Book Review: Angel Down by Daniel Kraus

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Hi book. I'm Kelly and today we are here to talk about Angel Down by Daniel Krauss, the 2026 Puliter Prize winning novel uh for fiction. Now I've read all the books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. So this is just kind of an annual thing that I do every year.

[00:00:19]I read the new Pulitzer uh winner. And so so that's what we're going to talk about today. Um, I want to start off by talking about Daniel Krauss himself.

[00:00:30]He's a very interesting writer. Um, I think he's written some YA, which is very unusual for the Pulitzer. Um, but he is now at a point in his writing career where he wants every single book he writes to be a different genre. So, for instance, and I just saw a tiny tiny piece of an interview with him um and uh he, you know, he has an idea for like a western novel. He wants every book that he writes to be a different genre. So, just because you may love whalefall, his last book before this one, um that does not mean that like his books are all going to be, you know, historical fiction or or something along those lines. I'm not sure what Daniel Krauss classifies Angel Down as. The back of the book um says that it's speculative fiction.

[00:01:29]Not according to what I think of speculative fiction. I have heard a lot of people refer to this novel as a horror novel and that I actually participated in horror mayhem by by reading this book in May. But um for me, I've just seen so many war. This takes place during World War I, and I've seen a lot of war movies. I've read a lot of war books. Uh The Pulter Prize is very heavy on World War II books. Um, so for me, uh, you know, this I I don't think of this as, um, as a as a horror novel, but it definitely kind of bends I would say it bends genres. Um, because there's a supernatural element to this book, which we'll get to. It is extremely graphic in its violence. Although I have an unfortunate feeling um that that is really how war is like um there's a scene where you know somebody's um spinal cord is is coming out of their mouth. There's um a moment where you know there's a soldier who's you know dying dead. his heart. You can they can see his heart. It's still beating and they stamp on it. It can be really shocking if you're not used to that, if you're not comfortable with that.

[00:03:00]There's also a lot of profanity. Um, now profanity is not new to the Pullet Surprise, but at the same time, like it's not everyone's it's not something everyone is is comfortable with. Um, so those are just a couple things to bear in mind before you start reading Angel Down.

[00:03:21]Now the other thing that Daniel Krauss has said is that every book he writes he wants to write in a different writing style. So one of the things that um this book has been promoted as is being a novel written in one sentence.

[00:03:40]It's not true.

[00:03:43]Um there are places where it's you know there's a period. Um but uh yeah and and for the most part um you know if you just take any any given page uh in the book it looks like this. There's a lot of paragraph breaks and I will tell you at the beginning of every single paragraph breaks uh break is the word and. Um, so for me at the when I would finish one paragraph, I would just like put a period there and then mentally skip over and and start reading the rest of you know the next paragraph. There is one chapter though that um uh yeah the text is it is more it is more uh one sentence stream of consciousness almost. Um yeah, so they're definitely that and that that's just one chapter. Um I would say that is definitely the most um challenging chapter for me in the book. The book's 285 pages. Um so I you know I the rest of it I didn't really struggle with it too much. Um I know some people have have just man they just haven't been able to put this book down. um they just really found it exhilarating and exciting. Um yeah, like you know that that wasn't really my experience, but it wasn't like I never ever wanted to pick it back up, you know. Um so, uh anyway, but I I wanted to share those things with you about Daniel Krauss because yeah, like whatever he comes out with next is going to be completely different.

[00:05:33]So that'll be that'll be interesting to see uh what else he does uh in his career uh as a writer. Other thing about um the book being you know allegedly written in one sentence is that then Daniel Krauss feels the need to explain in the novel why the book is one sentence. So, I just want to read um read part of this to you. And again, I'm not going to say sentence, but um and Bagger, who's the main character, by the way, serial Bagger. Um and Bagger already weighed down in mud and blood further heavies in the dreary certainty that the Shriek, we're going to get to the Shriek, won't ever end. Just like the war won't ever end, like the carnage won't ever end. It's a sentence in a book careening without periods, gasping with too many commas. A sentence that once begun can't ever be stopped. A sentence doomed to loop back on itself to form a terrible black wheel that sooner or later will drag each and every person to their grave.

[00:06:44]Um, and so I just, you know, like to me it's like, okay, if you're going to do the one sentence thing, like really do the one sentence thing. I I just didn't feel like he needed to do I didn't feel like he he needed to take that path. The other thing I want to tell you before we get into the actual story is that, and I don't think this is necessarily true for the people who regularly watch my channel, but not everyone knows a lot about World War I.

[00:07:15]So, if you're really really excited to read this book, um I might just, you know, get on Google, um get on a a World War I museum website, just do a little bit of homework, and that will really help you understand some of the terms people use. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of a lot of uh using the word Jerry. It's Jerry's not a character. Jerry Jerry is the name that uh the British and uh the American soldiers call the Germans. Um the Americans are called Doughboys.

