Prophecy Girl (Angel Academy)

by Cecily White

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Angels aren’t my thing, but I still had to read Prophecy Girl for two reasons. One, because there was mention of a vampire uprising. Vampires are definitely my thing. Two–and the automatic deciding factor–it’s published by Entangled Teen. I can’t resist them. Unfortunately, this one ended up not being for me. The angel mythology failed to interest me, and I didn’t care too much for Amelie. The plot was fast paced and engaging, but I found more that I didn’t like than what I did. Oddly, most of my problems have nothing to do with the angel aspect. Weird.

I did not understand Amelie. She is a walking, talking contradiction. I didn’t dislike her exactly. I just didn’t get her. She’s determined to finish school and become a Guardian, yet she never pays attention in class and focuses most of her energy on pranks and rule breaking. How does she expect to pass with an attitude like that? She knows nothing about the world she’s been living in for the last seventeen years, resulting in lots of conversational info-dumps. Additionally, she admits to having read every issue of Cosmo magazine printed, but she shuns all things girly. She’s one of those heroines who never wears makeup and scoffs at school dances. I don’t get it. She was also snarky and sarcastic, but to the point of rudeness at times.

If someone tells you that they didn’t have TV, your follow up question shouldn’t be if they had Nintendo or Xbox. Where would they have plugged it in? Into their microwave? Yes, Amelie actually has this conversation. This brings me to my next issue, which was the millions of pop culture and brand name references. They’ll all be irrelevant in 10 years, if they aren’t already. Not every sarcastic or snarky comment requires a pop culture reference. Prophecy Girl was just published and it’s already dated.

Third problem: the romance. Amelie essentially thinks boys are a waste of time, but of course she falls for the hot, new substitute as soon as she meets him. There is some cosmic, destiny type attraction, so I’ll give her a pass. Jackson on the other hand…why does he keep randomly kissing her? He shows absolutely no interest in her, kisses her, then goes on as if nothing happens. It was kissing for the sake of having kissing, and it just made me go “huh?!” These situations did not warrant kissing…at all.

The world building was also lacking. Prophecy Girl is less about angels and more about angelbloods, who are descendants of the Archangels. Fair enough, but we don’t learn too much about what this means exactly. They protect humans from demons. Okay, but how and why? They also have some kind of bonding rituals between Channelers and Watchers. The only thing I know for sure about the reasons for this is that Watchers can funnel some of the energy that Channelers use so that they don’t die from power overload or something. Actually I’m not that sure, but bonding is a big deal and mentioned a lot. Although it seems like not all angelbloods actually marry who they’re suppose to be bonded to, but they’re still bonded, but not. I don’t really understand any of it. It doesn’t help that Amelie knows close to nothing about anything. I did think that the demons were interesting.

The ending of Prophecy Girl contained twist after twist after twist after…it seemed like this was done purposely so that readers couldn’t figure out how it would end and thus be shocking. It was lame and annoying. There was one “twist” that was glaringly obvious, but Amelie somehow never saw it coming, but then again, it’s not like she knows much to begin with. This is the first time I’ve been let down by an Entangled Teen publication, but that’s okay. I still love them, but perhaps I do need to stay away from angel books.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.