The Blood of Angels

by Stephen Gregory

A desperate and wild obsession culminates in a tragedy that condemns Harry to a solitary existence, a loneliness which bears its own depraved and bitter fruit. And, for the next 40 years, impressionable Harry is shaped and re-shaped by a bizarre and ultimately dangerous succession of women.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

493 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 1994

About the author

Stephen Gregory (b. 1952) was born in Derby, England, and earned a degree in law from the University of London. He worked as a teacher for ten years in various places, including Wales, Algeria, and Sudan, before moving to the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales to write his first novel, The Cormorant (1986), which won Britain’s prestigious Somerset Maugham Award and drew comparisons to Poe. The book was also adapted for film as a BBC production starring Ralph Fiennes. Two more novels, both set in Wales, followed: The Woodwitch (1988) and The Blood of Angels (1994). After the publication of The Blood of Angels, he worked in Hollywood for a year with Oscar-winning director William Friedkin (The Exorcist). More recently, he has published The Perils and Dangers of this Night (2008), and his new novel, The Waking That Kills, will be published in late 2013.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the most messed up books I've ever read! (And I mean that in a good way.) An in depth character study of a young man freshly returned from teaching in Sudan, morphs into something far different as the story moves along. The book is divided into 4 sections, each one more disturbing than the last.

Pacing was a problem with this novel-it starts off very slowly and more than once, I considered giving up on it. But being a fan of Mr. Gregory's work, I kept the faith and was rewarded by a shocking ending that left me stunned. Like jaw dropping, looking like a drooling idiot, stunned.

There were so many times in this book where I found myself saying, "Hmm, this looks like it's going in this direction, but it can't do that, it's going too far." And then it did just that. I found myself yelling at Harry, the protagonist, don't do it! Don't do it! But then he did, and it never, ever worked out in his favor.

It's difficult to put a label on this novel of... psychological horror? A life gone wrong? A downward spiral of bad choices? A story of taboos broken, and the resulting, unrelenting, guilt? It's all of the above and more. If you're intrigued by this description, this book will work for you. It's dark, down & dirty, and as such, was perfect for this dark fiction lover.

Highly recommended for fans of literary, slow burning, psychological horror stories!

*I received this book free from Valancourt Books, in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry Clewe is on a downward spiral, and he's not going down alone. This is a grim and disturbing novel without a hint of levity. While it's definitely not a "feel good" book, the writing and the character studies are flawless. Be prepared for a dark journey.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE BLOOD OF ANGELS is possibly the most "haunting" tale of Stephen Gregory's that I've read yet. While not supernatural in any way, the series of events that Harry Clewe goes through give you a sense of quiet, mental "horror" that is difficult to shake.

The story is broken up into different sections, each chronicling a period of Harry's life. We see, first hand, how fate takes ahold of this shy, nervous young man and completely molds him into the situations he is surrounded by. I'll admit that I found the novel slow-going at first, but after about 2/3 of the way in, I couldn't stop reading if I tried.

This really tests the boundaries of what we feel "shapes" a person's personality, and the influence that even seemingly insignificant things (a toadstone, a brittlestar, an ammonite...) can have in changing a man's life and perspective. The ending left me absolutely speechless, with so many theoretical questions buzzing around in my head!

What more could you ask for in a memorable tale?

Recommended!

[Addy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! If ever a book has rendered me speechless, this is it! I can't recommend this more if you are a fan! This is my third from this author, and all are beautifully written and the work of a genius! This book is almost like reading 4 different stories of Harry's life. All of them are disturbing in their own way. All are connected with sea animals; a toad, a brittle star, and an ammonite. The sexual encounters in this book are bizarre. Harry was just a character in which bad things seemed to cling to. It shaped and formed him into a cruel, ugly thing. In the end, he seems to pass on the ugliness. Definitely reminded me of the novel "Psycho." This book definitely gives you a clear picture of how a young, clear mind can become deranged and crazy and Im not really talking about Harry. You'll have to read the book. I love Stephen Gregory and am determined to read everything he's written. I only hope he keeps churning them out!

