ANGEL DOWN
by Daniel Krauss

Pub Date: July 29, 2025

During World War One, five down-on-their luck-American soldiers find an angel on a French battlefield. The angel could be the key to ending the war-- if the inner workings of the soldiers don't destroy everything.
*******************************
I was both frustrated and curious reading this,
and I had to adjust,
and I felt in the world, but completely outside of what was happening-- like everyone was speaking a language I didn't know,
and it was a disorienting trip,
and it didn't help that there were no sentence ends, only commas and a whole lot of conjunctions-- "and, and..." the book is told in one feverish runon, but it's not just a gimmick-- it makes sense-- its an endless flow of unraveling minds in the trenches.

It's a dark book. Very dark.
Graphic war-related descriptions.
I appreciated the stylistic risks, once I surrendered to them, and just went either the depressing flow.

Not since McCarthy's The Passenger/Stella Maris have I had such a challenging literary experience. This book is complex and tackles moral ambiguity, war, violence, brotherhood, religion, the human condition, brutality, survival etc

It's not an easy read, but the more it marinates, the more I appreciate the experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

Angel Down tells the story of five American soldiers who find an angel on a French battlefield during World War One.
This sounded fascinating but it might be one of the ugliest books I have ever forced myself to read.
The entire novel is written in a single sentence. (Yes, there is no punctuation besides commas!) I can only imagine the effort that went into accomplishing this feat, but I don't understand the point. Was the author just showing off? Why bother?
The main character, Cyrus Bagger, is a professional con artist, who continues to lie, cheat and steal from his fellow doughboys. The other four soldiers are either pathetic or monstrous. (One of them actually plans to steal the angel and exhibit her in a side show!)
All of this might be tolerable if the reader were not forced to deal with filth on every page. The expletives are bad enough (I don't mind a little creative cursing in context) but the entire book is loaded with repetitive and graphically detailed descriptions of both excrement and ordure. Yes, I get it, war is hell, but three hundred pages of unrelieved mud, blood, pus, rot, exploded internal organs, decayed teeth, burned flesh, and the even more disgusting behavior of human beings overcame any admiration I might have felt for the author's writing skill. (I gave this book two stars instead of one because Daniel Kraus IS a skillful writer, but I will never read anything else by him again.)
I would like to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for granting me access to a free advance reading copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Daniel Kraus has done something absolutely unique, this writing style that was like one run-on sentence, as well as, the ultra descriptive words used to depict this gritty harsh world of war. It was different, and something I had to adjust too, however the story being told was also great and had me wanting to push through all the words to understand what was happening.

I found myself at a crossroads with this story, I thought the plot and characters were interesting and I wanted to continue to get to the bottom of this shrieking women. The writing style, which I did like in the beginning— felt like a lot of words and I found my eyes drifting cause there was never a break in the text. The large words and numerous amounts of list was just overload at sometimes, I had to put the book down for breaks a lot, but then pick it back cause I was interested in the story. It was this back and forth.

To conclude, A solid interesting story using very unique literary devices to tell this gritty war tale!

and so I finished reading Angel Down - a dark and depressing story set in the trenches of warfare where our main characters, a hodge podge group of down on their luck soldiers, come upon an actual literal angel in the center of the battlefield

and chaos ensues with men fighting over the right to claim her as their own, which obviously adds even more discord to the conflict of war

and Daniel Kraus really goes all in with the gore and grit of life in the trenches - trench warfare sounds like an absolute nightmare to me - with body parts, mud, infighting, and overall bloodshed, this book doesn't hold back it's punches

and if every paragraph being started with "and" is driving you crazy, well that's the whole novel, which I actually really enjoyed because it was such an off the wall writing style choice

and I can feel it in my bones that Angel Down is going to be one of those books where people are split down the middle in either team love it or hate it

and I freaking loved it - hands down this was such a gruesome and engrossing story that kept me invested until the very end!

gorgeous book! daring to write it all as just one thought/sentence (for like.. 200-300 pages?) and it worked really well! it feels super introspective even while the setting is so not introspective. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Daniel Kraus's 'Angel Down' is a brutal, hallucinatory plunge into the trenches of World War I - and one of the most stylistically daring novels I've read in years. Told in a single, breathless sentence that spans the length of the book, it reads like a fever dream, a prayer, a scream, all at once.

