Murder of Angels

Silk #2

by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Ten years after witnessing something unspeakable in an old Birmingham, Alabama, house, Daria Parker, a successful musician and addict, and Niki Ky, trapped in a world of schizophrenia, are drawn back together, when Niki begins to receive messages from her dead lover, Spyder Baxter, who warns her of her new role as a prophesied sorceress capable of opening a portal between worlds. Original.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, LGBT, Queer

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American published paleontologist and author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including ten novels, series of comic books, and more than two hundred and fifty published short stories, novellas, and vignettes.

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it doesn't say it anywhere on/in the book, this is a sequel to 'Silk.' I've already read Silk, so that was convenient. However, this works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel. The events of the past are a significant, driving force to the plot, but they're explained, as necessary, as the book moves forward. The overall feeling is like that of real life, when one meets a person and significant events have already occurred in their lives. Fiction often fails to convey that; this succeeds.

I wouldn't say the book is completely successful, however. The setup is good - Niki is a disturbed, seemingly schizophrenic woman, taken care of by her frequently absent, rock star wife, Daria, who has her own problems. Niki cannot get past the horrific, supernatural events of ten years prior, and isn't sure if they are the product of her mental illness or not. As this is a supernatural horror novel, it's not much of a spoiler to say "they're not."
However, I felt that the fantasy world that ends up figuring in the plot wasn't as sharply drawn as it could have been, and the big showdown lacks the dramatic tension it had the potential for.
Still, I do like this writer.

[Josh Hawkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a different one for me. I usually lean toward the Horror/Fantasy stories that are somewhat grounded in reality (King, Saul, etc). The story, in a nutshell, is about 3 lesbian girls (one a rock star, one a goth and the other a diagnosed schizophrenic under the care of a gay nurse (the author is homosexual) who all play a part in a extra-dimensional power struggle to open a doorway between this world and another in order to dispatch a seemingly evil, devil-like entity whom we never get to see. As I said, I'm not really used to this kind of Dark Fantasy, and Kiernan, an excellent descriptive writer, is so much so that it is often difficult to follow what is being described. The book starts out kinda slow, but picks up pretty well in the last half. The ending could have been better, felt a little anticlimactic. It's worth a look to anyone who's into this type of ritualistic occult/witchcraft/fantasy (the author is also a wiccan).

[Crowinator · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of Kiernan's fabulous and very creepy short story in Lovecraft Unbound, "Houses Under the Sea". This horror novel is disturbing and weird in the best way, and I can see why she is the Lovecraftian heir after reading it. The writing is beautiful and nightmarish but I'm not sure I followed all of the plot; then again, with the unreliable narrators (schizophrenics and alcoholics and other tormented people), I'm not sure it's supposed to be wholly figured out. The setting -- the real world and this Lovecraftian alternate reality -- are equally vivid and it's upsetting for everybody when they start bleeding together. This is a tough one to rate -- I wasn't hanging on every second (in fact, I put it down a few times and forced myself to pick it back up) because sometimes the internal narratives got too weighty and I didn't see how it all came together, but Kiernan's writing is so fabulous that I was constantly in awe.

[mister · Rating 5 out of 5]

another awesome book by this lady. This one is more of a rock and roll, sci-fi/multiverse novel about archetypes gone bad, abuse, retribution, going crazy, suicide, and the strange world that exists, right there on the other side. once again, expect lots of blood, despair and violence!!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars... Caitlin Kiernan is one of my very favorite authors, she pretty much had me hooked when I read her for the first time (The Red Tree). This book is the sequel to Silk, a horror masterpiece that is a character driven novel that is filled with monsters, demons, angels, and lots of nasty spiders.

In this one Niki Ky is our main protagonist even though Daria and Spyder still are present and have major parts to play. The Hierophant Niki is called, the last hope, the only possible Saviour to two worlds in the inevitable battle with the Dragon.

The best thing about a Kiernan's novels are the depth and quality of her writing. For example a meaningful passage that I loved.

"The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring
New Heaven and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell . . .
No, not this earth. This earth shall only burn and then the
ashes lie cold and undisturbed another five or six billion
years, until a dying, supernova sun at last swallows the
planet whole. She’s never made a secret of that, has never
tried to hide from him the destruction of this earth. It’s lost
anyway, she says. It’s never been anything else. You know
I’m telling you the truth, Walter."

