Reapers With Issues by H. E. Ellis, A Book Review

 

Pestilence, famine, war, oh my.  Creativity, shock, and a questioning what, all rolled into one story.

To say this was a surprise read from her other series, would be an understatement.  I have to admit, at first I couldn't wrap my head around it as I first felt shock for the, shall I say audacity, of an author to write some of these things that fly in the face of the religious minded.  But if you let the chains on your mind go, you begin to sense the limitlessness of one's abilities to grasp the different angles your mind can create from a linear line.  In other words, black and white can be any sound or color you want, and this story gives you a taste of just that.  I would even say it elicited a decadent feel at first.  That is until I got free of the chains and started to understand and feel the story with an unadulterated one path mind.

What is great about this story is that there was a morality to it, and characters that still had depth you could feel.  Some, of course, took a while to feel anything for due to the nature of the character in your mind before you even began to get into the story, but that's what makes it intriguing; intimidating even as you wonder as an author if you could have created such a piece.

Many authors like to keep their characters in a positive light by giving them few if any flaws thus hoping to draw the reader into their veneration.  But being in a real world, sometimes the flaws, making them feel on the same level as the reader, give the character just the endearment needed to make them your hero, your best friend.  What H.E. Ellis makes you feel for these characters, I believe, will actually surprise you.  It sure astonished me.  It's a talent that some authors just innately have.  I believe Ellis is one of them.

This story revolved around the four horsemen, God, Jesus and Lucifer.  To say it is unlike anything I have read on these subjects would be a most articulate summation.  But, the interesting, intriguing, and yet moral story that ensued was a journey of pure artistic enthrall that ripped the seam of complacency and tiresome wide open.  It brought the reader to a sense of "win" with the near ending scenes and yet left you wondering what was next.

This book is not for the faint of heart.  It has strong language, vivid scenes of a dark nature, an abnormal view of religious characters and explicit sexual indications.  If you can get past those things and not letting any stalwart view of religion you may have feel disrupted, then you may enjoy the story for what it is... a skewed take on what really happened with the characters noted above.