The story follows five American privates sent into No Man's Land to carry out a grim task: euthanize a wounded soldier stranded between the lines. But instead of death, they find something unexplainable - a winged being, possibly an angel, alive among the corpses. What begins as a rescue mission descends into a test of faith, loyalty, and madness as the men argue over what this creature is and what to do with it. The presence of the divine - or the merely inexplicable - becomes a spark that ignites every hidden tension between them.

The book's most obvious hallmark is its form: every paragraph begins with "and," building a relentless rhythm that mirrors the chaos of war and the erosion of reason. At first, this style is disorienting. But once you surrender to its momentum, it becomes strangely immersive - like being swept downriver in a current of blood, smoke, and doubt. Kraus's language is vivid, sometimes grotesque, often beautiful. He doesn't flinch from the horrors of war, nor does he offer easy redemption.

What impressed me most was how the novel uses its experimental form not as a gimmick, but as a vessel for meaning. The unbroken sentence underscores the soldiers' psychological unraveling and the inescapability of violence. There's no pause, no relief, no easy moral. Just a steady march toward an unknowable end.

'Angel Down' is not for every reader. It's challenging by design - stylistically intense, emotionally draining, and morally ambiguous. But for those willing to take the plunge, it's a profound and unforgettable experience. A war novel like no other, it explores belief, cruelty, and the human urge to make meaning out of senselessness. Think 'The Things They Carried' meets 'Annihilation' by way of Faulkner.

Angel Down is brutal, beautiful, and unlike anything I’ve read in a long time. Daniel Kraus doesn’t just tell a story—he digs under your skin and unearths something raw and feral. This book is part mystery, part survival story, part unflinching look at the darkness that can grow in isolation—and I couldn’t put it down.

From the start, there’s a deep unease that builds like storm pressure. The setting is desolate and dangerous, and the characters feel just as wild and unpredictable as the landscape around them. Kraus excels at writing people on the edge—of society, of morality, of collapse—and here, he turns that edge into a razor.

What hit me hardest was the emotional core. Beneath the grit and grime is a devastating exploration of belief, trauma, and the desperate need to be seen—even if it means tearing yourself apart to do it. There’s something deeply mythic and disturbingly intimate about the story, like it’s echoing from a cave in the back of your mind.

Angel Down is not a comfortable read, but it’s a necessary one. It’s violent and tender, bleak and strangely hopeful. If you like your fiction dark, lyrical, and layered with meaning, this one will haunt you long after the final page.

When I first started reading, the format threw me for a loop. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I should have never doubted Mr Kraus. In hindsight, the format makes complete sense and only adds to the essence of the story. As someone who has grown up and lives my adulthood surrounded by military members, this was extra brutal. The military industrial complex haunts me and now it will even more. The relationship between Cyril and Arno was so on point to real life, I got a knot in my throat imagining where it could go. It’s hard for me to discuss much about this book without spoiling the entire essence of it. This is brutal, gnarly, and intense. Reading Angel Down feels like holding your breath underwater, frantically searching but unable to find the surface. Unfortunately this is very timely and really makes one stop and actually think about war.

This was truly such a unique reading experience. It's an entire run on sentence, with each paragraph starting with and... It's chaotic, rambling, funny, dark, and satirical. There's commentary on war, violence, religion, self-preservation, nihilism, luck/fate, and community/brotherhood. This would make such a good "artsy" indie film. But this was also unexpectedly wholesome and thought-provoking. I did, in fact, cry at the end.

It reminded me, setting wise, of All Quiet on the Western Front and, tone wise, of Fight Club.

I'm not sure who I would recommend this to. It's historical, and about war, but it doesn't feel like typical historical fiction. If you're a fan of the weird/alternative fiction, maybe you'd like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy for review.

“but a nagging voice insists it’s a miracle, which only pisses him off, he’ll be goddamned if he’s going to start believing in miracles here in hell”

There's a part of me that will always believe that Daniel Kraus heard the Lady Gaga song "Angel Down" and was inspired by Mother Monster to write this book. She is the most powerful muse of all. I have zero evidence to back this up, but it's my own personal canon. 