Kiernan's writing has a lyrical flow to it and her prose makes you want to savor every word that she writes. The subject matter is deep and meaningful, and her characters are strong and not cut from any normal everyday mold. Murder of Angels works on many levels even when you the reader are left with so few answers. Multi-verse, many worlds, birth and death, all told through the action and eyes of a very unreliable narrator. What is real, what is fantasy is never clear and never really resolved, and that is definitely alright by me.

All Horror readers should already have read a Caitlin Kiernan novel, she is simply not to be missed. Fans of religious based apocalyptic horror would find a great delight in reading this book along with the first Silk.

My highest recommendations!!!!!!!!

[Jeremy Preacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder of Angels is half a distressingly realistic examination of the effects of suicide and mental illness on relationships, and half a... portal fantasy? Kind of? It's a grim, apocalyptic cross-dimensional quest, sort of, but it's mostly just the extended fallout from Silk.

I shouldn't say "just". It's a dark, complex, and serious book, and it has a whole bunch of things to say about the way abuse gets passed around and about the difficulty and danger of pouring all of yourself into taking care of someone else. It doesn't come to any sort of happy ending, either. I mean, the world doesn't end, but pretty much everyone involved in the story is dead or seriously damaged.

The alternate world itself is... interesting. It's not clear to me whether it's supposed to be a place in itself or the outgrowth of Spyder's imagination. It feels rather more like the latter - like the sort of archetypal place a well-read kid would invent and populate, and one of the scenes at the end seems to support that position. It doesn't really matter, though - it's an interesting setting, but it's just the backdrop for the interpersonal conflict anyway.

I don't think this is the sort of book I can say I like. I feel that way about a lot of Kiernan's better work. It's damned good, but it's almost too much for me - too dark, too personal. Glad as hell to have it on my shelf, though.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 star Review.
Although I have never really been one for reading of a series, I really LOVED this sequel to Silk, and found it could stand very well on its own. I am very fond of the beautiful language used, the most graphic and gory scenes were written out so that you find a dark beauty in it. The characters are unforgettable, I found myself routing for the Hierophant. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, Kiernan created an entire underworld of monsters so well, that you have no idea who is evil and who is good as they are all so amazing.
I would have rated it 5 solid stars, except the ending came to such an abrupt halt, it felt un-finished. I knocked half a star off for that, although I feel foolish even doing so, because I feel greedy and selfish, the author has her own reasons for such an ending, I just walked away feeling a bit unsatisfied and unsettled- but I guess that is the point when you venture into this unknown genre.
This is horror fantasy at its greatest, and there is no other author such as Kiernan!
I place her high in the ranks of my favorite authors ever! <3

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a sad thing when you realize that you disagree with all of the glowing reviews on the book cover.
As a sequel, this didn't require knowledge of the first book - everything tied together and made sense of itself. And she had some very good turns of phrase.
But - after 335 pages, the touted Hierophant hadn't actually done anything other than be a puppet. The "more powerful than anyone except the other two god figures" character was pushed around against her will until she decided to up and die. (Right after her hand was chopped off. While she lay there, watching it happen.) The entire mythos that was built up seemed pretty pointless. Like The Dry Salvages, it felt like there wasn't a payoff - perhaps I'm supposed to be more moved by the rocks fall, everyone dies ending? It didn't feel tragic. It felt last-minute. The scene where Marvin breaks the mirror, the bit with Lila's hidden diary... there was so much potential there that was left unused, making those scenes feel extraneous.
In the end, I'm left disappointed and glad that I borrowed it from the library.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful follow up to Kiernan's "Silk," this book explores the downward spiral of Niki Ky into darkness and mental illness. The reader struggles with Niki trying to sort out what is real and what is imagined as she slides deeper and deeper into nightmarish landscapes where she is alternately told she is the world's only hope or the bringer of its destruction.

As the title implies, this is a dark read and not something for kids under at least 15. But for adults and older teens who like their fairy tales dark and rich as well beautifully written, this book is highly recommended.

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can understand how this book got such high ratings, it is very descriptive, full of twisted imagery and the story is intriguing. That being said I still didn't enjoy the book as much as I got through the book. I seem to have trouble with the disjointed and abrupt changes from our world and the other world.

