winner that's worth your time.




Quick Plot Summary: In this world of Angels and Demons, and their mortal descendants the Elect and Fallen, mixed-blood girl Celeste only cares for one thing: her sister Mariel. Years ago, Celeste made a choice that she regrets that separated the two of them, and now that they are back together in the mining town of Goetia, Celeste - who can pass for being not of Fallen blood - wants more than anything to ensure her sister - whose Fallen blood can't be denied - is happy.

So when Mariel is accused by the Virtue (the Angels) of murdering a Virtue, Celeste is determined to save her sister from their biased justice - even if it means playing a Virtue's rigged game by becoming her sister's advocatus diaboli. But in this corrupt world, where Angels and Virtues deem Fallen guilty just by their very existence, Celeste soon finds that nothing is as it seems, and that her quest to save her sister may require her to go to lengths far beyond what she can imagine.....

Thoughts: Tread of Angels begins from very well-trod ground in the fantasy/paranormal romance genres (this is firmly in the former btw) - a world with angels and demons, and people born of their blood and mixed heritages, with both being corrupt, not just the angels, and people of demon blood (the Fallen) discriminated against. It also begins along a very well trod ground for a noir mystery - the detective character (Celeste) searching for answers about a crime supposedly committed by an innocent singer at a saloon, who woke up covered in blood....and who might not be as innocent a girl as she seems. Some of these tropes are played pretty straight and you'll recognize them quite a bit: the authority figure with a hidden agenda, the fact that the alleged wrongly-accused is in fact not as innocent as her sister believed, the motives of possible other suspects and what the victim actually did....etc. Then there's also the protagonist's demon ex, who wants to own her soul, and who she just can't quit in her heart even as she can't fully commit that....

And then Tread of Angels gets to its back half, where it starts to take those tropes and themes and feature Celeste taking actions as a result that take this to another level. I'm not gonna claim they're wholly unique, and I'm sure they've been done in the noir genre before, but they're devastating here, ending this novella on a truly impactful level. I don't want to spoil too much by saying further, only to say that the result is well worth your time. Really the only flaw here is that as a novella, we don't get to see certain character developments more than a little bit, so certain betrayals don't register because we barely know the characters being betrayed. But the story is so compact and strong that it hardly matters.

I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m so fucking bored.

To be fair, there was also a miscommunication here: where the blurb talks about Virtues and Archangels and so on, I thought it was referring to literal Virtues and Archangels – not humans who use those terms as titles. I went in expecting – and excited for – a very different world than the one Roanhorse created here.

But even so, I found it so incredibly dull and eye-rolling. I grit my teeth over the name Celeste (which literally translates as ‘heavenly’) but her surname is Semyaza? As in, the leader of the Watchers??? A link which is never pointed our or explained? (I ran a search in the ebook to check.) And then just a few pages in, we get, I kid you not, a mention of a saloon girl named Lilitha?

Picture me shoving my face in a pillow and screaming. And not in a good way.

I’m not even going to get started on Abraxas, the sort-of love interest who was a General in the war against Heaven (how is he still on Earth when the rest of Lucifer & co are not??? Who knows!)

My point is, if you’re interested in Tread of Angels because you’re into angelic lore, this is not the book for you. You will catch all the oh-so-clever little references and they will make you wince or grind your teeth, because they’re not half as clever as they think they are.

Even without all of this, the story is incredibly dull. Maybe it would have worked better as a novel, so the plot could have moved a little more slowly and been a fair bit more complex? It reads as rushed, in novella-form. And while I liked Celeste in theory, I don’t understand how she got to be the way she is – good (and quick) with a knife but also very naive, which doesn’t really make sense given her background and living situation. Abraxas is an embarrassing cliche. The worldbuilding is disappointingly simplistic and not very interesting.

