REVIEW: Angel's Fury by Bryony Pearce

Angel's Fury by Bryony Pearce felt very different to everything I've been reading lately. There were parts to it that were quite difficult to read with some dark and almost menacing aspects to the storyline, but it was also really easy to fall into the story and empathise with the characters.

Cassie has an unusual problem. Every night, she is plagued with nightmares. For as long as she can remember, Cassie has witnessed the death of a young Jewish girl, Zillah, in Germany during WWII. Cassie sees and feels everything about Zillah's tragic death and despite everything she has tried, Cassie can not rid of herself of seeing this poor girl's face.

It can be quite hard reading of some of Cassie's experiences, both with the exhaustion she feels after getting very little sleep due to nightmares, but also the treatment she recieves from classmates. She's picked on quite a bit for being different and you can sense the isolation that Cassie feels. After a school trip to Germany confirms that the nightmares about Zillah were in fact historically accurate, Cassie begins to feel like perhaps there's a message hidden in the nightmares. Maybe by helping Zillah in some small way, Cassie will be cured of her night terrors. But it isn't quite that simple.

Instead, Cassie is sent to get help from a rather terrifying and quite strict doctor who specialised in the treatment of patients with past lives, where she comes into contact with other exhausted children and teenagers who share the same predicament. What Cassie learns there is both terrifying and disturbing.

Angel's Fury really had me gripped right from the beginning. Once I started, I was loathe to put this book down, so eager was I to learn of the mystery that surrounds Cassie's dreams. I haven't included the product description in this interview, because I feel it to be slightly spoilerish, so if it's possible, I'd recommend not reading the back of the book! Having said that, there are other mysteries to solve and though the clues are there, I didn't pick up on on them at all until it is revealed to Cassie! I absolutely adore books that are able to surprise me so completely as Angel's Fury did.

Angel's Fury is a wonderful read. It's an interesting premise - that the knowledge of previous lives is not a positive thing at all, but something that is quite destructive and difficult to live with. I felt quite sorry for Cassie, being in such a terrible position, both physically and socially. During the course of the book, she meets some really interesting characters and some of the psychological treatment from the Doctor are really fascinating to witness.

Though romance is not a major factor of the storyline, there is still a very sweet and subtle love interest that was present and complicated enough to make me very happy. My only minor complaint with Angel's Fury is that I kind of wish that the elements that are present at the end were a little more apparent in the beginning and middle of the book as well. Otherwise, top read!