[Tashie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes my brain hurt. The first 50 pages were hard to get through but once past that it really picked up and got interesting. If you like a schitzophrenic lesbian than this is the book for you.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a sequel to ‘Silk’, Kiernan’s ‘struggling rock band meets evil spider demons’ novel, which was one of her first books. I liked ‘Silk’ quite a lot, but I wasn’t sure that the compelling story of our mundane world was really integrated that well with the fantasy / horror world that Kiernan created. That issue persists in ‘Murder of Angels’ but in a different way.

Ten years on from ‘Silk’, Daria Parker, once songwriter / singer / bassist of talented but doomed band Stiff Kitten, is now a successful solo artist who tours internationally, is feted by Rolling Stone, and gives adversarial interviews with publications called ‘Women Who Rock’. Niki Ky, former lover of magnetic but doomed weirdo Spyder Baxter, is now a heavily traumatised psychiatric patient whose possible schizophrenia is showing her visions of a world beyond ours. Daria and Niki are now a couple. They both experienced a brush with something otherworldly at the end of ‘Silk’; Daria has chosen to live in denial of it, Niki is more open to accepting it as truth. As the two drift apart due to Niki’s struggles with reality and Daria’s gruelling tour schedule, the otherworldly becomes undeniable.

(Yes, Spyder Baxter is still a key character. Other names: Pickabo Kenzia, Esme Chattox, Scarborough Pentecost, Archer Day. If nothing else Kiernan is the Thomas Pynchon of edgy alt-90s character names. I felt like a Todd MacFarlane drawing formed in my head each time I read a new one.)

As is often the case with Kiernan’s fiction we have a story which begins close to ‘our’ reality but there are hints and nudges that something more mysterious and ‘weird fiction’ is going on around the margins. Midway through, a character is thrown into a different reality, an afterlife or ‘world beyond a world’ type deal. Unlike Kiernan’s often-used weird horror worlds (subterranean ghouls, spider monsters, demonic fossils – to me all this tended to feel very Lovecraft), this new reality feels closer to high fantasy / sword-and-sorcery novels, with magical orders, pirates, underwater castles, and an existential conflict between a powerful force known as ‘The Dragon’ and another powerful force called ‘The Weaver’. While the character in fantasyland is moved around at a brisk pace and lots of plot happens, I found the exposition very clumsy, and the airier tone of the fantastical worldbuilding not really to fit with Kiernan’s prose style. I get the sense Kiernan likes fantasy stuff, but perhaps is a little less familiar with it than she is with pulpy, bloody supernatural horror.

Then, in a fairly perfunctory climax, it’s all over. If I didn’t know already that ‘Murder of Angels’ finished the ‘duology’ I would have read the last pages and turned on my computer to buy a copy of the sequel. It doesn't feel like a satisfying ending even now that I've thought about it for a couple days.

Daria, easily the more compelling character of the two leads, just doesn’t get all that much to do in this book, mostly wandering around two steps behind Niki, always too late to help or make a difference. Especially in the last act, I felt her character was quite short-changed in this book. Marvin, an interesting new character, also feels like he isn’t done much justice by the book – a character who maybe deserved more time with us. I doubt Kiernan would ever write a ‘straight’ book without any horror or supernatural elements but I did wish that Niki and Daria’s relationship had been pushed to the forefront here – I do feel that Kiernan writes toxic relationships very well! As I longed for 'Silk' to just be the story of Stiff Kitten with no demonic spiders trying to mess them up, I wished 'Murder of Angels' was a story about two fucked-up people growing apart due to a music career.

My conclusion was that either ‘Murder of Angels’ needed to be around 200 pages longer with much more time spent in the high-fantasy world (even though I didn’t really like those parts) to make the world more rounded and ‘alive’, or there needed to be a third book almost entirely dedicated to the fantasy conflict. Yet (and yes I’m making a lot of bold assertions here) by the conclusion of this book, I felt that Kiernan was tired of the setting, the characters and the story, and just wanted to get it over with.

I think there are great moments through ‘Murder of Angels’ and any fan of ‘Silk’ should give it a read, but it might be my least enjoyed Kiernan book so far – perhaps tied with ‘Threshold’ but my rating doesn’t reflect that I guess.

6.5/10 (but very very close to a 7)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

of Caitlin's first 4 novels this one is the most revealing.

where previously we only snatch glimpses of the workings of the worlds below and beyond now we dive right in, we enter Narnia. this leads to some beautiful descriptive passages, vivid dreamlike imagery of strange, mystifying and mesmerising worlds.

there were enough high points in this book to make it an excellent read although of the first 4 i feel the underlying plot here was the weakest. maybe it felt too much like some fantasy epic. maybe it was too revealing. maybe the characters didn't develop enough. nonetheless i am glad this book exists, i loved the creativity and insight and was great to catch back up with Niki and Daria.