Roanhorse’s Novella focuses on the unsurpassable captivating story of Angels and Demons, where perception overshadows the truth even when it stares you right in the face.
Celeste is considered a half-breed, raised with privilege and class by her father in the mining town of Goetia. Her younger sister Mariel stayed with their mother in the slums of Goetia and was marked fallen. Celeste will do anything to protect her baby sister, and that means anything. So on the night, she sees her sister being dragged out of the club they both work at by Virtues; it takes Hypathia and Zeke to hold her in check not to run blade flying after the Virtues keeping Mariel.
Luckily Hypathia has contacts and can find out where the Virtues are holding Mariel. However, to get more information, Celeste will have to talk to her ex Abraxses, the Demon Lord. The man wanted her mind, body, and soul and who she would have given herself to, but she had to sacrifice her happiness for Mariel, for they all each other had left. When Celeste finally gets to see her sister, she winds up getting appointed the one to defend her (even though Celeste knows this is a setup, she knows she has no choice but to say yes). Celeste has 48 hours to prove that Mariel didn’t do it, or she will be sentenced to Hell.
From this point on, the book just took off and was unputdownable.
The book is fast-paced, heart pounding, “Hold on,” “Get out,” “No Way,” “You’ve got to be kidding,” to “SAY WHAT NOW?” to Did I just read that correctly? Let me reread that, to “OMG” I DID READ THAT RIGHT” “DAMN!!”
“SUCH BETRAYAL”
I’m just speechless, and that’s saying a lot, Ms. Roanhorse.
Roanhorse has a story to tell if you read between the lines. I feel that her message in this Novella is:
1. Do not ever assume, no matter who it is.
2. Don’t ever take things for granted, for tomorrow is never promised.
3. Never, ever let anyone steal your sunshine. Live like it’s your last day on this earth.
My only con was this was too short.
“WELL DONE!!!”
BEST NOVELLA I’VE READ
BEST NOVELLA OF 2022

Thank you, NetGalley/Rebecca Roanhorse/Gallery Books.Gallery/Saga Press/ For this incredible eARC for my honest review. My opinions are of my own volition.

To begin with, Ms. Roanhorse makes the demon lord so gorgeous, kindly, intelligent and understanding, that if he wasn't a fictional character, I'd ask for his phone number. He's great. The love-of-his-life, Celeste the protagonist, is mildly interesting. What did he see in her?!

I agree with some of the other reviews that Tread of Angels needed to be fleshed out some more. The dialogue was predictable, The characters could have been more interesting had there been more detail of their lives. It's a short novel so there was room to explore. It would be a great story because it has a great premise, but there wasn't enough background to really care about the characters. Bit players instead of supporting actors. They seemed two dimensional., except for the demon lord. If it turns out that he's real, and not fictional, will someone give him my email address? Might he be on a dating app?

I greatly enjoy Ms. Roanhorse's books. I think I've read all of them. But Tread of Angels felt like it wasn't the final draft. As I said, the premise is so good that this could be a marvelous tale with a little more of the characters' lives fleshed out.

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for allowing me to read and review Tread of Angels.

Rebecca Roanhorse is at it again.

By which I mean, giving me worlds that I want to know everything about.

In Rebecca Roanhorse's latest story, you are plunged into a world where demons and angels coexist. Social classes exist among them all and the lines become blurred when pleasure and the law become involved.

This was more than just a fantasy, it was a murder mystery placed in a fantasy world. No time is wasted as the book begins you are placed right in the middle of a bustling establishment right before the Order of Michael shows up to arrest Mariel for the murder of a Virtue. What follows is a journey that Celeste must take in her efforts to prove her sisters innocence.

“Can’t leave justice up to God,” Zeke added morosely. He and Hypatia exchanged a look. They knew as well as Celeste did.
God’s justice always ended in blood."

While I enjoyed being in this new world I found it a little hard to get into at first just because I was plunged into the middle of a holiday in this new world right before the murder occurred. It was a little jarring to try to get into the depth of this world so quickly. I wasn't shocked by the ending in any way as we didn't have enough background in the beginning and it wasn't a stretch to see where it was going. What I liked about this story was that it was about what lengths we go to for the people we love. The pieces of ourselves that we lose along the way when we find out how capable we are of certain things.

I might be in the minority when I say that I enjoyed how Celeste's story ended. I feel like it was well deserved and to have it end in any other way would have made me dislike it.

The story was slow and then the ending felt rushed and over so quickly that I believe if it had an extra couple of pages to expand on the ending it would have made it perfect. Overall I liked this fantasy western mystery and would definitely read more in this world if it ever turned into a series. I would like to spend more time focusing on the world in the next one though just to make more sense of where I am.

Tread of Angels is out at your local bookstores on November 15, 2022! Pick up a copy if you ever wanted to read a Law and Order-like story with a fantasy twist.

