Angelhood

A.J. Cattapan

Apr 2015 · Vinspire Publishing, LLC

About this ebook

 Seventeen-year-old theater geek Nanette believes her life is headed toward stardom on Broadway. But when her dream theater college rejects her and her best friend dies in a terrible accident, Nanette decides the world would be better off without her. Unfortunately, the afterlife offers something less than a heavenly situation. Trapped between alternating periods of utter darkness and light, Nanette is stuck following a high school freshman around. Soon, she learns she’s a guardian angel, and the only way she can earn her wings is to keep her young charge, Vera, from committing the same sin she did—taking her own life.

Unfortunately, Nanette is missing more than just her wings. She has no tangible body or voice, either. Frustrated by her inability to reach out to Vera and haunted by memories of her old life, Nanette wants to give up, but then she sees what happens when another Guardian at the high school turns his back on his charge. The shock is enough to supercharge Nanette’s determination. She’s going to find peace in the afterlife…as soon as she can convince Vera that living is what life is all about.

Ratings and reviews

While this story is definitely a fantasy and is not anything I would look to for theological understanding of death/angels/suicide, it provides some interesting food for thought regarding these topics. I read concerns that the story might glorify suicide (make it seem a "good" option) but I did not get that sense from the story at all. Nanette commits suicide but comes to understand the extreme consequences of her decision. It is not the easy way out or the path to peace that she anticipated. The story is not preachy but yet conveys an important message. "living" is what life is all about even when it hurts and is messy.