[Your Common House Bat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much; the characters are all super compelling. Daria is my favorite of them. But oh man, from start to finish I just loved this one.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

(actually 2.5 stars, but I couldn't bring myself to round it up to 3)

**SMALL POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD**



I did not enjoy this one nearly as much as Silk (as evidenced by the long time it took me to read)... I think the switch into more high-gear fantasy with the whole alternate world just kind of lost me? It just felt needlessly convoluted and not particularly well fleshed out; given that there seemed to be some hints in one late-book scene pointing towards this maybe being a world which Spyder dreamed up as a child, these flaws would make sense to a point... but I just did not feel that this was very well telegraphed if so. And it didn't help that the whole thing just kind of went out with a whimper instead of the bang it seemed to be attempting to work its way up to :/
And to be clear, I am not a person who usually needs to have every book explain itself ad nauseam or even generally make complete, coherent sense -- I like unreliable narrators and ambiguous endings, and weird fiction in general.... this one just didn't do it for me I guess.
That being said, there were parts I did truly like; firstly, it was interesting to find out what happened to Niki and Daria after the fallout from the events of Silk. Furthermore, I appreciated the inclusion of narratives both from the standpoint of being a person (seemingly) suffering from mental illness, as well as from the person attempting to care for said person -- having some experience being on both sides of that dichotomy, this resonated with me. Finally, I still loved the continuation from the first book of the gorgeous language/sentence structure, overarching dark, creepy mood and all the elder-goth/alternative kid references sprinkled in, as well as all the spider appreciation/empathy (as an aside, I thought Theda's fate post-metamorphosis was probably the most disturbing part of the entire book). I just wish the package as a whole had worked together better for me.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sequel the way they are meant to be. Silk was a great book but a little confusing if you weren't paying close attention. Murder of Angels takes the mythology laid out in the first book and expands on it. The reader knows more about what's going on between Niki and Spyder, the mythology they are working with, and what Niki has to do to save her world from the monsters that almost scared me to death in Silk. In fact, one moment with Spyder was almost an info-dump, which is so unlike Kiernan I did a doubletake.

However, later in the book another character asks Niki, do you think if I give you a ton of exposition you'll actually understand what's going on here? And really, that's Kiernan talking to the reader. Because like Silk, Murder of Angels is two books in one: a book about a traumatizing act of evil that broke open the boundaries between two worlds, and a book about mental illness and addiction. No amount of exposition can tell you which is the "real" book. If it did, it wouldn't be worth reading.

The characters in this book, even though they go through awful things, feel so cared for. They are those on the sidelines, even Daria, who is a famous rock star but still feels isolated from her peers. This book creates a mythology that honors them but doesn't mock them.

[Emmalise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn between liking Kiernan's writing and the characters, and finding the actual plot (and, to a lesser extent, pacing) to be an absolute mess. Having read Silk and The Drowning Girl, I was expecting a large amount of explanation to come near the end, which kept me eagerly reading (I finished this in two days, fast by my standards), the problem being that those details never actually showed up. It's not that I don't understand what happened, just that the logic behind it doesn't work for me at all. I've read mediocre fanfiction with more internal consistency. And, while this would have been hard to avoid, I feel like Murder of Angels loses the really wonderful and creepy tone that Silk had by becoming more of an overt fantasy.

The relationship between Niki and Daria is disappointingly underdeveloped, and I didn't find the characters actions to be entirely consistent. So why does it still get three stars? Well, the actual writing style is still strong, it's definitely a novel with a lot to say even if it doesn't always succeed at saying it, I still love the characters even if they would have been fleshed out more, and it did keep me interested. Murder of Angels isn't bad, it just suffers from being the sequel to a better book, as well as having lot of unfulfilled potential to be truly exceptional.