I was hesitant to take this one on, both because of the format and the subject matter. I typically don't read books or watch films about war. (I do play a lot of Fallout, which is about the aftermath. And as the games wisely say, "War never changes.") This novel is also one big long sentence, and I expected that to be monotonous. Though that whole thing is admittedly a bit of a cheat, as there are plenty of complete statements throughout that are simply left as run-on sentences instead and separated by commas. I figured I would be annoyed pretty quickly by the gimmick of every paragraph beginning with “and,” so color me surprised when it turned out to not be that tough. I also liked the abundance of white space, which made this easy to pick up and put down whenever I needed a break. The more I read, the more I got into the flow of the action and after a while I didn't even notice all the "and's." This turned out to be a bit of a challenge in the same way that reading Stephen Graham Jones' "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" was a challenge, and both books were absolutely worth the effort.

The best part of this reading experience was the wildly vivid violence and imagery I haven’t seen elsewhere, such as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sentence in which a stoat is hauling around a human digestive system. (Subtle warning that there is gore.) Kraus's use of Magical Realism is skillful, and everything from his depiction of the Angel herself to the creepy and tragic shit that happens in her wake absolutely won me over. I don't know if everyone would call this a Horror novel, but I definitely would. Kraus has a way with prose and description that I admire. There’s a bit of the father/son relationship theme in here as an echo, reminding me of “Whalefall.” If this became a movie I think it would be directed by Alex Garland. It would be visceral, gross, bloody and upsetting but with gorgeous imagery.

I liked the friendship between Bagger and Arno. Though Bagger himself is not necessarily a great guy. It’s tough to root for a protagonist who’s racist and manipulative and frankly not as bright as he likes to think he is. Yet some of the best moments in the story were when I as the reader was alone with Bagger (and perhaps the Angel.) Example: When he’s carrying her through the aftermath of a massacre and playing a game with himself where every time he sees something horrifying he immediately tries to picture something nice instead. And I will say this for him: the guy is very resilient. 

Ultimately, some of the symbolism, (such as that men will always choose to weaponize religion for their own gain), was a bit on the nose. But there were more nuanced moments throughout as well, both magical and horrific. A strong stomach is needed for this book in order to wade through the viscera of war, but you will be properly rewarded with a story like nothing you've read before. I really liked "Whalefall" and now "Angel Down" was a delightful surprise for this reader of weird, dark fiction. I'm looking forward to whatever Daniel Kraus comes up with next!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to the Publisher for offering me this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

Biggest TW: Racist language/Racism, Graphic gore, Graphic animal death, Mention of SA

This is not a book for the “I don’t read to make me smarter” crowd.

This is not a book for those who are easily offended by body horror or war stories.

This is not a book for people who are OCD about grammar.

This is a book that will change your brain chemistry and create new pathways for empathy that you didn’t realize you were lacking. It will make you question your own morality and your own perspective on an individuals worth.

It is philosophical, and filled with foreshadowing and complex themes. The characters are incredibly deep, multifaceted and I’m still not sure if I like or dislike them. It’s a genius interpretation on the human condition that ties together current affairs with historical narration.

It’s so complex and layered that I don’t think I can even tell you what it’s about without risking spoiling something.

I’d recommend this to anyone who isn’t afraid of fiction that requires you to think I was blown away and that doesn’t happen often .

That may have been the longest sentence I’ve ever read. In fact, I'm sure of it! Have you ever read an entire book that consisted of one sentence? No? Me either. Daniel Kraus somehow pulled this off whilst creating an appalling, atmospheric, novel of the Great War. I loved it!

When private Bagger is dispatched from his semi-safe bunker to silence, (by whatever means necessary), whoever it is that won't stop screaming on the battlefied, he discovers not a wounded soldier, but instead a wounded angel,

and one might think the soldier's trouble is over in life, but that is not the case, because the angel isn't screaming anymore and she emits a light, a light that makes her a target on the battlefield, which makes it difficult to protect her,

and everyone wants to feel that light, right, I mean who wouldn't want to marinate in the light of an angel, especially in a war zone, but it falls to Bagger to protect her, not only from his fellow soldiers, but from himself,

and I have to admit that stories about WWI or any war for that matter, just aren't my thing; I mean I have a few stories set during wartime that I love, but it's not something I would actively seek out, but I WILL seek out anything Daniel Kraus writes, because I think his work is amazing,

and this book is no exception, and the experimental device of writing the entire book in one long sentence-I think it was daring and it certainly must have been challenging, but no matter how it was written, the narrative itself sucked me in...the idea of a fallen angel on the battlefield leads to all kinds of questions, like how did she come to be there and angels can be injured,

and why wouldn't she stop the war if she was an angel, but maybe she does right, because you haven't read this book yet and it would be wrong of me to ruin it for you, but I do think that Daniel Kraus has written a winner here and if you want to find out what happens, you're going to have to read this book,

and I think you should, because I doubt you've ever read anything like it before, and nothing like it may ever be written again and because of this, I give Angel Down my highest recommendation, period.

