A Completely Demented Story

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Grade: D+

Genre: Book

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown tells the story of Robert Langdon, a symbologist at Harvard University. The story begins when he gets this unexpected call from the director of CERN (a nuclear research center in Europe) after one of their scientists has been murdered. He soon meets Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of the murdered scientist, and finds out that there is a bomb made up of antimatter hidden beneath Vatican City that will annihilate in just a few hours. He is then swept up in an adventure that turns into a race to catch a man who commits all these terrorizing acts against the Vatican and claims to be a part of an ancient group called the Illuminati.

This book did keep me on the edge of my seat, but I would not recommend it for anyone to read because of its excessive violence. The twist at the end of the story was easy to see coming, but it was more twisted than anything I have ever read in my life. It was almost like reading a very violent soap opera that attempted to be some great thriller. I was also bothered by the way the creepy, perverted terrorist, who was causing much of the commotion, was Middle Eastern. Our culture already gives Middle Easterns too much rap for terrorism and it is not healthy for people to have the idea that all terrorists are from the Middle East or that everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist.

This book was also just poorly written. I did find some of the facts about symbols and some historical events throughout the book interesting, but it was hard to appreciate them when they got in the way of the actual plot and when I was on the edge of my seat because Vatican City was about to blow up. I also found it quite annoying to be reading about Robert’s and Vittoria’s growing romantic attractions for one another, not only because these descriptions were in the middle of the action, but because Robert and Vittoria knew eachother for less than 12 hours.

I must add that the book would have ended much better with Langdon’s quote, “I fear it will remain a mystery forever.” However, Dan Brown had to get carried away with his own fantasies in the last few pages. I just hope that the sequel will have a better ending than this bogus which was a complete waste of time.

*Image borrowed from http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Angels-and-Demons/Dan-Brown/e/9780743486224