The Angel Within

Rating:
Summary: Heart rending yet wonderful!
Review: I enjoy "The Angel Within" tremendously. The story is beautifully rendered and immensely moving, at times poignant. I love Sunnie and this lovely character certainly deserves more in life. "The Angel Within" is much more than a rommantic sci-fi fantasy. There is a harsh reality in it which sounds all too familiar in this world of ours when a society rejects and hates those who does not fit into its norms. Heart felt and deeply touching, Sunnie and his story will linger long in my memory. My only complaint is that it is too short and I am not able to find another story by Kracken.

Rating:
Summary: A pageturner in every way
Review: In the grande tradition of Ursela LeGuine, Kraken has created a whole new world that is fantastical and very familiar all at the same time. I managed to not only truly feel for these characters, but for some of them, I honestly felt conflicted about, something that I usaly only can feel about real people. THat story is a non stop emotional rollercoaster and I couldn't have been happier with it. I've already recommended this book to all my friends, and REALLY look foward to anything else by this author.

Rating:
Summary: A moving tale of cultural differences.
Review: Kracken is a wonderful writer as proven by the great number of stories she has written and posted on her site over the years. Her stories are some of the best out there and in some genera's, they surpass all others. Naturally, therefore, I had high hopes for her novel when I learned of there being one. I wasn't disappointed. Her novel, The Angel Within, is just as wonderful. Not only does she use wonderful description but the reader can get a very vivid mental image of the events told in the story as well as what the characters look like. Thorough her descriptive narrative, one is able to connect on a mental level with the main character, Sunnie, as well as others in the novel. The author also has an uncanny ability to get the reader to like certain characters and through the course of the book, can get one to hate them slowly overtime. This gradual transition is not something that many writers can accomplish in their novels. Through wonderful character development where one can really get to know the characters, development that makes them come alive and living forces all their own, and through wonderful description of mental and physical trauma that the main character has to go trough and overcome, this is definitely the best novel I have read in a good long time. And that is really saying something.
If there is something negative to say about the book it would be that the main character goes through a lot of hell before he is finally happy. Overcoming cultural differences is always hard. If they are ingrained in such a way where differences are beaten into the mind as a sin, then overcoming obstacles is even harder. The author does a wonderful job of narrating such a conflict that the main character must go through. And while at the end of the novel, he is not fully over the inhabitations he faces because of his past and upbringing, he makes a strong headway, leaving the reader knowing that everything will be fine at the end. This is also a novel that can hold it's own. One where the reader cannot put it down but will, after the book is over, not wonder if everything will be all right or not. Somehow one just knows everything will be fine in the end, although through the course of the story, one could begin to really wonder if there will be a happy ending for the character, Sunnie, or not. He certainly deserves one.
So, in short, this book is definitely one worth getting for all readers that look all over for a good story that will not let them down at the end. One that has wonderful description and narration; where the characters are more than just two dimensional text letters on a page, but ones that really feel real and alive. On getting this book, one will not be disappointed. It is definitely worth every penny.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: This book is as wonderful as her other fiction has been. I am very glad to have invested in this book.

This story is an insightful look into the human psyche, societal constraints and religion in our society. The story weaves a tale of love and passion interwoven with lies and deceit that is bound by the laws of God and the community.

Kracken's tale of the life of a young, abused boy, Sunnie, learning to be a man in an alien world, and adapting to the changes of a different society, is a mirror to this world, where people different from the norm have to escape or be persecuted by their communities. Sunnie has to take refuge in an alien society with a complete stranger, who tells him all the things he learned were sinful as a child are normal and acceptable. Sunnie is dependent on this new stranger who has turned his world upside-down, but has to learn to understand the world through his own eyes. The reader sees Sunnie's struggle to adapt his religious beliefs with the rest of his new society.

I hope that others enjoy this book as much as I have.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: This book is as wonderful as her other fiction has been. I am very glad to have invested in this book.

This story is an insightful look into the human psyche, societal constraints and religion in our society. The story weaves a tale of love and passion interwoven with lies and deceit that is bound by the laws of God and the community.

Kracken's tale of the life of a young, abused boy, Sunnie, learning to be a man in an alien world, and adapting to the changes of a different society, is a mirror to this world, where people different from the norm have to escape or be persecuted by their communities. Sunnie has to take refuge in an alien society with a complete stranger, who tells him all the things he learned were sinful as a child are normal and acceptable. Sunnie is dependent on this new stranger who has turned his world upside-down, but has to learn to understand the world through his own eyes. The reader sees Sunnie's struggle to adapt his religious beliefs with the rest of his new society.

I hope that others enjoy this book as much as I have.