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd but strangely brilliant, dark tale by Gregory! The Blood of Angels chronicles in fits and starts the life and times of Harry Clewe via four sections, starting with a young Harry just returning from Sudan to England (well, Wales). Each part details Harry's relationships with another person, each of which shapes Harry in profoundly different ways. Best described as dark psychological horror, this slow burn tale became more and more consuming as I read it.

I had little expectations going into this novel, it being by first by Gregory. The poetic prose soothed the unfolding of the tale. Harry is one odd duck for sure! Graduating with a degree in English literature in the early 1960s, he tried teaching for a year or so with mediocre results and then went to Sudan to teach for a year. He realized teaching was not his bag, but what to do? Fairly smart, but plagued with migraines, he also possessed little self confidence. While not really a loner, much of his life became hermit-like as a default. Just when you think you have a fix on him, something bizarre or strange happens to undermine that fix. One example: his first 'romance' (if you will) was with a gal he met when he picked her up hitchhiking. Back at his flat, she goes to the loo and Harry pressed his ear against the door to hear her peeing and such. Who is this guy?

While this starts off fairly tame, each relationship became more and more troubling, but I will not go into detail to avoid spoilers. My edition has a fantastic cover that does not show well in the GR pic of it, with lovely gold foil and some haunting images. I cannot think of anything to compare this to but well worth a read if you dig psychological horror with quite a dark side. 4.5 angels!

[Maxine Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

4*

What a ride. I'm exhausted. Review on its way...

[Eggp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't keep a woman
loves to listen at bathrooms
Harry's a weird guy.

[tam tam · Rating 5 out of 5]

nightmarish & wild. would make an interesting mural: part Ernst Haeckl, part Guernica, part Winslow Homer, part Mary Cassatt. it is a *very* long book, not necessarily pagination-wise, but in terms of *how many things happen.* fairy tale in the Angela Carter sense. “Masculine”/“Feminine” relationships of a perhaps Fowlesian variety. interesting structure, horrible awful people. how in the world did these events unfold, and is there anything for a beachcomber to glean from the wrack?

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it so long ago that I can't honestly recall if it was well-written, but it was the first time I read a book where the protagonist wasn't at all likeable but was too fascinating to walk away from. Warning: storyline involves a little incest.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow! This is an exceptional and unique literary piece wrapped up in a horror novel, unlike anything I've ever read. If you are someone who requires trigger warnings, then this is definitely not the book for you. Highly recommended.

[Soho_Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea where or when I picked up Stephen Gregory’s “The Blood of Angels”, but that’s not particularly unusual, as I obtain books from any number of sources, particularly if there are books I think I might like the look of available for free. I’m fairly certain this book was one of those and that it ended up on my shelves for a while before I read it, but after ignoring it for a while and getting around to it only recently, I wish I hadn’t waited for quite so long.

“The Blood of Angels” is essentially the story of Harry Clewe. The story opens when he is 25, recently returned from teaching in Sudan and now working as a gardener in Wales. One day he picks up an attractive blonde hitchhiker and falls in lust with her. Attaching too much significance to a story he heard about the natterjack toad she found in his garden, he becomes obsessed with them both, before tragedy strikes.

This is a pattern which is to follow Harry Clewe through his life; he escapes from somewhere that harbours bad memories or difficult times, living a solitary existence, until someone comes into his life to spark his obsessions again, before it all goes wrong, often in a murderous fashion. Perhaps most disturbingly early on the novel is that the second object of his lust, both emotional and physical, is his own sister, Lizzie.

“The Blood of Angels” is fantastic, largely because it is entirely unsettling. Harry Clewe is an unbalanced character and that seems to impact everyone he has dealings with, as they almost seem to be infected by his madness. Nothing around him remains stable for long and this feeling permeates the writing throughout. Although much of what is here often concerns the minutiae of day to day life; walks along the beach, trips into town to do some shopping, are all just moments of pause in a story that moves from one madness to another. That is expertly portrayed in the writing here, as even when you’re reading about something mundane, Harry Clewe either approaches it in a slightly off-kilter manner, or you know you’re never far away from this seemingly settled moment being blown apart.

