Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

Angel Eyes is about young ballet dancer Brielle, returning home after the alleged murder of her best friend Ali by Marco (Ali's boyfriend). Depressed and cold (physically and mentally) Brielle has a hard time adjusting back into her old life, especially after meeting hot (don't worry, only his hands are hot) boy Jake, who may have more connection to her past than she first realizes.

Angel Eyes isn't a long book, and yet I was unable to finish it. I listened to it on audiobook, and it seemed like it just kept going on and on. The writing is elementary and repetitive, and the storyline is slow, adding to the laborious listen. The point of view switches between Brielle, Damian and Kanin, the latter two being angels. The switches are confusing and unnecessary. They add a lot of length to the book which it could do without. The story probably would have been better with just Brielle's point of view.

There were a lot of factor which added length to this book when it shouldn't have. 1. The point of view switches which as I said before didn't add anything to the story. 2. The long internal monologues. Brielle and both the angels spend a lot of time mulling things over in their heads, and it ends up taking way to long. As a listener of this book I found my mind wandering a lot, and when I realized I hadn't been paying attention it was sad because I hadn't actually missed anything. 3. The descriptions of the celestial are long and confusing. The idea is definitely there for this to be very cool, but the writing just isn't the caliber necessary to pull it off. The descriptions are complicated and almost vague, though detailed. It's a paradox that I just can't figure out. The author was clearly trying to convey this deep meaning about fear and how it's so difficult to get over because Brielle can see how it clings to people and multiplies like black tar blah blah blah. But she is clearly trying way too hard, and her elementary writing style just doesn't pull it off. The overall confusion of the entire book makes the storyline much too long and for listeners it just doesn't hold your attention.

Another issue is that the audiotape was divided into 8 sections, all about an hour and twenty minutes long. The first week of the book takes place in the first 5, and the last 3 are about one afternoon. As you can imagine this makes the story feel very awkward. There is no emotional connection to the story, so this long climax does nothing to you.

There is no romance between Jake and Brielle. Their conversations are awkward if they're personal, or one of them goes off on a long rant and the other just sits there listening. For example Brielle telling Jake about her "dark past" or Jake explaining everything about the world of angels to her. The explanations are long, and Jake does a horrible job, so it's no wonder Brielle is so confused the whole time!

Finally, the finale is long and boring. The descriptions are far too long to be reasonable, and half the characters you have no idea who they are. The action is stunted and badly composed. The dialogue during the fighting is worst of all. There's either a really long and basic description of the movements with no mention of sound whatsoever, or there's only talking and you imagine the characters just standing there.

Dittemore needs to go back to writing basics and review how to incorporate the 5 senses into writing to allow the reader to connect more fully with the plot and the characters. I could not finish this book, I will not finish it, and I do not recommend it. I'm giving it two stars because I liked the beginning, but it just went downhill from there.

Two Stars

Rosalie Williams

Angel Eyes on Goodreads