[00:08:01]Um in part because America entered World War I really late. Um, and I loved I did really love it that Daniel Krauss addresses that in his book. A character says to him like, "Oh, you think you've been suffering? You know, like you think you've gone through a lot. Like you you've hardly been here. Like we've been going through this for years and you know, like all my all my brothers like meaning, you know, my countrymen are dead." Um so so it's uh it's interesting too um because only one other book has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction that deals with World War I and it is a radically different book. Um, it's been a really long time since I've read this one, so I don't remember it, but one of ours by Willa Cather um, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and she took a lot of criticism um, because, you know, she wasn't there. The premise on the back of this book is that um there is this shrieking noise in no man's land, which again you'll need to look look that up if you if you don't quite know what it is. Um you know, a a field battle that's very hard to cross.

[00:09:26]Um lots of bodies and uh you know, mines, barbed wire, all kinds of stuff.

[00:09:35]Uh, so a shriek has started up in no man's land and the commanding officer of a large company of soldiers and they're they're clearing out they're leaving the area and um this commanding officer picks five soldiers uh one of whom's African-American which I think is important um just in the sense of of acknowledging African Americans contributions to World War I and World War II. Um that they they did not, you know, they they were president that they were part of it. Um but anyway, so uh the commanding officer picks five five soldiers, most of whom are people who oh when there is battle going on like they are as far away from it as they can possibly get. Um, not all. Uh, the African-American character, uh, his name is V. Um, I think he's already experiencing shell shock, which of course was a totally new thing. Um and so so he's he's got kind of a different narrative um to what happens to him, but um the back of the book implies that all five soldiers go out into no man's land to see what is going on with this shriek.

[00:11:06]And the truth is they decide to play, you know, after their commanding officer leaves, they decide, you know, only one of them needs to go out there because essentially they're just going to shoot the soldier who's shooking shrieking.

[00:11:20]Um, you know, the the idea is not to leave anyone behind. And so if there's one person that's left on the battlefield, like they're probably so wounded already um that they they just can't get back to the trench. Uh anyway, but the what actually happens in spite of what the back of the book says, uh what actually happens is that um they play rock paper scissors to decide who's going to go. and the person selected is the youngest among them. His name is his his last name is Arno. Um, and that's mainly how he's referred to in the book. Um, but Arno is about 14 and Sirill Bagger, our our main protagonist, is very upset that, you know, somebody allowed him to come to the war. And and even though Bagger himself is really a husky, he doesn't he he has a soft spot for Arno. And I think he wishes that he didn't have that soft spot, but he does. He really does. And so Arno like starts crossing, starts going, you know, toward the shriek on no man's land. And Sirill just he can't handle it. And he goes after him. Um because he doesn't he knows like Arno doesn't even know, you know, do you stand up? Do you crawl? Like how do you get to, you know, how do you how do we find this this shriek? Um anyway, so the two of them are the one who find who's shrieking and that turns out to be an angel and she's she's wrapped in barb wire.

[00:13:08]Um although later never seems to have any wounds from the barb wire. I'm not sure why she can't escape the barbwire just like there's some other times where I'm not sure why she can't escape the situation she's in. Uh but anyway, we'll get to that.

[00:13:25]Uh there will be a spoiler section of this video, but I promise that it will be very clear at the bottom when I am when I am talking about spoilers. But anyway, so uh so they they cut the they cut the wire off of her and take her back and um right as they're you know almost to the trench um there's an explosion and uh yeah so it's in here it's in the book and I again you know Daniel Krauss like I think there are some really some good writing in this book and there's some not so good writing and this is part of the not so good writing. So, and then so then but it h then it happens. A thing happens. A thing it happens. How else to put it? Bagger knows he'll never grasp it. The thing which happens the thing that's like a pinch like a thumb and a four-finger pinch taking him by the back of his olive drabs. Same as Mama Cat takes her kitten by the scruff and he's lifted. That's the thing that happens.

[00:14:41]Lifted right off the ground till he's watching mud dribble 10 feet down from his dangled limbs. And though one of his hands holds the woman's hand, she's above him. It's like she's pulling him into the air. They're floating. And not only them, three rats and a whole and whole colonies of bugs and who knows, maybe Arno, too. And then they're tossed, the lot of them, 15 feet into the trench. And a second after this thing happens, the mortar lands, embeds, and detonates. The trench wall obliterated. But that's not where Bagger is anymore. He's way over here inside a clay avalanche, but alive. Alive.

[00:15:24]So, and then of course, you know, it goes on. So, yeah. Oh, I just like there were there were some kind of like cringeworthy sentences um in the novel.

