Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton
My rating: 2.5 of 5 genies
Genre: YA, Paranormal Fiction, Romance
Published: February 15, 2011
Pages: 453
Publisher: HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Library Loan
Format: Paperback

Goodreads Summary

First there are nightmares.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

Then come the memories.
When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

Now she must hunt.
Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember.

My Thoughts

I decided to do something interesting with this review and have an interview-type questionnaire regarding this book and my experience with it and its characters. This way, I get down to the gritty without really beating around the bush. You like? Proceed!

Q: What did you make of Angelfire as a whole, did it meet or surpass your expectations?

A: Well, in some cases it really did see to my expectations and I really couldn't find much to complain about. Sure, the plot was a little elementary - I saw some things coming from a mile away - but otherwise, it was alright.

Q: Biggest like of the book as a whole...Go!

A: Will! Will was very nice and at some instances he was the only thing making sense. When Ellie was being kind of a pain, I looked to Will.

Q: Any big issues with the book? What do you dislike about Ellie?

A: I hated the lack of choice, I mean, why does Ellie have to do it; why does one immature teen get the charge of saving the world from eternal damnation? I was very starved for choice. There should have been someone else, a wild card; Will should have had some hand in the life-saving other than just being there for Ellie. The boy was a lot more than an emotional crutch and his potential just wasn't met.

I think I kind of let my problem with Ellie out of the bag with the statement above. I disliked that she was really whiny at times and didn't fully grasp the role she played. See, this is what went down between her and Will every time he told her to practise harder on her heroism:

Will: Ellie, practise is tonight, don't miss it.

Ellie:'Oh noes, but Will, I missed movie night for the 3rd time this month because I was practising.

Will: You do understand that people die while you're away chomping down on those maynards and caramel corn, right?

Ellie: Just get someone else to do it, I gotta hang with the group. Any more cancelled dates and they'll, like, dump me from the crew!

Will: And this is more prevalent than someone's state of eternity, how?

Ellie: Ugh. Will, you just don't get it. I care about those people...sort of. Ooh, is that Marc Jacobs's new fall design?!
Gimme.

See? It was hard not to cringe a little, she could be airheaded at times.

Q: If you could change one thing about this book, what would it be?

A: The progression of the story. At times, the action dragged, like, it would take 2-3 chapters for the story to pick up again, which was kind of ridiculous. I would also change the cover, because Ellie is really nothing like the 30 something cover model. She's supposed to be bubbly, beautiful and popular. The girl in the picture gives off the impression of staidness and long nights spent reading in cemeteries; I guess she has friends, if latent spirits from another world count.

Q: Why 2.5 out of 5 stars, what made you rate the book this way?

A: Like I mentioned, the predictability could have been helped and character development kind of lacked. It went from Ellie being this clueless teenager to suddenly a saviour struggling to put back the pieces of her previous lives, because she's been reincarnated before, without so much as an appropriate enough explanation. The character development was unrealistic, and then there was the whole issue with her not taking her duties so seriously. To be honest, Will was kind of dry too, this is why I can't really fangirl about him, but the way I see it, he was better than Ellie even then. I don't hate the girl, but she needs work. Just putting it out there, things were wrapped up poorly in the end, I wasn't impressed with the interpretation of who Ellie really is, let's just say, Gabriel and I are not pleased.

Q: It's been great talk, thank-you for chatting with us. Any closing words, recommendations to those still on the fence about Angelfire?

A: I guess the only thing I can say is, read the book if you're interested. If you see it and think, 'hey, why not?' I'd give it a try just out of curiosity's sake. It isn't a bad book, and Ellie could be sweet at times; she wasn't all bad, and having Will around didn't hurt!

2.5/5 genies: This novel had its perks, I wouldn't read it again, but it was an okay read.