I loved this cover and decided to try something a bit different from books I usually read. Although it is well written and pretty deep it was a bit more painful and bloody than I’m used to reading. From what I can tell plenty of people love it but it just wasn’t for me. It’s still something I would suggest others check out especially if you enjoy reading books about war and the aftermath.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

Trying to get through the first 15-20% of this book was somewhat difficult. I am legally blind and the conscious flow style of writing threw me a bit. Once it gets going and the story progresses and my brain got used to it, I found it to keep the action moving and it felt like it was compelling me to finish the book quicker. I loved Whalefall and The Living Dead. This was another book to prove Kraus is a great author. Emotional moments that actually make you choke up right after wanting to gag a little from the glory descriptions of blood and guts. Really good stuff. I will definitely recommend. I am actually going to buy the audiobook for the experience.

In a bloody battlefield on the Western Front we meet Private Cyril Bagger, shocked to still be alive after almost being annihilated by artillery fire. He's also shocked that the shells came so close. Bagger signs up for burial duty because there's less chance of enemy fire reaching that far. He's all about survival, and an expert at gaming the system, any system, up to and including a game of Rochambeau.

This novel is engrossing, visceral, propulsive, philosophical, horrific, gory, fantastical, and squeamish. A dark comedy. Every sentence cinematic. Oh wait a minute that's not quite accurate, as the book is one long sentence, a 304 page sentence...but if there is no period is it really a sentence? Don't let this deter you, the narrative just flows, all the action taking place one scene after another after another.

I don't want to say too much about the narrative. It's Bagger and four other misfits, the "division’s disreputables", with an assignment nobody wants (hence the game of Rochambeau), they have an odious General, there's the constant threat of attack, there's the carnage of the WWI battlefield, and there's an angel.

And it all comes together.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub. date 7/29/2025)

Fantastic. I loved Whalefall and The Monster Variations so this has been fairly high on my release excitement list. And it did not disappoint. This is not an easy breezy beach read. I’m guessing Kraus’ keyboard has a broken ‘.’ key because there aren’t any in the book. It’s a literal nonstop smorgasbord of war horror and death and it is both brutal and beautiful. The entire book is a giant run on sentence and it drags you into the literal trenches of WW1 like few other books can.

History has never really been my thing but I found myself googling WW1 in the first half to try and grasp the who’s and why’s of it all because I wanted to be able to absorb the material rather than just bounce it off my brain. The core story is that of Private Cyril Bagger. Following the death of his father, the Bishop Bagger, a few years prior he ends up fighting for the allies during WW1. He loathes war and spends most of his time digging graves rather than fight. When he is sent with a few other faulty soldiers to dispatch another soldier, they discover an angel entangled in barbed wire.

The war horror aspect is extremely visceral and easily the darkest part of the book. There is some cosmic horror thrown in which crafted a really fantastic blend to create a dope read. Again, not a blow through it book. I preferred reading this one in chunks as it takes a minute to resorb your mind into the fluidity of the story. In my Whalefall review I mentioned I found it cathartic and Angel Down hits this note as well. Takes a bit of work to get a grasp on Kraus’ style in this work but so worth it. Definitely in my top list for 2025.

Angel Down
Daniel Kraus
7/29/2025
Atria

I’ve never read a book like Angel Down, and I don’t just mean the story—I mean the form. The lack of punctuation caught me completely off guard. It felt disorienting at first, like trying to breathe without pausing, but that’s exactly the point. Once I let go and stopped resisting the rhythm, it became almost hypnotic. The language spills forward in a constant stream, mimicking the chaos of war and the urgency of a soldier’s thoughts. It’s strange, but it works—brilliantly. And once you realize it’s all intentional, it deepens everything: the dread, the awe, and the wonder of what Cyril Bagger encounters in No Man’s Land.

This is not just a war novel. It’s a supernatural reckoning, a moral meditation, and a literary gut-punch. Angel Down asks impossible questions and forces you to sit with them: What do we do when the divine appears in the middle of destruction? How do we decide who deserves to live, and who is simply convenient to leave behind? There’s an angel tangled in barbed wire and five soldiers who think maybe—just maybe—it could save them. But salvation is never simple, and Kraus doesn’t give you easy answers.

You should read this book if you’re tired of stories that play it safe. You should read it if you want to be challenged—not just by plot twists, but by language, ethics, and the sheer strangeness of hope in a hopeless place. Angel Down is brutal, beautiful, and completely unforgettable. It will shake you.

I don't quite know how to put Angel Down into words. It both was what I expected and also wasn't. It was brutal, which you can imagine being about WWI. Particularly, the two thirds of the book was so bleak that it was hard to read, especially knowing that all these horrors were, to some extent, real. Sure, the exact names and locales may differ slightly, but the crux of it? The atrocities? Yeah, they absolutely happened. And keep happening, because human beings just can't seem to stop killing each other.

