I really enjoy Rebecca Roanhorse as a writer, but admittedly this one was a bit above my head at times...

Roanhorse is one of my favourite authors of the past 5 years and this book helped cement that for me. From stunning writing to an incredibly intriguing world, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

This being a genre I don't usually read, I was intrigued by the synopsis and requested it nonetheless. While the concept attracted me, and in truth started off strong, I believe that the fact that this was a novella worked against its ultimate success as a well written story. There simply was not enough time/length needed for world, character or plot development.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada ((Gallery Saga Press) for providing a digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased opinion.

Rebecca Roanhorse is an author I really trust, when I find out she has a new book coming out I know it will take me somewhere I’ve never been and it will be thoroughly captivating. This novella takes place in a super strange Old Western style world of angels and demons, its sort of steampunk and definitely awesome. This book is a standalone, but I would definitely read more! Want to be transported somewhere completely new in a day? Grab this book, and all of Rebecca Roanhorse's books, she’s amazing.

An intriguing story and concept but I feel like this one needed to be a longer story to have its full impact. By the end I didn't really feel that connected to the characters, but I feel like the potential was there. Rebecca Roanhorse is a beautiful writer as always, I would still read anything she writes.

Thank you to Netgalley & Simon & Schuster Canada for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rebeca Roanhorse is a PHENOMENAL author, I adore her writing style, her characters, her worlds... Absolutely everything, and this novella is no different. I thought that the 2010 craze of angels would have made them tired by now, but Roanhorse's interpretation of angels and demons is entirely new and refreshing. It was so much fun and had me captivated since page one.

This is a short book (novella) and a standalone. If you are interested in her works but unsure if you'll vibe with her writing style and worlds, start with this one!

I've been hearing and seeing Roanhorse's work on Youtube and Goodreads, so when I saw an ARC available on Netgalley I knew it was time to dive into her writing. Her other works include Black Sun from the Between Earth and Sky series, Trail of Lightning from The Sixth World series, and Resistance Reborn from the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker series. The New York Times said, "Rebecca Roanhorse is one of the Indigenous novelists reshaping North American science fiction, horror and fantasy genres in which Native writers have long been overlooked."

Title: Tread of Angels

Author: Rebecca Roanhorse

Publication Date: November 15, 2022

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada, Gallery/Saga Press

Suggested Reader Age: 16+

Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Murder Mystery

Pages: 128

› Roanhorse had me intrigued from the start of this novella talking about the wind blowing off Tabor's mine into Goetia which reminded me of books by one of my favourite authors, Stephen King. Twenty-three-year-old, Celeste Semyaza and her sister Mariel haven't had the same upbringing, but that doesn't deter Celeste from being completely loyal to Mariel, sacrificing her own happiness to put her sister first.

› The city is celebrating Aventum Angelorum, a holiday to honour the end of Lucifer's war. It's one of the rare days when cultural rank doesn't matter. The rich and the poor roam the streets dressed up as angels and devils. The "Elect" are the rich, the highest of them called "Virtues". The Virtues serve the Order of the Archangels: The Order of Chamuel (justice and peace), The Order of Raphael (healers), The Order of Michael (soldiers) and the Order of Azrael (murderers) The poor are referred to as "Fallen". The Fallen can find the "divinity" for mining and are immune to "insanity"(one of the side effects of divinity). The Elect are not immune to divinity and employ The Fallen to mine it.

› The Fallen are marked with a ring of gold around the iris of their eyes. Because Celeste is a "half-blood", she can pass as Elect, but Mariel is marked. This is one of the reasons why Celeste feels an obligation to take care of her sister, no matter what...even if it means she can't be with the only man she's ever loved - a sexy Demon Lord named Abraxas. With crimson eyes and "ink-dark" skin, Abraxas was a general in Lucifer's army, left behind after the war.

› Mariel is arrested after being found in bed with a dead Elect and Celeste throws herself into the investigation, determined to prove her sister's innocence. She's forced to choose between Elect and Fallen, family and friends, sister and lover. Celeste treads between good and evil and makes the reader wonder if the ends justify the means.

› Characters: 6
Celeste is a great protagonist, however, I was wanting more character development and backstory. I didn't feel like the characters had unique voices with flushed-out characteristics. They are forgettable. My favourite character is Abraxas and I'd love to read a prequel about him during Lucipher's war.

› Atmosphere: 7
The world-building is first-class, yet, I had a hard time picturing the settings. I wanted more description and didn't feel anything while reading.

› Writing Style: 5
It's strange to give this a 5 because I do want to read more from Roanhorse for sure, but the readability was low for me. A little convoluted and cliche at times, with inauthentic dialogue.

