green angel

green angel
alice hoffman
fiction/ya/supernatural
scholastic
published 2003

Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past.  Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden.  But in destroying her feelings she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin.  It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story.

I'm curious as to just how many young adults enjoyed this book because I don't think this was a book that would widely appeal to the young adult set.  It is lyrical and magical, but it is painfully slow and very, very thoughtful.  The book is a quick read, but I felt like the pacing was too drawn out.  Nothing happened, and yet everything happened.  There are no details, but it was almost as if this was a novella that takes place between two books in a series.  Like how Veronica Roth wrote short stories focusing on other characters between her Divergent books.  I was a lovely book, albeit sad, but it was a beautiful little story about forgiveness.