The storytelling itself is one long sentence, though with appropriate breaks. It's mainly from the perspective of soldier Cyril Bagger, but it's third person so we see others too. Because of the structure, which I fully admit is genius, it feels like I presume the author wants us to understand that Bagger feels- bleak and like the horrors literally never pause. Again, it is so well done, almost too well done, because it was really hard for me to handle at certain points.

But the final third, oh, the final third absolutely hooked me. I appreciated the book so much more because of the final third, and the way it wrapped up left me feeling... well, I still don't have a glowing perspective of humanity, but it was slightly less bleak at points. But only slightly, and IMO, it absolutely fit the tone of the story. If you can handle the brutality, it is absolutely worth reading, but be prepared, and definitely think twice if you're in a bad mental space.

Bottom Line: The writing and structure is brilliant, the story brutal but breathtaking. Absolutely recommend if you've the stomach for it.

Private Cyril Bagger has so far manged to survive the horrors of the Great War, using his wits and swindling his fellow soldiers. He faces the ultimate test when he and four others are given the deadly mission of euthanizing a wounded comrade in No Man's Land.

What they find isn't a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons.

The entirety of Angel Down is one sentence. It's not as crazy as it sounds. I believe it's written this way to direct the flow of the story and to convey the atmosphere of battle. It's broken up with chapters and paragraphs so it doesn't feel overwhelming.

Angel Down is very atmospheric. However the atmosphere is war, blood, and violence. It can be a lot at times. Some descriptions are on the grosser side.

There is meaning through all of it. I can't say I quite understood everything. The style of writing is different from previous books by the author which I have loved. I appreciate the creativity here, but Angel Down just wasn't for me. It's more of personal taste than anything so definitely check it out if you think it sounds good.

Generally, I don’t read books or watch films about war. But Whalefall was one of my favorite books of 2023, and the central idea of Angel Down – a group of soldiers discover a celestial being on a WWI battlefield – had me intrigued, so I decided to make an exception. In the end, Angel Down was rough to get through, but it was worthwhile reading.

Nothing about this book is easy: not the subject matter, not the graphic imagery, not the characters, and not even the way the story is told. The book begins in the middle of a sentence, and the entire book is a continuation of it – one sinuous, never-ending sentence (“careening without periods”) detailing the horrors of war. But it doesn’t feel like a gimmick. In fact it feels like the only way a story of this nature could be told: with urgency, dread, and unflinching violence that never relents. This is the type of book that consumes you while you’re reading it, a book that’s difficult to look away from, even in its goriest, most brutal moments. It places you directly on the battlefield, with the blood and the pain and the savagery and the hubris, and it shows you everything.

But even in the midst of all the brutality, Daniel Kraus’s writing is observant and full of meaning, and his love for his protagonist – Private Cyril Bagger, gravedigger for the 43rd Division of the U.S. Army – shines nearly as brightly as the angel herself. Cyril is a complicated character who isn’t always easy to like – but he’s easy to understand as a victim of his circumstances. The supporting characters are richly-realized, and the angel at the center of the story serves as an enigmatic, slightly sinister anchor for the narrative.

Angel Down isn’t a traditional horror novel, but it’s horror of a kind. War itself is terrifying, maybe the scariest thing there is, and there are elements of cosmic horror near the end that are incredibly unsettling. But somehow, it all ends on a hopeful note in a brilliant conclusion that couldn’t have been executed better. This is probably the most difficult novel I’ll read this year, but it was well worth the time. Thank you to Atria Books for the early reading opportunity.

3.5 stars-Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing on July 29th!

Wavering dramatically between a three and a four on this one. Gory and dramatic! Very cinematic, could almost imagine this being adapted for tv or film aside from the aforementioned gore. Exceptionally realistic look at war, and choosing WWI as the setting worked well for me since it's a more nebulous conversation of good vs. evil than WWII which has a very clear narrative in the way we talk about it. Even though a few parts were a bit predictable, overall I didn't know where the book was going to go. The symbolism and messaging were beautiful and feel very necessary.

AND YET. It was a chore for me to get through this novel. I wondered if it was due to the format (the book is a single run-on sentence) but honestly within a few pages I got used to the structure and it didn't bother me or affect the readability of the book at all for me after that point, so I don't think it was that. I just struggled to get through this one-I'd read about 5-10 pages and want to put it down and have to force myself to pick it back up again the next day or a couple days later (honestly, if this wasn't an ARC I needed to review, I don't know if I COULD have convinced myself to pick it back up again). Not sure if it was the plotting, the pacing, overall engagement, or what, but despite its many good qualities something about this book clearly didn't work well for me.

This book is unlike anything I have ever read before.
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus did not disappoint!
This book was so unique, heartbreaking, horrifying.
I absolutely ate this book up.

