The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel

Alden Bell

Aug 2010 · Sold by Holt Paperbacks

About this ebook

Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption.

Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

“Alden Bell provides an astonishing twist on the southern gothic: like Flannery O'Connor with zombies.” —Michael Gruber, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Air and Shadows

Ratings and reviews

I started to read this book in high school my senior year. I had never finished it and accidently left it in my locker. Yet, it ate away at my head, all the unsolved questions I had. It wasn't untill about a week ago I remembered the "ghurka knife", that I was able to refund the name of the book and finish Temple's tale. The thing I find so amazing about this book, is the authors ability to make even the grotesque of words paint these amazing images in your head. This is by far one of my favorite reads.

I didn't love it and not because it wasn't written well cause it was it's just I like more gore and fighting. This book was,more of a soulful in fight it's definitely worth a read just not my favorite

One of the best books I have ever read. Descriptive, visual, exciting, relative, viceral and emotional. Just amazing.

About the author

Alden Bell is a pseudonym for Joshua Gaylord, whose first novel, Hummingbirds, was released in Fall '09. He teaches at a New York City prep school and is an adjunct professor at The New School. He lives in New York City with his wife, the Edgar Award-winning mystery writer, Megan Abbott.