Teen Review: Immortal City

Immortal City (Immortal City #1) by Scott Speer
Release Date ~ April 3, 2010
Razorbill ~ Penguin
ISBN-13: 9781595145062
ARC received from Penguin Canada for review

Goodreads Synopsis
Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them.

He's days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone's obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect - everyone except for Madison Montgomery.

Maddy's the one girl in Angel City who doesn't breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn't recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love.

Maddy is swiftly caught up in Jackson's scene, a world of glamour, paparazzi - and murder. A serial killer is on the loose, leaving dead Angels' wings for the police to find on the Walk of Fame. Even the Guardians are powerless to protect themselves in the face of this threat & and this time it's up to Maddy to save Jackson.

 I was pretty excited to read this book because I have hardly read any angel books.  Off the top of my head, I can only think of two, which is nothing compared to all the ones available which is nothing compared to all the ones available out there.  So just remember that this review is coming from a girl that hasn’t gotten the chance to become sick of angel fiction because I’ve hardly read any. And I thinson why I ended up enjoying Immortal City so much - it was something entirely different from what I've read before.

1. The Narration:
   
   The way this story is told is great.  Because it’s told in third-person, it could switch from a whole array of views, without making it too confusing.  There are four in this particular book.  Maddy, her uncle Kevin, Jackson, and Sylvester, the detective in charge of the murder investigations.  I didn’t find it to be too much, though, because Kevin and Sylvester’s roles are fairly minor compared to Maddy and Jackson’s.  It wasn’t annoying and awkward, and I thought that the different perspectives added a lot to the story.
2. The Take on Angels:
   
    The world that this angel novel takes place in is a very different world compared to other angel books.  For instance, the angels are not kept a secret from everybody.  Everybody knows about angels; they are considered celebrities, and are treated as such.  They appear in the tabloids, are filthy rich, and many of them are extremely snobby and obnoxious.  Instead of saving people because it is in their nature, or it is their duty, or it is a direct order from God to do so, they do it for money.  This fresh new take on angels I found to be really interesting.  It gave me a whole new perspective on angels.  They didn’t seem to be perfect like they are portrayed in the other books I’ve read.  Sure, some were good, but others seemed to be walking a very fine line between good and evil.  I also really enjoyed the crime aspect of it, that comes through in Sylvester’s perspective.  The only way I can really explain this novel is to call it “Paranormal CSI”.  Picture the show, Angel, minus the vampires, and werewolves, etc, and add in angels and demons.  That is Immortal City.
   I did find the romance aspect to be a bit eye-rolling at times.  I mean, it seemed like they just met each other when suddenly Maddy and Jackson were going on about how in love they were with each other.  Also, you can only hear about somebody's "muscular arms", and "rock hard abs" so many times. I will say though, that the scenes of the two of them interacting were well written.  And I could kind of see why they both loved each other.  Also, this novel was fairly predictable.  I called out the twist nearly a third of the way through the book.  Other than that, though, this was a fairly good book.  Even if you are tired of angel fiction, give this one a try.  It’s really different from anything I’ve ever read about, or heard about before.

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