Although there were few moments of genuine terror in this novel, the nature of it means it’s a psychological horror story with the emphasis firmly on the former. Harry Clewe’s mental state doesn’t have the best starting point, but deteriorates as it goes along. I don’t recall reading anything in which this mental deterioration is so expertly portrayed. The pace of the writing matches what you can imagine as being the firing of Harry Clewe’s neurons, becoming most frenetic in periods of maximum instability and the action this results in and slowing down again as if Harry’s brain is pausing to reorient itself between times.

This really is a wonderful novel. Whilst it seems frequently mundane, as it touches upon parts of a life that rarely make it into fiction, once you settle into events, you discover how unbalanced the lead character is and this makes for a very unsettling read. Whilst the book starts slowly, once you’ve found the tone of the story, you quickly come to realise that something is always on the verge of happening and it is this that makes you want to continue. Rarely does the writing match the tone and pace of a story so expertly and Stephen Gregory has achieved something wonderful here, as unsettling as it frequently is.

[vince ! · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only horror in this book is undoubtedly the horror of getting through it. It‘s one of the most boring and senseless books I ever read—there is no real plot or deeper meaning behind any of the things that are happening. I found myself just skimming through the last part (the most boring of all) and I couldn’t be bothered to care about any of the characters.

The amount of times Stephen Gregory uses “squatted“ in this novel is verging on being a world record—seriously, I‘ve never encountered someone who favored one word so much that it was mentioned every five pages. Apart from the weird and repetitive use of words (e.g. almost every women Harry, the main character, encounters is described as “very small“, “very little“, “very pale“), this story has absolutely no plot at all. I was half-way through this monstrosity and still contemplating what this mess was really about. It‘s a weird compilation of events that don’t fit together in any way.

It‘s boring from start to finish. The interesting parts drown in a sea of other, practically useless and unnecessary pieces of information. Not to mention that none of the characters in this book feel like actual real people, the dialogue is unnatural, rehearsed and stiff. Despite reading 400 pages of Harry‘s life over the span of several years, he did not present as a very developed character and I couldn’t assign any traits to him that stuck—it seemed more like the author was just adjusting him and adding or subtracting from his character as was needed. That‘s ultimately why, in my opinion, the decay of his character (which was what the book was really about… I think) failed for me. The only difference between the Harry from the start to the Harry from the end is that end-Harry is 30 years older and a bit grumpier (apparently he “hates“ humans but he invites a random kid into his home and cooks for them??) but other than that they are the same person and no one can convince me otherwise.

As for the horror aspect of this book, this book was more disgusting (not because of gore but because of Harry‘s uncomfortable relationships with women described as ‘child-like’ and ‘looking like 12 or 13 years old‘, one of them his own sister, or ACTUAL 14-year olds that he insists are girls but are actually boys) than containing any real horror elements. It doesn’t read like a horror book at all, it’s not scary, unsettling or creepy (well apart from Harry‘s obvious pedophilia), and didn’t make me feel any emotions that I normally associated with the genre.

Save yourself the time, don‘t read this book.

[Lynda Rucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked his two previous novels, The Cormorant and The Woodwitch better. It's a matter of personal preference, not quality--most of the time, I prefer my horror short and contained, like those first two novels. However, this is divided into sections almost like a series of connected novellas. It's beautifully written, like his other work, and has some of the strangest, most startling imagery I've encountered in fiction in a long time. I just learned that he actually had a new book out in 2008, which I'll definitely check out.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the weirdest things I've ever read. I feel like I keep writing this about Stephen Gregory but he's really out-weirded himself this time. I genuinely don't know what to make of this - it went from having some of the best bits of fiction I've ever read to stretches of surreal belaboured scenes. There's no way to write about this without giving away spoilers and I'm rambling. I guess I'll just have to end this thought-splurge with the confusion of whether this is 5 or 2 stars. I'll compromise with 3. What have I just read?

[Selkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blood Of Angels by Stephen Gregory is the strangest book I have ever read. It starts off extremely slow. However, if you can get past the first 120 pages you will not want to stop reading it until the end.
I won't tell you what happens in it in case you decide to read it. But it just begins as the rather normal man's obsession with a woman. From there it gets weird, & then just more & more strange until the end of the book. By then you are thinking "What the [beep]???"

