Lowly’s Book Blog

How is your Dante? Any familiarity with other Apocalyptic literature, especially Christian? Mine is lousy and I suspect it needs to be in order to enjoy this first book from a new young English author.

The book opens with a middle-aged man waking up on the floor of his apartment covered in blood. He cannot remember his name or anything else about his life. Gradually he learns that he is living in Budapest. His name is Gabriel Antaeus. He speaks Hungarian and English fluently, and there is a lot of money in a bag in the kitchen.  And he can see strange monsters that are invisible to everyone else. Like the burning man that invades his dreams. Gabriel is a man frightened and alone.

After weeks and months alone in his apartment, Gabriel starts to move out into the city, just to be near normal people. He is drawn to visit churches, cathedrals and religious sites through the city. One day he is befriended by Stephimo, another man who can apparently see these strange monsters. The other person that Gabriel connects with is the young pregnant teenager living in the apartment building.

I have seen this book described as a mix of Dan Brown and Umberto Eco. I wholeheartedly agree. There is a level of gothic/supernatural strangeness that I have only ever encountered in Eco’s works.  And yet the core of the story is a thriller, much in the style of Dan Brown, the reader is asked to link the clues to uncover the conspiracy.

The publisher’s website indicates that Alex Bell wrote this novel when she was just 19. Much of the publicity for the book focuses on the fact that it is a young author’s debut novel. I can accept that everyone has to start somewhere, but Bell really needs to spend a lot of time more time in research. Just a quick glance at Wikipedia will clearly demonstrate that the title should have been The Seventh Circle.

Sorry. This book simply didn’t sit well. Perhaps, like everyone’s first novel, it needs to go back into the box. Alex Bell shows potential, but she needs to find a good editor.