The Reapers are the Angels

The Reapers are the Angels (Holt Paperbacks, 2010) is a young adult fiction novel by Alden Bell (a pseudonym for Joshua Gaylord). It is the author’s second novel, following the successful Hummingbirds (2009). The Reapers are the Angels is equal parts horror and science fiction. Specifically, it is set in post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested America.

The novel opens with 15-year-old Temple, who lives alone in a lighthouse off the coast of Florida. Though alone, Temple has retained a sense of wonder at nature and enjoys watching the fish illuminate the waters. Each day is the same for her, until one day, a grotesque, severely deformed man washes up on the shore. Temple seems unfazed by his appearance, but kills him with a large rock, and, afraid that other “meatskins” will soon approach the shores of her island, decides to leave. The familiarity with the gruesome nature of the man’s appearance suggests that he is a zombie.

As Temple leaves her island (by means of alternately swimming and floating on top of a cooler (into which she has packed a pistol), she sees a “slug,” whom she identifies from a distance by its gait. Slugs and meatskins are Temple’s terms for the living dead who inhabit the earth alongside the living, such as Temple. Having arrived on the mainland, Temple steels a jeep. Her memory of the pre-apocalyptic world is minimal, with only a few memories of her family. Though she is uncertain of her exact age, she is too young to have known a world without zombies.

She remembers going on a trip in Alabama with her younger brother Malcolm (neither of whom knew their parents). While Malcolm was alive, Temple tried to shield him from the reality of their world. In her present travels, she encounters and overcomes several meatskins. Eventually she finds communities of people living in converted stores and office buildings. She thinks that she might be able to find a place for herself here. She muses that the zombies are victims, too, as they did not choose to come back to life.

In Georgia, Temple joins a community living among four high-rise towers. Shortly after moving in, Temple favors the company of the men rather than the women (who prefer only to dress themselves up in cosmetics from the vacated department stores). Eventually, she is attacked by one Abraham Todd. Temple kills Abraham in self-defense. Nevertheless, her victim’s brother, Moses Todd, seeks revenge.

Temple must uproot herself again in order to escape Moses. She encounters a man she calls “dummy” because he does not talk. When she finds him, he has a recently deceased woman in his arms. One of Temple’s earliest observations is his ceramic-like eyes, which look empty. She realizes he is mentally disabled. His late grandmother has taken care of him until her death, and so she becomes his de facto guardian and takes him on the road. The two continue to kill zombies from their vehicle.

Their next stop is with the Griersons, an old-fashioned family who calls her Sarah Mary. Temple becomes very close with one of the sons, James (a former soldier). Moses arrives at the Grierson’s house, but Temple prevails by tying him to a chair and agreeing to let him live; however, she insists he remains tied up for a day so that she has time to escape. When asked by James, Temple agrees to kill the father of the family, a zombie who lives in the basement. The two drink together and share a kiss. Temple also opens up to James about her late brother, Malcolm, and their guardian, Uncle Jackson, who was bitten by a zombie. James tells Temple that she, like him, is a soldier.

Though Temple originally planned to leave the mentally disabled man with the Griersons, she sees a slip of paper on which is printed his name (Maury) and his home address in Longview, Texas. Temple feels a moral obligation to take him there. She is aware that Moses continues to dog their steps, and soon all three encounter a group that uses liquid from the zombies to make themselves into giants. Temple kills those who imprisoned them, and leaves Moses a weapon so that he, too, might escape. Temple’s killing is especially brutal, and her reaction causes her to question whether she is in fact evil. Temple notices that Moses has used a tracking device on her car, so she continues to Texas with Maury via a train.

When the train stops in Longview, Temple finds that there is a group of living people which has taken over nine blocks of the city. One of the men she encounters, Dirk, invites her on a date, which she agrees to go on. Later, when Temple and Maury arrive at Maury’s former home, they find his parents in bed upstairs, having apparently overdosed on pills, probably because of the zombie apocalypse. Moses is also there, and alongside him is a giant girl taken by Moses after their imprisonment. It is this girl’s family that Temple brutally killed. The giant girl kills Temple, which angers Moses. The point of view shifts to that of Moses, who remembers having had a wife and daughter who went missing. He remarks that the girl would be about Temple’s age.

The Reapers are the Angels was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award in the year of its publication (2010). Gaylord/Bell wrote a prequel to The Reapers Are the Angels, titled Exit Kingdom, the second novel to be published (in 2012) in the so-called Reapers saga. Exit Kingdom follows the post-apocalyptic travels of Moses Todd. A native of Southern California, Gaylord studied English and Creative Writing at U.C. Berkeley, later earning a Masters and Ph.D. in English from New York University. The author lives in New York City with his wife, mystery writer Megan Abbot.