*ARC from publisher

4.5/5

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This fish takes the bait and runs the reel down to the very end. Almost pulls the rod right out of your hands but knows where it can swim and where it can’t. It gonna make you a better fisherman by the time it comes to shore.

The formatting takes some getting used to. It’s like a prolonged asthma attack (thoughts and prayers to whoever narrates the audiobook). It brings you down into the muck and rubs your face into the viscera until you forget to be disgusted much like our comrade Cyril Bagger.

War is accordions from micro to macro and back and forth allowing us to see the individual tragedies and the whole god damn uselessness of the whole god damn cosmic charade.

This one wasn't for me. I blame myself. It was just one long run on sentence and it constantly used and..and ..and

Quick very high level summary.
Its WW1 and a comrade is mortally wounded in No Man’s Land. 5 soldiers are sent after him for a mercy killing. Instead they find a fallen angel.

My Take.
Right off I noticed and was a little taken back by the unconventional structure and prose of the novel. It felt quick, fast and chaotic. But as the story unfolds the structure makes more sense and only adds to the feeling of trauma and dark pandemonium of war. So if you have a run on sentence issue or need strict grammatical structure this may not be the book for you. But you will be missing out on an amazing read.

There is so much in this story from heavy themes and vivid descriptions of the brutality and gore of war. Themes are the physical and psychological brutality of war. How war changes you mentally, selfishness, cowardice, hatred and homicidal. The arrival of the angel gives us good vs evil and questions of morality. Providing hope of redemption despite the absolute bleakness and devastation that surrounds you. Overall this story is immersive and haunting. A must read.

Cyril Bagger is a conman who spends more time swindling his fellow privates with loaded dice and cut cards than fighting in the trenches. When he and four other soldiers are assigned to take care of the source of an ear-piercing shriek, they expect it to be a suicide mission for the unit's least valuable soldiers. Instead, they discover an angel trapped on barbed wire, who is capable of granting small miracles for the men. They find themselves overcome by the desire to keep her, which leads to betrayal and violence among the group.

'Angel Down' is an interesting and realistically gruesome story about World War I, written in one continuous sentence. It's an interesting choice, and it certainly gives the novel a fast, unrelenting war-like pace. It's an acquired taste, and while it worked for me, I did have trouble with picking the book back up again whenever I had to put it down, and I'd find myself reading the same paragraphs over and over again if someone distracted me while I was reading. There are some 'cheats' to the one sentence rule, such as any bit of dialogue, but like a whip pan in a single take, it keeps the illusion.

If 'Angel Down' was published in 1925, it'd be hailed as a great American wartime novel, with its stream-of-consciousness writing style. Unfortunately, as a 2025 release, I found myself grimacing at some of the writing decisions. No, I'm not expecting WWI soldiers to look like my queer TTRPG meetups, but I expect more sensitivity towards people with birth defects than describing their abnormal limbs with the same disgust used for describing battle-mangled corpses. The angel spends most of her appearances as a MacGuffin rather than a character--a silent ingenue who can't walk or dress herself who is desired by every man who sees her, gets kidnapped at least three times, and is almost sexually assaulted before our hero rushes in. There's obviously some otherworldly things going on with her, but with how long she spends the novel being an object that the main characters are pursuing, the more interesting things about her come too late.

It's still a worthwhile read, and Bagger's inner monologue does have some great funny moments (the 'try to think about anything else in the world' game got a few smiles out of me), but I found myself liking it more before the character of the angel was introduced. The historical drama was miserable and gross but really showed how unappealing war is, especially towards those on the front lines and in the trenches. Ultimately, though, this was not the book for me.

