Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

4 stars -- I like it.

Green Angel makes up for its slim, small size with strong storytelling and beautiful lyrical prose.

Green is a 15-year-old girl in an unspecified country, time period, or world. She has a gift with growing things. Her father has a gift of whistling, her mother of herbs and remedies, and her sister with life in general (or so it seems).

When her family goes to market to sell the produce Green grew, Green has to stay at home and watch over her crops. Resentful and angry, Green doesn't say good-bye or "I love you." And when the city is attacked and her family is presumably killed, Green is wracked with guilt and remorse and sadness.

She transforms herself into Ash--partially blinded by the embers that fell from the sky, angry and protective, covered in tattoos and spikes.

But as she loses herself, other people and creatures come to her and help her find her way back to a place where she can find healing and forgiveness.

Green Angel is a beautiful, well-told story that deserves a read, and it's a quick read that can be done in one sitting. Green/Ash is a relatable character and the transformations she undergoes are both understandable and mysterious.

The only fault I find in the book is that the tragedy, remeniscent of 9/11, talks of the collapse of large buildings from which you could see people jumping off... and then it talks about the agriculture and wildlife being affected. The book never mentions fall-out or what the tragedy was, but I would assume that a blow-up that blocks out the sun and kills trees and forests and crops miles away from where it occurred would have to be big enough that the immediate scene would be completely obliterated, ie, you wouldn't see people jumping off the building as they'd be gone instantly.

But then again, I am not a disasters expert.

So if you want a rather quick but moving read, I suggest you pick this book up. It's a modern-day fairy tale.