I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s Whalefall, and the description of this book enticed me. However, the conceit of telling the story in a single sentence (except when quoting a character directly) wore very thin very quickly to me. Formatting it in blocks helps, but the stream of consciousness style just didn’t work for me. I’m afraid I gave up. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for making this available.

A unique, challenging and rewarding read for those who are able to fall into the rhythm of the sentence. Kraus has done something I've not seen before- written an entire novel in one sentence, which by the way, ends with a comma. This is a sometimes graphic portrait of men in the middle of a war who are grappling with the idea that an angel has landed among them, Cyril Bagger's mind is a chaotic, propulsive,, messy place but it feels very real. This won't be for everyone but it's a terrific experience. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Don't be surprised to see this at Booker time. For fans of literary fiction.

I was intrigued by this book because of the WWI focus, but I had no idea it would be so unique. I loved the writing style—the novel as run-on-sentence—as well as the intense imagery. It is definitely a book that is worth several readings to mine it more deeply.

Unrelenting, crucifying, unsettling, brilliant,

those are the words that immediately come to mind,

in Cyril Bagger, Kraus has created the ultimate every man, vagabond, gambler, coward, brave, deeply flawed, perfect man,

I loved every word, comma, syllable of this modern work of breathless genius,

don’t miss it

That was my weak attempt at writing a brief review in one sentence, much like how this novel is written in, YES, one sentence. And before you say ew, no, that’s not for me, listen. It works. It works as more than a gimmicky, clever angle. This novel is set in war, during WWI, and the run on sentence makes the unrelenting horror of war that much more devastating and visceral. It left me breathless. It left me enervated. It left me destroyed.

I cannot say enough about how much I loved this book. I can’t remember the last time a story just made me FEEL. I felt everything. And the ending. Oh the ending. I will never get over it.

Like I said. Don’t miss it. Out July 29th, perfect for a day on the beach.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #atriabooks for the eARC of this excellent novel.

Wow! This book will resonate with me for a long, long time.

Angel Down is one sentence. It's literally a book with one sentence. The format took a bit of time to get used to, but it's worth it. This novel is perfect for readers who love history, horror, and speculative fiction.

Kraus's research into World War I, soldiers' in-the-moment experiences on the battlefield, and how they are impacted physically and mentally is apparent and commendable. Placing an angel in the middle of a battlefield initially provides characters a beacon of hope but quickly becomes unsettling and a test of morality. Prepare yourselves for a one-sitting read because you're not going to be able to put this riveting novel down.

This ARC was provided by the Atria Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Chaotic, dark, hopeful, and suspenseful, Angel Down will stick with me forever. This book won't be for everyone, with its single-sentence style choices, its brutality, and it's honest depiction of war. But it will leave any reader with open eyes. This is one of those books I wish I could experience reading for the first time over and over again. Highly recommend! Daniel Kraus is a force.

Daniel Kraus's Angel Down is a gripping blend of horror and historical fiction that ultimately leaves a lasting impression. The quick chapters build momentum, creating a sense of urgency that pulls you in, even if it takes a little while to fully engage with the story.

The unique structure, where every paragraph begins with "and" and relies solely on commas for punctuation, adds a chaotic and urgent feel to the narrative. This stylistic choice enhances the reading experience, immersing you in the unfolding chaos. By the end, I found myself completely enthralled, eager to see how it all would resolve.

Overall, Angel Down is a compelling read that showcases Kraus's innovative storytelling and ability to create an intense atmosphere. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC. All opinions are my own.

Warfront books always seem so much more brutal and emotional. This book really took that and upped it. The writing was beautiful and unique, and the atmosphere so vivid I felt it with all my senses. This was my first book by this author, but I will absolutely be looking for more.

Thank you for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Angel down is another strange, thought provoking, and wonderful reading experience by kraus. Set in ww1, the novel follows Cyril beggar, a grifter in the war. He and four of his fellow comrades are sent on a mission to euthanize a fallen soldier after hearing horrible shrieking coming from the battlefield. What they find however is not a soldier but what appears to be an angel trapped in barbed wire. Believing that she holds an answer to ending the war, the men are intent on rescuing her but they have to suppress their human desires and work together to find the answer they are seeking.

This is a strange journey and it is written in a stylistically different form as one long sentence. However, I know this may not be for everyone, and it did take me about the first third to really get into it but I loved it. I thought it was creative and different from many other books other there! I loved the premise and the deeper meaning on war, mortality, humanity, greed, etc. I read it in one day and would like to re read it again. Now that I have the flow of the prose choices he is making, I could probably pick up on the deeper questions and themes embedded.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Daniel Kraus continues to impress. I read the premise for his first novel and wondered how on earth he could sustain a narrative set inside a whale, and was shocked and delighted to find that Whalefall was masterfully done. Angel Down is similar in that it takes a strange premise and widens it to meditate on humanity, good and evil, and warfare. I loved it and especially relished Kraus’s delicious prose. I predict these will also be taught in classrooms one day—they are rich with thematic significance as well as entertaining.