I had the chance to read and review Evangeline's Heaven by Jen Braaksma ahead of it's publishing date: August 30th, 2022! Jen Braaksma is from Ottawa and this is a debut book for her!
Evangeline's Heaven is a fantasy YA set in the Seven Heavens. Evangeline, the daughter of Lucifer, is fiercely loyal to her father and her community, but throughout the story she begins to question everything she has believed about her life so far, most of all, the true motives of her father. Evangeline travels through the seven heavens, she hears stories from a wide variety of beings about her father's villainous actions - limiting access to food supplies, burning refugee camps, and working with enemies. She doesn't believe what she is told at first, but as the story continues she must use what she has seen and heard to decide who she should trust, fear and protect.
I'm really not a fantasy reader. I talk to my grade 3s about finding good fit books, but also that it is important to try different types of books because you never know what genre a good fit book might be hiding in! That being said, this is definitely not a good fit book for me, lol, but I tried a new genre, I read a new book, and I think it is well done! Fantasy is a tough genre for me because I have a hard time picturing things, even when they are well described. Braaksma did break through to me a few times though, especially the scene where Evangeline visits her best friend's family, in a really run down village and has to run past a barn and through a forest to hide from a mob of people hunting her and her father. I felt like I was reading a historical fiction about terrible conditions in WWII (I may have just finished multiple holocaust novels...) and it was quite easy for me to follow. Since this was fairly early on in the story, it helped me stay hooked. See? You can find something you're interested in, even in genres that don't fit your typical reading style!
Despite my own difficulties trying to understand the story, I could tell that the setting and the characters were vividly defined. The writing was beautiful, flowed nicely and was hard (even for me!) to put down! The beginning was a bit slower as it seemed there was quite a bit of backstory and information about characters and setting that needed to be ironed out to set the reader up for success for the rest of the book which is quite fast-paced and action-filled. The book is very much written as a YA, you can see the teenage attitude of Evangeline shining through right from the beginning, and commentary about her male friend being her 'boyfriend" by adults was a nice hint at the embarrassment and uneasiness teens feel when trying to navigate friendships in the young adult world. As far as content appropriateness, it is a YA, so it's expected there will be slightly more mature themes, but it was nothing too crazy, a bit of violence and death, but nothing too gory and no steamy scenes of any kind, definitely not a YA romance either. Additionally, because there was significant talk about angels, god, heaven etc. conservative and religious parents and teens may want to look into this book a bit more before reading, and people who want nothing to do with these themes may also want to reconsider. Otherwise this is everything a YA fantasy should be! I would highly recommend to anyone looking for an angel fantasy with lots of action!
Even though this wasn't my favourite book, I am really glad I got the chance to check it out! It was an interesting read and while outside my norm and comfort zone, it still offered a lot for me to enjoy. Thanks to PR by the Book and SparkPress for giving me the chance to try something new and different!
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