› Plot: 10
Loved the beginning, middle and end. Tread of Angels is a page-turner with a great climax.

› Intrigue: 10

› Logic: 6
The story was a little confusing at times with elements that didn't make sense.

› Enjoyment: 7

Average 7.3

1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Rating ★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• Tread of Angels is a plot-driven, steamy, novella about family, relationships, deception, and sacrifice with a unique magic system. It reminded me of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue and The House of Hunger. In an interview, Roanhorse described Tread of Angels as her fictionalized fantasy of the wild west.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wow.
This novella was so unique, so striking and so fascinating, that I hardly know what to say. It left me feeling initially unsettled, but the longer I sit, the more impressed I am with the successfully executed and thoroughly realistic corruption arc Roanhorse gave her main character. The story could have been almost anything at all, and the worldbuilding would have carried it (Wild West mining town! Steampunk! Angels and devils!) but the way she masterfully crafted a genuine (fallen) heroine who danced along her half-good, half-evil heritage the whole way through, and added in realistic sibling devotion and an ending that caught me off-guard... I'm nearly speechless. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I love this author's writing, this book was no exception, will read anything they release

Story: C
Prose: B+
Characters: C
World: A
Theme(s): C
Enjoyment: C-

The Good:
- The final 15% was interesting. Things get a little bit messed up and dark and watching the outcome unfold was genuinely the only interesting part of the story.
- Cool setting/history. Too bad it's irrelevant!
- Confident, solid prose: Besides a few blips of weak and filler words and some passive voice, Roanhorse has competent prose.


The Bad:
-Filler: There's waaay too much fluff and filler for a novella. There are so many paragraphs or lines that add nothing or can be pared down. 90% of the first chapter is irrelevant. Roanhorse could've jumped right to Hypatia coming outside to scold Celeste for causing trouble, interrupted by the ruckus when Mariel is arrested.
- Pointless worldbuilding: I thought all the angel and demon offspring? class divide was going to amount to something meaningful. Literally anything meaningful. Instead, it's completely replaceable. They could be offsprings of the square and circle people and nothing would change.
- Weak plot: Most of what happens isn't interesting, thought provoking or new.
- What is this? The set-up is somewhere between a Young Adult Fantasy trying on big girl pants and Romance Fantasy: Celeste's little sister is accused of murder and the ex-boyfriend she's still horny for offers. This is a recurring problem I've encountered in Roanhorse's work: the failure to either blend genres successfully or flesh out a single genre (well.) It's always some watered down inbetween place.
- Characters: Celeste does something interesting at the end, but largely the cast is uninspiring and boring. Celeste herself comes across as impulsive and somewhat stupid.
- Weird pro-life vibes. Spoiler: a woman is temporarily spared because she's pregnant with a child she doesn't want.

Overall a mediocre story dressed in competent prose with a great but underutilised setting.

For such a short tale, this story was full of unique world building, well crafted characters and a fun mystery.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Unfortunately I was underwhelmed with this one. I found the story fairly uninteresting and the characters boring. The writing itself was decent but I just could stay interested in reading this one. If it was longer, I may have DNF’d it.

this novella follows celeste, who’s trying to prove her sister mariel’s innocence after she’s accused of murdering one of the ruling class members.

this was honestly really confusing. i think for the amount of world building that had to be done, it was too short for me to grasp it all. i couldn’t understand what all the terms meant, which lowered my enjoyment a lot.

i think this would’ve been better as a full length novel. the concept is really interesting and i really liked the beginning but it was just too much for such a short book.

i also didn’t like the ending at all. the “plot twist” was obvious and i felt very underwhelmed.

celeste as a character was okay. she was a bit brash but you could tell she loved her sister. however, it did feel like that was her only personality trait. i wanted her to be fleshed out a bit more.

thank you to netgalley and simon & schuster for giving me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars

This story takes place on some sort of pseudoearth. It isn't mentioned whether it's an alternate timeline or postapocalyptic or what, but it leans old-timey American West. There are fallen who I assume are children of demons or some kind of hybrid or some such, and then there are the angelic Elect, the upper classes who govern. The fallen are marked. The Elect are not.

Celeste and Mariel are Elect/Fallen sisters, Celeste passing as Elect, and Mariel having been marked. They work in the same bar, Celeste as a card dealer, and her sister as a singer. Celeste has all kinds of Elect-passing guilt and treats her sister like some kind of helpless angel baby. Mariel is accused of Murder, and Celeste is chosen to represent her in court.