[00:15:37]Uh yeah, and again like I think I think part of it is just like you know Daniel Krauss says that he gives himself a lot of hurdles, gives himself a lot of obstacles. And I just think the one sentence thing was one that he didn't need to do. Um, but just like this whole the thing, it happens. The thing it happens happens the thing, you know, like it's just like stop it. Just say what you want to say.

[00:16:07]Anyway, so once once the the angel's down and uh the five soldiers who are still there um and all still alive, uh they all have a different idea about what to do with the angel. The back of the book again promises us that um you know that she could be the key to ending World War I. Um, I don't think I think only our protagonist, Sirill Bagger, is the one who feels that way that she could end the war. The rest of them have slightly different ideas, and I'm not saying that they're all bad ideas, although some of them definitely are.

[00:16:53]Um, but you know, Bagger doesn't ask anything of the angel, which is very important because the longer and the more time they spend with the angel, um, they come to believe that she's she's granting wishes, she's granting their wishes. Um, and you only get one wish, which again, I don't know where all this all this comes from. So, now I'm going to go into the spoiler section of the book. If you don't want to hear any spoilers, just fast forward and I, like I said, I will have the word spoilers at the bottom of the page. You know what? Like, really, the first part of the book is okay. like it's I I again I wish that Daniel Krauss maybe um had not hindered himself so much in terms of writing style.

[00:17:53]And I feel like some I feel like sometimes the violence and the um the swearing is just a bit um a bit it just feels a bit lazy, right?

[00:18:07]like what the effing f I mean I heard that on HBO like so so many decades ago like he doesn't need you can express a lot without having to do that and and again it's not that I don't think soldiers swear a lot or um and certainly in these circumstances would swear a lot but the swearing is nothing compared to where the story goes.

[00:18:39]Towards the end of this book, which is not very long, 285 pages, I think, uh, the book completely goes off the rails.

[00:18:50]Like, I have no idea what what on earth is happening, why this is an important part of the story. Um, I I'm sure some of you feel like I completely missed the point. So um please be kind in your in your comments. Um but you know it the angel the angel herself um there like I said earlier there are things that she can get out of and things that for some reason she can't.

[00:19:26]Um I don't think that's actually true. I think that's her disguising her true nature. Um, she like just towards the end, I mean there's like a Matrix moment where there's a she stops a bullet. She plants the bullet in the ground. bagger is allowed to see into the future and there's this beautiful tree growing or the bullet was planted, which is an interesting idea because there are still places in northeastern France and Belgium that no one can live in because of the mines, the barbwire, and just artillery that is in the ground that has not detonated. Um, and they think it's going to be another hundred years before people will be able to live there, which is wild. But I don't think that, again, I don't I don't know that that's what he was going for. Um, but yeah, so she takes Bagger to his father's church.

[00:20:34]His father was a bishop. He died on the Lithuania uh which was another part of World War I history. Um the church walls suddenly become like two stories, three stories tall, the angels six stories tall. Um you know and her eyes are giant. She's not really good. Like all like at the end of the book, she suddenly her wings and she doesn't really have wings for for most of the book. She has a halo which then turns into horns and her wings um are like the wings of a bat. So to me, she's like a demon. Maybe she's Lucifer. She tells Bagger that the world will end not by war but by divine plague which the Spanish flu is going on during World War I and kills a ton of people all over the world. Um I feel like it's also kind of a a nod to COVID 19. this is so like jarringly different from the rest of the book that I just couldn't really I couldn't really handle it. Um, you know, there are people out there who say that this book is anti-war.

[00:21:59]I'm not sure about that either. Um, I don't know. To me, it felt more like the quote unquote angel is is saying, you know, war is never going to end.

[00:22:13]like there's always going to be war.

[00:22:14]It's it's a a cyclical thing. Like it's just going to keep happening and happening. Like it just completely derailed me. That's what I thought of Angel Down. Like it's an okay book.

[00:22:27]I don't I I didn't love it. Um I think it's great that there is another World War I book among the Pulitzers. Um because I do think people are forgetting about World War I. Um, but I think there are better books, better films out there that talk about World War I. Um, and I would have rather just read like a straight historical novel about World War I rather than like this again, one sentence, not really one sentence. Um, you know, wild ride that that this book takes us on. So, anyway, I would love to hear what you think of Angel Down below in the comment section. If your comment contains some kind of spoiler, please write that um before you write the comment so that if people are scanning the comments um and they haven't finished the book, nothing's ruined for them. If you don't feel comfortable leaving a comment, I totally get it. You can leave me um an angel related emoji.

[00:23:36]um you can give this video a thumbs up.

[00:23:38]I would really appreciate that. Uh so anyway, I look forward to hearing your thoughts um and discussing this more and I will get more from what you think of the book and um I hope I hope this video was helpful to you. So book remember to be kind to yourself, be kind to others and I'll be back soon with another video.