2 out of 4 stars
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Angel Christian Anderson, or as she prefers, Angel Christian, is a world-famous, Grammy-winning rock star with a disastrous heroin addiction. Angel left home when she was eighteen years old to break free from the religious and orthodox expectations for her life from her parents. After twenty-two years on the road, the rock star lifestyle begins to take its toll. Angela feels the need to get away before her last show and take time to reconcile with her distant father. The guilt of missing her mother's funeral is weighing heavy on her heart, and she wants to do what she can to save face. However, to her dismay upon arrival, she realizes much has changed since her teenage years. Her childhood home is up for sale, and her father is now in hospice care in a local nursing home with only months left live.
With this new-found information, Angela wishes to wrap up her career, kick her heroin addiction, and take care of her father in his final days. There is only one more show standing in Angela's way, but with rockstardom comes the territory. Anglea finds herself shooting up heroin in what she believes to be her last time for the rest of her life; ever so right she was.
Angela inadvertently overdoses and finds herself in purgatory for her sin. This area between Heaven and Hell is overrun by demons and wickedness; Angela's worst nightmare come true. As Angela realizes where she is and what has happened, she discovers that other Hollywood stars with similar sins have also ended up here. With the help of Janice Joplin, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, and Elvis Presley, Angela must now learn to fight for protection from the monsters of the night. Can Angela endure her new home for eternity? Will she ever be able to reconcile with God or will she end up making a deal with the Devil? Read Jeniffer Nickell's Purgatory: A Rock Star's Journey Into Hell to find out!
This book is written in the first person with Angela as the narrator. The book starts off with Angela stressing the importance of life decisions and then it takes the reader back to the beginning of Angela's poor decision making for insight. The structure of the first chapter is set up favorably because it lays down a foundation for the book's theme. The initial chapter also focuses on the significant decisions Angela makes that will lead to her final sin; which ultimately determines where she ends up.
Nickell's, to my surprise, did an excellent job with details in her first book. Every page is overflowing with descriptions that make it simple for the reader to use their imagination. From the scene of Angel's overdose to scenes of graphic gore, Nickell's kept the level of detail consistent. Her descriptive writing makes the story suspenseful and provides astounding momentum early in the book. Although the majority of the scenes are remarkably detailed, I enjoyed that Nickell's did not get carried away with the only romance scene in the book. It demonstrates that she writes consciously and is capable of concentrating on more critical areas.
While reading, I did notice that there were scenes that lacked originality. Considering this book falls within the fiction genre, I would have liked to see more creativity. An example of this are the creatures described living in purgatory: humans, demons, vampires, zombies, and werewolves. Most of these monsters are popular in other fiction novels and lack imagination. I also was not too considerably impressed with the high level of profanity used. A little curse here and there would be understandable with regard to the storyline. However, the amount used by the characters does seem excessive and unnecessary and can narrow the target audience.
The grammar of the book could use a lot of work. I came across twenty-one errors that would not exist if the book received proper editing. The first error I noticed are repeated words located in chapter one and reads, "Howie was tired, but he got us to us to my father's nursing home called Horizon Hills." This error is followed by many others including more repeated words, missing spaces, wrong word use, missing words, and a misplaced line break. This list is too long for a professionally published book and takes away from its quality.
Overall, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. It does a great job of captivating its audience with details. It also picks up momentum very early on and keeps the action full of suspense. I'm disappointed that I cannot rate this book 3 out of 4 stars due to the high-level of grammatic errors. It appears sloppy and takes away from the quality of writing. I anticipate more attention will be provided to grammar for the sequel, though Jennifer Nickell's did somewhat okay with her first published book Purgatory: A Rock Star's Journey Into Hell.
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Purgatory a rockstars journey into hell
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