Angel

Freya is either mentally unstable or in touch with angels. Up till now the former has been assumed. The reader joins her during the early stages of her integration back into normal teenage life. McNish has set his tale of angelic visitors in the context of an urban secondary school, merging together the themes of bullying, peer pressure and relationships with the rumours of angels that permeate his down-to-earth narrative.

In a deft construction, McNish has allowed this earthiness to permeate the very lives of the angels themselves. His creations are not stained glass figures. They are revealed to be complex characters wrestling with the doubts and fears of their own calling, uncertain in faith and struggling with each other. At the same time, the realism of the teenagers in the book is tinged by the supernatural – a feature that applies not just to those in touch with angels, but also to characters like Freya’s brother Luke and the fanatical Stephanie. McNish vividly portrays two worlds in the light of each other, creating a thin space between them that makes for a moving and thought provoking tale.