[Sabooski's Meow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silk #1 has a strong Lovecraftian vibe whereas Silk #2 (Murder of Angels) takes on a dark fantasy edge more reminiscent of Clive Barkers 'Weaveworld'. As with Silk #1, Silk #2 builds slowly eschewing HPL's cosmic dread and venturing into a bizarre world-building/dream state portal full of quasi-divine dark beings whose intentions for humanity bare close scrutiny. As is Caitlin Kiernan's style we are enveloped in a psychological morass of mental, drug fueled, magic realism full of Goth/punk sensibilities (dark be those sensibilities here). This onslaught of mixed genres in the second half of #2 came close to derailing the conclusion (almost). Some of these 'imaginings' didn't quite translate for me to my satisfaction but by the end I was impressed enough with the author to purchase several more of her books in paperback. Certainly an accomplished writer full of surprises. 3.5 stars for #2, 5.0 for Silk #1. As a set I average the whole at 4.0. I recommend reading both in order.

[Tama Wise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but it fell rather short in my opinion. It was well written, I guess, which I would expect from this author, but I didn't really care about any of the characters. One of them main characters was a bit of a bitch. The others felt flat. And it wasn't until about three quarters of the way through the story actually got interesting.

By then, the main character was wandering around going 'I dont understand' (at about the same rate as me, the reader) and everyone else was saying 'well, we cant tell you whats going on, because you already know!'. Bah. And the ending left me completely clueless.

I was later informed that this book is loose sequel to another few. I'm not sure it would have made much sense knowing the rest of the characters backgrounds.

[Amy Jesionowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and very much liked the story. Unfortunately, I read it before reading Silk. I was able to follow the story and appreciate the characters (speaking of - that is one of the main reasons why Kiernan is one of my favorite authors - she expertly draws flawed characters and compels your empathy for them, even if you don't *like* them) and their roles in it, but I think the story and characters would have been richer if I had the foundation of the first book.

I'd like to give it 3.5 stars, and I really wish Amazon would enable such an option. My rating may change to 4 stars once I read Silk...

[Zachary Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Caitlin R. Kiernan has such a command of language. She weaves some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. As a sequel to Silk, this expands that universe while also doing its own thing. It's a more accessible book, which is interesting, because Silk would probably be a more "challenging" book to the standard reader, so the two as a pair have quite a unique dynamic. Whereas the first book was brooding dread, Murder of Angels is more of a cosmic dark fantasy. To me, this is a novel about the repercussions of trauma, the choices we make, and the struggle to understand there are no absolutes or certainties, in this world or the next.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread, though I can't remember when I read it.

And damn, I'd forgotten how *good* this book is. So much beautiful language and so much amazing imagery. If I ever have 10% of the talent Kiernan has I'll be content.

You can really see the development of Kiernan as a writer reading this and "Silk" back to back. "Silk" was good, but there are real glimmers of the genius of Kiernan (which I feel has developed into its full capacity in her last two novels, but especially "The Drowning Girl") in this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw were the book was going, well at least I thought I did, and then the author went absolutely no where with it. There was a big build up for the hero: Big action...Get Ready...She Going to Save the World, and nothing. In the end the hero didn't do a single thing (except give up)....It just ended. In fact, with all the characters it was the same. It was a meaningless silly tale. I expected something to happen, anything to happen, but nothing ever did. Maybe I missed the point. The first book, Silk, was much better.

[Mina LaFleur · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Silk, and Threshold, so I assumed that I'd really like this book too. Her books are always a bit of a challenge for me to wrap my head around, so I expected that, but I did find this one especially abstract. The characters from Silk felt so different to me that I didn't recognize them at all in this sequel, and my affections for them changed because of that. It does have some beautiful creativity that I've also come to expect from her work, in that for me, the line is not always quite clear what's real and what's not and that's magical in a way.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kiernan writes a fierce, gripping story with some creepy King-esque moments. The characters are deep and unique, and the action moves quickly enough that it was hard to put down. My only disappointment in this story was the ending. A few questions are left unanswered and there’s a bit of confusion in my mind as to what actually occurred. Still, happy I picked it up and I’ll be looking forward to more by Kiernan in the future.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final chapters felt a little rushed and I felt this one was a little too fantasy-orientated for my liking, but overall a worthy sequel to "Silk"... it also has one of Kiernan's most downbeat endings.

I guess I'll be reading "The Drowning Girl" next.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Lovecraft pastiche that is in most respects--characterization and prose in particular--superior to Lovecraft's work.

[Synd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Contemporary horror at it's finest. I read it before reading silk, but it was amazing nonetheless.

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was almost great at many times but I never felt like it lived up to its potential. Maybe I just had different expectations.

[Jocelyn Montalvo Cullum]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11448659