I like morally grey characters, but they need to have some redeeming qualities. The characters in this book are insufferable, and the book is so short that the author didn't really have the opportunity to explore anything in depth enough for it to be truly interesting. If this book was a novel and not a novella, and better fleshed out, it could have been quite good. It has lots of interesting facets, but the characters and lack of world exploration tanked it for me.

It’s the late 1800s, and the mining town of Goetia, Colorado, is full of prospectors, there to mine Divinity, an element found in the mountains. When they’re not hoping to find Divinity, the prospectors frequent the Goetia's bars, gambling halls and brothels, which are staffed by the Fallen, descendants of demons. Most of the town’s residents are Elect, descendants of angels, with the ruling class known as Virtues. The Elect look down on the Fallen; angels and demons fought against each other many years ago, and all their descendants choose to live in Goetia now. The town’s population is rounded out by ordinary humans.

Celeste and her songstress sister Marielle are Fallen, and work in a gambling hall, Celeste as a faro dealer, and Marielle as a performer. When Marielle is accused of murdering a man, Celeste goes all out to save her. The Virtues convince Celeste to be her sister’s advocatus diaboli., which entails recounting to a panel of Virtues details of Marielle’s good character; as the Virtues are predisposed to detest the Fallen, Celeste knows she needs actual evidence to support her claims, and begins digging into particular town’s residents’ lives, discovering some uncomfortable truths about herself in the process.


Ooo, this was bleak, and though the stakes are relatively low, Roanhorse has created a world of division and injustice, and set her main character on a journey which destroys a lot of her deeply held assumptions. I liked how flawed Celeste was; as half-Fallen, unlike her sister, she occasionally dreams of passing as an Elect, then castigates herself for this desire. She also refuses to see things right in front of her, which causes no end of trouble for her and Marielle.

I love a good western, and I could feel the heat of the day, hear the drunken laughter of people at night, as well as feel the tension of dealing with the condescension of the Elect, and the arbitrary justice of the Virtues. I liked the irony of the society Roanhorse set up in Goetia; Fallen serving the "baser" needs of humans and Elect, while the Virtues' bigotry and less than honourable behaviour restricts opportunities for the Fallen around them. My only wish here is that I would have loved more story in this world, and more time to flesh out some of the story threads that form the backdrop of this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Simon & Shuster Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This book had well written characters and there was a lot of story for such a short book, but it wasn't really what I was expecting. I am really loving the Between Earth and Sky trilogy by the same author so I was expecting something along the same lines, but it was very different. I think the thing that turned me off the most was the romance; I'm really not a fan of the girl being in love with the bad boy who treats her like crap. I don't find that romantic. Just because they do some kind of big nice gesture for you once, doesn't make it okay to be rude most of the time. I do know these types of books are very popular now though, so if this is your thing you may enjoy this.

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. The story had strong Sarah J Maas vibes so if you are a fan of her books I think you may enjoy this book as well.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse in exchange for an honest review!

When I read the synopsis of this novella and saw the words angels and demons I instantly wanted to read it. The world building was amazing and I loved reading as Celeste tried to prove her sisters innocence. My only complaint was that it felt like it was too short. The ending was kind of ambiguous, so maybe a sequel is coming? I would definitely read a sequel.

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This has some solid enjoyment factor going on.

I've seen this newish trend returning to angels and demons as characters in stories and I always tend to like the idea of it more than the actual execution. Of course, the same thing is true for this one, and the angels are mostly jerks and so are the demons, but that's just flavor.

In reality, the world is pretty much hardcore Victorian-esq and it has a lot of skewering of cultural mores on top of the actual mystery.

This doesn't have huge epic things going on in it and that's okay. I might keep wanting huge things and I have to just EXPECT less. Maybe someday, lol, but in the meantime, this WAS enjoyable.

After reading the synopsis of this book I was very excited to pick it up but unfortunately, I feel a little bit let down by the execution of the premise. The complexity of the worldbuilding elements was the main thing that stopped this book from having compelling characters or interesting plotline. While I think the magical elements were intriguing, there were too many of them crammed into approximately 200 pages and that didn't allow me to settle into the story and familiarize myself with the world without constantly having worldbuilding information dumped on me. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters because they weren't developed well. Most of the interpersonal relationships were told about rather than shown to the reader. I found the murder mystery plot to be uninteresting and quite predictable. However, I have to say that the plot twist made sense in the societal context that was described in the book.

The one thing that kept me mildly enjoying this book was Rebecca Roanhorse's prose. Her writing style has this unique quality to it that I had no trouble picturing all the scenes and landscapes that were described in this story. While the worldbuilding wasn't done to my liking, the setting and the atmosphere were impeccable.