Angels and Demons

By: Dan Brown

"I found myself reading until 2 a.m.; Brown executes plot twists excellently."

            Angels& Demons is an action packed yet highly intellectual thrill ride, written by Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. Angels & Demons is like a prequel to The Da Vinci Code. This book opens on symbologist Robert Langdon receiving a phone call from Maximillion Kohler, who is the head of a scientific company CERN. One of CERN’s top scientists, Leonardo Vetra, has been brutally murdered by an ancient brotherhood of scientist’s known as the Illuminati. The Illuminati have also stolen a sample of antimatter, a project that Vetra and his daughter Vittoria had been working on. Antimatter has more destructive capacity than an atomic bomb, and the Illuminati place the antimatter time bomb somewhere in Vatican City, in order to destroy their sworn enemy, the Catholic Church. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra are sent on a mad dash across Vatican City trying to find the antimatter. Will they find it before the antimatter goes off and levels Vatican City? This book is a true page-turner. Although it is a lengthy seven hundred-page book, I literally could not put it down. Brown is the king of suspense. His use of cliffhangers is incredible, and just makes you want to read more and more.

            Brown sets up his novels in a very unique way. He tells the same story from multiple perspectives. He starts telling the story from one person’s view, leads up to a climatic event, then ends a chapter and switches to another person’s view of the events that just took place. This method is one that I haven’t seen in other books but is very effective. To find out how a situation ends, you have to read multiple chapters, because the next chapter will not necessarily tell what happened. I would recommend this book to all types of readers. Any mystery lovers, sci-fi fans, and even people who see corruption everywhere and are fighting “The Man” will love this book. Brown’s suspense filled writing, coupled with the conspiracy theories in this novel, as well as Brown’s others, meld perfectly into a fantastic journey for the mind.

            The length of this book can seem intimidating at first glance. I went through the first ten pages or so very slowly, but after that I became so captivated by the plot’s intricacies that I would find myself reading until two in the morning. This is not in anyway an exaggeration. I cannot find enough ways to compliment this book. The only possible flaw is that the plot has so many twists in the end it becomes a little confusing. However, Brown executes his plot twists excellently. I found myself guessing at what would happen next, and later finding the exact opposite is what actually happened. Brown could have ended the book at only about five hundred pages, but it seems like he just tried to cram in as many plot twists as he possibly could in the end. But I can’t complain, it works, and Brown is just an incredible writer.

-Taylor N

"Dan Brown makes you fear the danger and anticipate the rush of discovery."

       The Vatican: capital of the religious world. For hundreds of years, it has been a place of rest, comfort, and safety for followers from around the world and for tourists who seek its humbling architecture and dazzling beauty. But on this night, with the dull ringing of a phone, comes a threat that shakes it to its foundations…literally.  Filled with missing cardinals, ingenious scientists, and bloodthirsty assassins, this high action, suspense filled bestseller is definitely a good choice for action lovers. 

       In Angels and Demons, Dan Brown captures a sense of urgency, despair, and passion like no other writer could. With his quick scene changes, bouncing from one catastrophe to the next, Brown never allows readers to put down the book, for fear that something might happen while they’re gone. Its plot is so interwoven with architecture, history, and symbology, that readers commonly mistake it for a non-fiction book rather than a novel.

       I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys action, suspense, romance, violence, scandal, mystery, symbology, history, religion, or well…anything else. In this heart-pounding novel, Dan Brown uses multiple interwoven series of events and mind-boggling hidden meanings to show that some things are not even close to what they may seem. As the plot unfolds, it grows more and more complex, with mystifying side plots and new characters around every curve. However, beneath all the chaos and suspense, there lies the simple story of a man, a schoolteacher from Harvard University. Robert Langdon is a laid back, quiet man who finds himself in the middle of one of the world’s most horrific situations. However, along this troublesome road he meets a very attractive lady, Vittoria, who accompanies him the rest of the adventure. Their story of love through a series of desperate situations is compelling, yet sobering. Though they have feelings for each other, they seldom let this get in the way of their main purpose: saving the Vatican. 

       In my opinion, Dan Brown does an excellent job of including the reader in the action, making you feel as if you are part of the story as well. He makes you fear the danger and anticipate the rush of discovery. However, he also makes you feel the pain and sadness and defeat that the characters are faced with. He makes you feel the pull of romance and companionship, but he never quite grants it. This is probably the only disappointing aspect of this entire novel. But this one, lone, solitary negative trait is heavily outweighed by the vivid descriptions, exhilarating story line, and baffling plot twists intertwine the entire story from cover to cover.

      In conclusion, Angels and Demons is an excellently written book in which Dan Brown uses suspense and tragedy like no other writer could to make readers realize that what they think they know, what they hold dearest to them, could slip away at any moment. He teaches us to love what we have, but to only have what we love. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader, young or old, who appreciates a well-written book and wants to find out for themselves the secrets it holds within its covers. 

-Ethan B.




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