Danielle Trussoni

a novel

Angelology

Caitlin Hooker

Lacy W

This is probably more of a 3.5. It would super awesome if Goodreads would invest in the half star system but they are too afraid of people not reviewing. Because that makes a whole lot of sense. *insert eye roll emoji here* 

Onto the actually book review. I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I think to myself am I cut out to read NA? And then I think hmmm, I'm 24 years old. I should probably at least try . So that's what I did with this book. I went to the adult section of the library, saw it had something to do with angels and put it in my bag. 

This really was a cool book. I have always had a fascination with religions and their icons. Ever since  The Da Vinci Code, I've been trying to find that same exhilaration to learn. This book was stuffed to the gills with information. I mean just jammed packed but it also managed to have a plot. I'll try and break it down for you so it sounds more interesting. 

We have Evangeline. She is a nun at a convent. Her mother was killed and her father dropped her off there under the pretense that he couldn't care for her in the way she needed too. This is gone more into depth but I won't talk about it because spoilers. We also have Verlaine, who is hired by Percival (another main character) under the pretense of buying some art. Evangeline soon learns that the world is not as black and white as she once thought and that the safety she had known living in the convent would soon be shattered...in more ways than one.

This book is all about angel lore and it specifically talks about the Nephilim. I will give a history about them from the book and I'm not going to count it as a spoiler because you learn about it within the first few pages. 

Basically, in the beginning (if you believe in Creationism), there were angels called Watchers. They watched, essentially, the humans that God had created. Well, after some time, they decided that they wanted wives so, against the rules, they took human wives. Those wives had children that were part angel/part human. The Watchers taught their babies everything angel. 

Well, God found out and didn't like that. So he sent his archangels (Michael, Gabriel, etc.) to take care of the Watchers. They threw them in a pit and left them there but for some reason they didn't take of the Nephilim. So long story short, they were able to repopulate and now there are hundreds of half angel/half humans running around and causing a lot of issues. 

The book title, Angelology, is the study of angels. They are a group, kind of like the Illuminati in that nobody really knows what they do. They tasked themselves with learning everything angel and ways to destroy the Nephilim. 

It sounds wicked cool right? Well it was. It was just that you had to get through soooooo much information to get there. That was the reason for the 3.5 instead of 4. If they had been able to condense it down and perhaps give it in a more easily digestible way, I would have given it 4 stars. The author almost expects you to have extensive knowledge on angels. I have read almost all of the Bible, so I was able to grasp quite a bit along with the help of Supernatural. I do recommend this book but be prepared for information overload.

When Sister Evangeline of the St Rose Convent stumbles across a mysterious correspondence with Abigail Rockefeller in the archive, it reveals that angels once walked among us ... and might still. This discovery plunges Evangeline into the hidden and dangerous world of the Angelologists - a secret society that battles to prevent the ascendancy of the Nephilim, the angels' descendants on Earth. Evangeline becomes the catalyst in a race to hunt down powerful and ancient artefacts that can be used to enslave humankind. And not only is the key to finding those artefacts within her grasp - but also a secret about her own past and its links to the Angelologists. Possession of either could cost Evangeline her life . . .

Sian Wadey

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Although I've given this book two, it's more two point five, but I was so disappointed that I thought I round down rather than up.
I was recommended this book by my Aunt, who is usually a genius when it comes to giving me good books but with this one, it got worse as it went along. It recovered itself a little bit at the end, but when I was reading a book, within a flashback, I was ready to give up!
The first problem with this book, is that Trussoni cramms as many long, intelligent words she can in each sentence. It's as if she's showing off her vocabulary, but really it's completely unnecessary and it makes it harder to read.
When I started I thought it was going to go well. I liked the characters of Evangeline and Verlaine and I was intirigued by the mysterious letters. However it went back sixty odd years, in the mind of a senior nun Celestine. That's when it lost me. What could have been done as several conversations took up the middle of the story and what made it worse was that the interesting bits (like the expedition to get the lyre) were shorter than the boring 'talky' bits. Then I found I was reading a translation by one of the characters! That was unnecessary as well! It could have been shortened, or it could have just been the paragraphs that were essential to the plot. In fact, the whole flashback could have been a separate book, and I wish it was. 
When we came back to modern times, it did get better. We were back on track, even if the way the characters spoke was a little iffy. Trussoni also introduced a load of characters that weren't needed and just complicated things as I tried to remember what everyone looked like. 
I will admit, I was surprised by the end, but the journey, wasn't really worth it!

Emmett

What I loved most about this novel were not so much furtherances in the plot as the amount of detailing in the fantastical atmospheric pillars of the book. Angelology was accorded some fascinating quasi-scientific explanations; I really liked how much development was devoted to explaining the (her fictive) nature of angels, grounding their various attributes in rational explanations e.g. electromagnetic waves as an explanation for their luminosity. It is quite unlike any book about angels I have read in a while. Looking forward to instances in which the novel explores its context was more interesting, unfortunately, than the plot itself, which proved fairly predictable and bland -- though I grant Trussoni's often poetic turns-of-phrase partly salvages the situation. If this has been rooted more strongly in the SF/fantasy genre than its plot dictated it should in the realm of thriller paperbacks, perhaps, given Trussoni's admirable efforts in developing this world of hers, it would've claimed greater merits.