I couldn’t put down this book down once I started. The way he transforms WWI trenches into a moral battleground felt even more dangerous than the war itself. What grabbed me immediately was the unusual writing style—these broken sentences hit like shells exploding around you, and the choppy paragraphs actually made me feel the fractured landscape. It wasn’t just a stylistic choice that looked cool on the page; it pulled me right into how war tears apart both bodies and minds.

I found myself completely drawn to Cyril Bagger—not because he’s likable (he’s definitely not), but because he’s such a complicated anti-hero. He was a reluctant soldier who’s basically conning everyone around him just to stay alive. Krauss doesn’t give him some neat redemption arc which made him compelling. When Bagger and the other soldiers stumble upon ta fallen angel in No Man’s Land, his reactions kept surprising me. I particularly loved watching his relationship with the fourteen-year-old soldier develop, creating this internal struggle that felt so much more real than the battles around them.

The angel itself? Pure genius as both plot device and symbol. Instead of bringing divine salvation like you’d expect, this celestial being becomes a mirror showing each soldier their darkest self. I loved how Krauss flips religious imagery on its head—the angel doesn’t make these men better; it just amplifies what was already lurking inside them.

I’m still thinking about the big questions this book raised weeks after finishing it. How much of our humanity can we hold onto when survival requires moral compromise? The book doesn’t hand out easy answers, and that’s exactly why it’s stuck with me.

Special thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing the advance review copy, though all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

I loved Whalefall a couple of years ago, so I was very excited to read this author next new release.
I had high expectations, and unfortunately, they weren't met.
Honestly, the biggest reason why I loved this authors previous book so much was the drama, the human drama between a son and his missing father. The horror or she sci-fi elements were just a bonus for my enjoyment of that book.
In this case, Angel Down failed to impress me in every way. I wasn't impressed by the setting or the sci-fi elements, and the human interactions didn't appeal to my personal taste. I didn't care for any of the characters or how the story would unfold till the end.
Thay's a huge bummer, but maybe it is just me. Other readers might love this book, and that's all right.
Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for providing me with the ARC.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Angel Down, by Daniel Kraus, from Atria Books/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

Here we are, yet again, with me having only myself to blame…..

I should’ve looked up this author on my Goodreads account before requesting this advance review copy. Because I did not, I therefore did not remember that I gave his book Whalefall 1 star and a less-than-glowing review.

Even worse, I got this book thinking, “Hmm, I don’t think I really cared for Whalefall, but maybe this one will be better?”

Nope, nope, nope-ity nope. WORSE. Much, much worse.

So much worse, in fact, I didn’t even make it to p59 of the electronic copy before I gave up. (If you’re new here, please know that I follow my friend F’s good guidance: If a book hasn’t grabbed you by the time you reach the page number of your age, put it down and go on with your life.)

Oh, but wait. It gets worse/I get dumber.

I picked the book back up this afternoon, thinking, well, maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind to read it yesterday. Started skimming through.

Why, Kristi, why? TRUST YOUR PREVIOUS SELF, DAMMIT.

Anyway. Didn’t like the writing style, didn’t like the content, don’t ever need to read anything by this fellow again, even if it’s just the copy on the back of a shampoo bottle.

That said, I’m sure a lot of people will really love this book. And good for them. That’s what the world’s about, freedom to read what you love.

Amongst other things.

Description
The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.

Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.

What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. 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, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.

Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.

In honor of how much I enjoyed this novel (enjoy might be a stretch, given the existential spiral it sent me into), I’ll be writing this review in the style of this novel. Enjoy!

and this is the story of Cyril Bagger, a grave-digging con man with no love for God, country, or glory, just trying to survive the Great War by doing the least, until he’s sent into No Man’s Land with four other losers from the 43rd, not to fight but to euthanize a fallen soldier, except the body they find is not human, it is a woman lit from within, a haloed thing that might be an angel,

and she starts granting little miracles, and the men start unraveling except for Bagger, who thought he’d already buried his morals with the dead, but starts to change or maybe remember who he used to be,

and the writing is a sermon, a war story, a fever-dream confession of rot and yearning, of faith twisted by blood and belief, with syntax that drones like a priest, drones like artillery, drones until it blurs into one long desperate prayer,

and by the end you’re not sure if the angel came to save them or reveal them,

and,

and,

and,