Grief Angels

Grief Angles explores grief (obviously), toxic masculinity, growing up, old friends, new friends, and...Battlestar Galactica. All while blending magic realism with a thoughtful look at teen relationships. A really enjoyable read in a genre that's tricky to pin down - no bad thing.

I loved this book, excellent characters, beautiful themes & a strong narrative combine to make a great read I highly recommend.Through it’s teenage protagonists it deals with a number of important themes: grief, depression, moving on, fitting it, in a thoughtful & moving way, combined with some more fantastical elements that, I think, elevate the story to something more original & bold.Having also enjoyed David Owen’s previous three books immensely he is definitely an author with an original voice well worth seeking out.

A fantastic insight into the mind of what it’s like for a young teenage boy trying to find their identity and coping with loses in life, coupled with some great fantasy elements. A thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish, I highly recommend.

Pulls you in from the first page. An important and compelling book about teen friendships and grief.

I was really looking forward to reading this book as I loved All the Lonely People so much. But it is quite a different style of book – more magical realism than I expected, and I personally don’t get on so well with that.However, I really enjoyed the ‘realism’ parts of the book – I loved Duncan’s wheelchair-bound sister Emily, and the dynamics of his friendship group. But I struggled with the ‘magical’ sections of the book, and I found I lost focus during those bits. Like I say though – this is my issue, not the book’s!As always though with David Owen’s writing, there are beautiful turns of phrase, and the characters were well drawn and interesting.

Let me preface this review by saying that I really felt drawn to this book and its themes of grief. I have a professional and research interest in grief and for me this means that my mind is open, I respect utterly how people grieve according to their individualised needs and nature. I am sad this didn’t work for me in some aspects.GRIEF ANGELS is an unusual read in many way, I truly appreciated this story that took young adult male friendships, didn’t sexualise them and realistically depicted a compelling story through them. The narrative was told through the two main characters of Duncan and Owen. Duncan was a young guy dealing with depression and toxicity in his long standing friendship group. Owen was a new guy in school, grieving the death of his father and finding himself along the way.What was unique about this story was that Owen was whisked off in his grief by the ‘grief angels’ (read birds) to a fantastical land where he went on a quest with someone to do something. I remain unclear about some of this, so excuse the vagueness. I do not know if this part of the story was magical realism, analogy, hallucination or what. I feel that by the end I should have known this. I kept reading, kept pushing through with this element, wanting to find out the answer. I can make my best hypothesis about this but this element needed some world building and structure.It is testement to the great YA story in the contemporary setting that I haven’t rated this book lower. I loved it when the story switched back to life at school and in the friendships. I wanted to stay there.I’m sad this particular story didn’t work for me but I would definitely read David Owen again. I liked the characters he created and I enjoyed the larger parts of his writing.

Grief Angels is an unusual read that blends a contemporary story with what can best be described as magical elements. It doesn’t surprise me that Owen mentioned Skellig in his Afterword, as there were some definite similarities between the two stories.The story focuses on a fairly small cast of teenage boys. Four have been friends forever, but we see the pressures that can be put on a friendship over time. The main character, Duncan, has been treated for depression for the last year but has told nobody. When new boy, Owen, arrives things start to shift.Duncan and Owen are quite unlikely friends, but together they are stronger.As the boys learn to navigate a world of loss, they also have to grow up and consider who they want to be and what they want to represent.The contemporary element of the story really was engaging. Humorous moments could be found amidst the turmoil, and it was great to see a friendship between Owen and Duncan that was just that. They supported each other and talked about themselves, their feelings and their hopes and fears.While I was drawn to the more abstract elements, these weren’t fully explored. I interpreted these strange occurrences as Owen’s way to manage the very complicated feelings he had about his father and the death. Maybe they actually happened, but we’re never sure.Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my thoughts.

This book follows Owen and Duncan. Two teenage boys who form a friendship in order to help them cope with their various struggles. Owen's father recently passed away and he is trying to deal with his grief whilst seeing strange birds. Duncan has been dealing with depression but hasn't felt able to tell his friends.This book is told from their two POVs. There is also a magical realism/fantasy element where Own is seeing these birds that take him to a strange forest where he has to complete a quest. I didn't 't enjoy the fantasy element. I found it confusing and I did find myself skipping over these sections. I did, however, enjoy the contemporary portion of this book.I did like the topics that were covered in this book. I also liked that this focused on a male friendship group which was something that I haven't really seen a lot in books.Overall I did enjoy this one but it isn't a new favourite for me.