Sara Gaspar Farinha

Angelologia de Danielle Trussoni
Confesso que demorei alguns meses a ler este livro (o que por si só é indicativo de algo). Um romance passado em várias épocas distintas: presente, antes e durante a 2ª Grande Guerra e ainda nos meados do ano 925 d.C. 
A pesquisa efectuada para este livro é inegável e valeu-lhe alguns pontos na minha consideração (e impediu-me de desistir a meio). Os personagens, apesar de cativantes, perdem-se no meio de tantas histórias paralelas e de tanta informação irrelevante. 
O ritmo da história fica seriamente comprometido quando a autora decide incluir os Apontamentos da Primeira Expedição Angelológica. OK, é importante saber algumas daquelas coisas e compreender o contexto de outras, abordadas noutras partes da história. Mas torna-se extremamente aborrecido ser obrigada a dar atenção a factos e ficções que posteriormente não contribuem em nada para o desenrolar da história.
Gostei do final. Fui surpreendida pelo volte-face dos acontecimentos que deixam antever um segundo livro. E aí terei de considerar se aguento uma sequela desta envergadura.
É um belo trabalho descritivo. A beleza que as palavras nos transmitem, descreva seres ignóbeis ou paisagens, igrejas ou livros, é inegável. E isso valeu a Angelologia mais uns dias da minha atenção.
Pouco consistentes pareceram-me os estudos da Angelologia, maioritariamente baseados em conceitos cristãos, assim como a influência dos Nefilins nos eventos mundialmente catastróficos. Como se tudo o que pudesse ser estudado sobre Anjos viesse quase exclusivamente dos mitos cristãos, e os que não vinham daí não eram desenvolvidos mas mencionados.
Outra questão é a envolvência da história. Muitos autores falam de mundos paralelos, que coexistem com a realidade diária, e na maioria dos casos a nossa imaginação consegue abarcar esse conceito de “escondido apesar de estar à vista de todos”. Também aí Danielle Trussoni foi descuidada. A forma como apresentou a movimentação dos personagens, que no caso dos Nefilins dificilmente passariam despercebidos na rua, mostra algumas falhas para aqueles que gostam de acreditar no que lêem.
E como atribuir estrelas tem muito que se lhe diga, vou compartimentar:
4* em pesquisa
4* na beleza da escrita
3* em novidades
2* no desenvolvimento da história
3* nas personagens

Having entered a convent at a young age, Sister Evangeline discovers a letter from famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller that reveals an ancient conflict between an angel society Evangeline is destined to join and the human descendants of the Nephilim. By the author of Falling Through the Earth. Reprint. A best-selling novel. 250,000 first printing.

Jessica Nottingham

I'll admit that Angelology took me about a hundred pages to really get into. I'd liken the writing style to reading a classic, since there is ample use of descriptive language and the plot is slightly slow. It does build up however, and by the time I reached the middle of the book I was pretty well invested in the characters. This is a book that you really have to devote some time to, but in the end it is definitely worth it.

Danielle Trussoni has presented a beautiful book for readers that, as I said before, I would like to a modern classic.. The plot is clever, and the writing is well executed. The prose that exists on these pages is flowing, and descriptive. Trussoni knows how to weave an entire picture out of nothing but words. While I was reading I felt as though I could close my eyes and be directly transported into the story. The descriptions of the heavenly bodies themselves made me slightly shiver in anticipation of maybe someday seeing one. Angelology tackles some heavy themes and does so with grace and style.

The one problem with all this descriptive language is that it does become rather heavy after a while. The reader is presented with so many details at times that it is sensory overload and there were portions of the book that, to me, felt a bit unnecessary to the overall plot. The story would be moving along at a slow but manageable pace, when all of the sudden a chapter wrought with action would be thrown in. Of course these chapters were my favorite. Who doesn't want to see the battle of good vs. evil? However right when I was invested in the battle, the plot line would go back to being slow. I suppose I kind of felt the whole time like I was a yo-yo. Angelology does have its fantastic parts, but the overall story might be a little slow for people who need to feel immersed in what they read.

One thing I can definitely say is that those of you who are character driven readers will rejoice in Trussoni's style of writing. Her characters are extremely well fleshed out and I honestly came to understand, love, and obviously sometimes despise, each of them in their own way. The benefit of this book being so detail heavy is that you really do get a full picture of those who you are reading about. I was honestly heartbroken when my favorite character was killed.

I think Angelology is one of those books that you need to go into with an open mind. It isn't like anything else that is out there right now, but that is honestly a good thing in my opinion. If you're expecting an action filled read, you might be slightly disappointed. However if you go in looking for a well written storyline, fantastic character development and a peek into the battle of good vs. evil, you're in for a treat.

Francesca

Notmelol

Chiara Carbone

George

Anna Ureta

Maggie Gordon

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Genesis 6:5 Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim. For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria. Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

Angelology a novel

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