Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story.

Title and author of book: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Fiction or non-fiction? Genre? Young Adult Fiction. Fantasy.

What led you to pick up this book? Nymeth recommends it and does it not have one of the best covers ever? I love the cover to this book!

Summarize the plot, but don’t give away the ending! See above...

What did you like most about the book? Well, the cover, like I said above. I really liked the idea behind this book. It appears to be a fantasy novel, but really, it is about a girl that has to learn to deal with the horrible circumstances she has found herself in. Her family has been killed and she has been left alone. She feels like she is the only person still living, but events are going to unfold that show that there really are things to live for. It will save her from herself and allow her to find the person that she has lost. It was a touching, yet sad, book that can easily appeal to anyone that has had to go through the very strong process of mourning. Everyone deals with it in a different way.

What did you like least? I read this book a while ago, and while I enjoyed it at the time, it is not a book that has really stuck with me. It took me posting the synopsis above to really remember what had happened. Other books have stuck with me better. I hate to admit that it takes a lot to stick with me anymore, but that's what happens when you read a lot. If I had read this a different year where I hardly read anything, I think it would have been a lot more memorable.

Have you read any other books by this author? What did you think of those books? I have read The Story Sisters, The Ice Queen, Here on Earth, Practical Magic, Illumination Night, and At Risk. They all were rather different books. Four of them I read so long ago that I could probably reread them and they be totally different books to me. The Story Sisters has a review pending, so I will wait to say anymore on that one. The Ice Queen is probably my favourite book by her.

What did you think of the main character? The main character in this book was a broken character. I really felt for her. She had suffered an extreme loss and was trying to deal with it, or well, not deal with it, anyway that she could. She was trying to disappear, but by writing the book she was making herself remembered. She also interacts with interesting characters throughout. I felt like she was a readable character that with the exception of some magic realism, was dealing with the stages of mourning.

What about the ending? I liked the ending. It cleared things up and didn't leave anything hanging. It wasn't necessarily a predictable ending, but it was the ending that fit. Overall, I enjoyed it.