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

(By chance only, two successive books set in Snowdonia, the other being The Great God Pan. )

This is the second book (of the three he has written) I have read from Stephen Gregory, the other being The Cormorant. Though the latter is much better know, I think this is far superior.
Like the message on the bottle of Australian Table Wine (Python..), 'and the mesage is BEWARE', this book also should come with that message.

The plot charts the decline and fall of the protagonist, Harry Clewe. It begins with him as a socially awkward 25 year old in 1966, red haired, spotty, shy, skinny and socially inept. One day when giving a lift to his 12 year old sister, he stops to pick up a good looking young hitchhiker, and that begins his downward spiral that takes place over the next 25 years. Impressionable and malleable, Harry is formed and re-formed by a bizarre and ultimately destructive succession of women. Driven on from crisis to tempestuous crisis, he lurches from one catastrophe to the next.

It is told in four parts, each at a different stage of Harry's life.
Back to that warning, to say much would be a spoiler, but don't be fooled by Gregory's deadpan approach, there's deviance, sexual abuse, and of course, plenty of killing. There were several times I had to do a doubletake.. go back and reread the page.. had I misread.. no.

Even with Valencourt's reissue in 2015 (it was originally published in 1994), it seems to have gone unnoticed, and deserves a far wider readership than the 63 ratings here on GoodReads indicate.
Despite its senstive subject matter, it provokes discussion, especially the last part.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am torn between four and five stars on this one, as i found it mostly fantastic and unsettling, though there were lulls that seemed odd, so by the end of this review i'll have figured out what my rating is... this was one colossally strange tale... just when you thought things couldn't get any more bizarre, something even worse (better?!?) happens... yowza! Harry is one creepy fucker, though his daughter Zoe gives him a real run for his money eventually... this story has nothing good happening to the females, most assuredly... loads of nasty and ghastly violent scenes, with nothing held back in their tellings either... Gregory loves him some nature, and there are oodles of passages about the flora and fauna of Wales, and mega-oodles of passages about the birds, all types of birds, seriously ALL types... it was odd at first but it worked really well into the story... they just fit the scenes amazingly well... and some of the other scenes?? be prepared for things you might not want to have read, unless you love insanely unsettling and unseemly bits like i do... the birth scene, the kitten scene, the windsurfer scene... holycowcrazytown... the book has this sort of 70's BBC film feeling, maybe with a soundtrack by Goblin or Broadcast or Andrzej Korzynski... eerie and overwhelmingly spot on descriptions... as the tale unfolds you are left feeling like it has to end here, right?!? then it just takes it up another notch or ten and leaves you breathless, and slightly uncomfortable... yeah, this one gets five stars for sure... i am now off to read more of Gregory's writings... enjoy, but maybe put off eating until you've finished reading... hahahahahahaha!

[Boris Cesnik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know now where things changed. I don't like change.

What I praised as high skilled hermetical narrative and language in his first two novels, has suddenly turned here in a flood of words, moods, sentences and pages that have informed his later books from this moment on.

The first part gives you hope. It's weird, uncomfortable, uncanny and readable but things change and I don't like change (sic).
The rest of the book is a completely different story that proves nothing, points at nothing and explain nothing. Pointless. No reason.
Long and distracting, overflowing with scenes you can easily skip without compromising the thread of the story.

[Joel Werley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite considering Stephen Gregory's The Cormorant an easy ★★★★★ horror classic that I've read a couple of times, it's taken me this long to get to another one of his works. Lo and behold, Blood of Angels, essentially four linked novellas, is another beautifully written, warped, singular ★★★★★ dark delight. This man deserves more accolades.

[Jessica Long · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a train wreck. Every chapter I read with shocked horror at what came next. There's no way to describe what goes on in this book without giving something away.

I have been looking forward to finishing this book since I started.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. My favorite book to date. The elongated 4 part structure lends itself to some really excellent character development, and the writing is absolutely gorgeous. Fluctuating moods reminiscent of the tide. Eccentric and tragic. Comical and disturbing. A psychological ride with a sense of suspense that is truly unique. Multiple rewarding climactic moments. There are scenes featured in this book I believe will be never topped in the remainder of my life as a reader. Loved it.

[Brian]

Weird book.