Special thanks to NetGalley and SagaPress for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I love Rebecca Roanhorse's writing, and will probably try out anything she puts out. This novella isn't the best thing I've read from her, but the world is really interesting, and I definitely see potential. It is an alternate universe where the angels and demons fought. The angels emerged victorious, and their descendants are known as Elect, whereas those who supported Lucifer are known as Fallen and considered to be a much lower class. A Fallen is accused of murdering an Elect, which is usually an instant death sentence, but her half-Elect sister is determined to prove her innocence.

As you can probably tell, it's a fairly complicated setup, with quite a bit of lore behind it, and most of this is told to us through infodumping at the beginning. After that, it's smooth sailing for a while, as the author slowly guides us through what the justice system looks like, but the ending is once again fairly rapid. I don't think the shorter format gave this story the room it needed to breathe, especially for how much it was trying to do.

Celeste isn't a particularly likeable protagonist, and I don't think she's intended to be, but she is fiercely protective of her sister, and will do literally anything for her, including asking a former demon lord lover for help. I did think some of her reactions felt overly dramatic for the situation, which might be because the author was trying to tell the story in a novella. The ending wasn't entirely satisfying, but leaves room for sequels within this world, and I would definitely be open to reading those.

Tread of Angels is a novella that takes place in a town where the residents are descendants of angels and demons, and the story follows a girl who is trying to prove her sister’s innocence in a murder case. If you enjoy celestial beings or the show Supernatural, this might be the novella for you.

Unfortunately, I thought it was a bit of a mess. Novellas are tricky to nail plot-wise, and I thought this either needed to be a short story or a full length novel. The entire plot comprised of the main character going around town to speak with different people about the murder, and I just didn’t care very much. There’s a plot twist at the end that was quite obvious to me, and then the final resolution left my head spinning in a bad way.

As for the characters, my god was the main character, Celeste, insufferable. She’s brash, naive, and at times just plain stupid. One redeeming part of this book for me was Abraxas, a typical dark, seductive, eons-old demon lord, and I’m only human.

I also enjoyed the worldbuilding and the concept overall, I think it was just under-written and left me disappointed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Rebecca Roanhorse fan. I've read everything that she's published so far, and enjoyed every bit of it. Shockingly, this one did not capture me.

Perhaps it's the fact that I am still hoping and praying for more of <i>The Sixth World</i>, and <i>Tread of Angels</i> seems like it's replacing that "alternate history" series by starting something new. Mostly, however, I really did not connect with the main character, Celeste. In fact, I found her completely off-putting and uninspiring. Her actions seemed out of place, her emotions did not make sense in the circumstances, everything seemed blown out of proportion and overdrawn. This applies to the world that Celeste lives in as well. Angels don't have to be angelic to appeal to me, but do they have to be <i>this</i> unpalatable?

I stopped reading at 85%. I just couldn't make myself finish, I was not invested in the outcome. This was a disappointing read. I am going to hope for more of <i>The Sixth World</i>.

This is NOT a romance or a romantic fantasy — I really cannot emphasize this fact enough, lol. You might be fooled even halfway through the novella, but I’m warning you not to get trapped into wrong expectations. 😅

Roanhorse is a wonderful writer and I tore through the novella in an hour. The mystery plot is a bit basic/predictable, but I didn’t care because I enjoyed the setting so much. We’ve barely scratched the worldbuilding surface of this angelic, Wild West-inspired fantasy. I love it when a protagonist gradually reveals themselves as devious and reprehensible — Celeste’s transformation into an anti-heroine was delicious.

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Wild West meets heaven and hell in Roanhorse’s new release, Tread of Angels. Celeste, a Fallen card shark who can pass as Elect, is overly protective of her sister, Mariel. When Mariel is accused of murder, Celeste must decide how far she will go for family.

Loves: The world-building was sublime. I was completely sold on the Wild West and angels and demons motif. Also, sexy demon lords? Sign me up!

Needs Improvement: It just felt incomplete and a tad rushed at the end.

I will post a full review on my podcast once the book is released.

Everything about this novella, the mining settlement Wild West vibes combined with Christian mythology in the Angelic and Demonic presences post-Lucifer’s Rebellion, should have made me love this novella. Unfortunately, I think Tread of Angels is one of those novellas that really suffers from not being a novel, moreso than most. With each chapter, I felt like I was reading a sketch of a story rather than a full story, with each chapter introducing characters and places, only to never come back to them again. There are so many interesting parts of this to explore, the social structure between the Elect and the various angelic choirs in charge of the different branches of government, the economic system that revolves around mining this demon lord’s body, and the Fallen who are treated as second-class citizens despite being essential to the mining process. Sadly, with the pacing of this book and how much it seemed like Celeste was just rushing from point A to point B to point C, we get little more than sentences when I’d gladly read a whole book dedicated to the worldbuilding. Additionally, I found myself fairly ambivalent towards Celeste’s character and her actions. Without giving spoilers, I will simply say that I did not find the ending at all satisfying. The setting has so much potential and so many interesting facets to explore, but I think it really needed to be novel-length. Overall, I rate this book a 3/5.

Review goes live on my blog 4 Nov 2022

Tread of Angels is the perfect combination of things in books that piss me off.

I know this is a novella with limited room for plot development but this was a mess. The novella starts off with a bang and then absolutely falls apart. The entire book is just a tour around the town so Celeste can meet characters that are way more interesting than her or her sister. Followed by the most obvious plot twist I have ever read. There were at least 3 side stories hinted at that would have made for more interesting books than this ridiculous trial.

For most of this book, I was sitting at a three-star. I wasn't engaged and didn't think it was particularly good but it was fine. But the ending of this book pissed me off so much. The solution to the trial/mystery makes everything that happened earlier in the book completely meaningless. It was so random and nonsensical.

Thanks to Tread of Angels, I have discovered a new major pet peeve—unrealistically naive characters. I am all for an unlikable character but Celeste was stupid. No one with her backstory should be this infuriatingly naive. Her internal dialogue read incredibly young and pathetic. She trusts someone, gets screwed over, and then trusts them again right away. This leads me to two things that I cannot stand to read about: characters that are stupid for their family and characters that treat their love interest like they have no feelings. And as it turns out this book has plenty of both! Celeste experiencing consequences for being a complete moron does not negate the rage I felt reading about her stupidity.

I love romance subplots! They add fun tension and flirting! The romance made this book so much worse. It's important for a moment in the beginning and then becomes completely irrelevant only to be incredibly important at the very end. Even when it's important the romance is painfully cringy. The love interest is the stereotypical, ancient, all-powerful, darkness incarnate man that she can't be with for vague reasons. He is literally the annoying kid in class that carries around a philosophy book and randomly drops Latin phrases into normal conversations.

I see the message the author was trying to convey. It's hard to miss with the ridiculously obvious plot twist and completely unnecessary romantic conflict. And if you missed that, don't worry, characters will remind you that devotion can be toxic in very clear terms at least once a chapter.

Some of my dislike of this book is personal. Tread of Angels really just included so many of my pet peeves. But even if I try to look past those things this book is fine at best.

I love Rebecca Roanhorse's work and TREAD OF ANGELS is no different. The author deftly crafts beautiful worlds in such a short amount of time that I felt immersed in this Old West heaven/hell setting. The characters are beautifully complicated and relatable despite being a fantasy. Another fantastic story from one of the masters!

I loved this premise, a historical fantasy set in an alternate American west where angels and demons co-exist. But the execution left me wanting more. This is a short book, and the plot is a pretty straightforward, time-constrained mystery. We get hints of a past battles and backstories and complicated social structures, hints of a bigger, more sinister evil, but no real pay off to any of it. I kept thinking about the ways this book fell short of another angels-demons fantasy I loved, Daughter of Smoke & Bone. But it's not a fair comparison; that was the start of a series and about twice as long.

If Tread of Angels is starting a series -- I'm here for that. I'm intrigued and ready to spend time in the world Roanhorse has created.

If Tread of Angels is a standalone -- it's fine.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

I love Rebecca Roanhorse and all the worlds she has created. This quick novella creates a world and characters I'd like to see more of, fallen angels, demons, virtues that all mirror our own society. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new series.

What did I just read? Like it was simultaneously a mystery, fantasy, and historical fiction... and yet read like a contemporary. It's a lot. But it's also so readable, especially with the sultry tones of Dion Graham in my ears. I do feel like I missed a lot of details and world-building that will be amazing for the reread. But it's a marvel at what she was able to create in 200 pages. The idea of divinity being a magic source, the lore of fallen angels existing in this virtuous society, and the parallel of passing to the world we live in... It's just full of so many details that you could easily miss on the first read through. And it's only 200 pages so you have no excuse to not read this beauty.

*Thank you to Saga Press, B2Weird, Simon Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted copies in exchange for my honest review*