Evangelical Exorcism à la 80's Liverpool
Review of the Weatherglass Books paperback edition (July 2021)

[A biased 5 rating from me, as I am a big fan of the CBS/Paramount+ series Evil (2020-) which features a charismatic trio of demonic possession assessors/investigators, and this book is right along those lines + it includes references to my fave 80s music of U2 and New Order]

The Angels of L19* is the second book from new UK independent publisher Weatherglass Books and follows its premiere release of Cold New Climate (2021) with a unique coming of age story set in Liverpool, England in the 1980s.

The lead characters here are Robert and Tracey, teenagers still in school and also part of an evangelical Christian community along with their surviving parents, relatives and assorted friends. The chapter headings signify whose POV we will encounter, and they mostly alternate between the two. The main secondary character is Mark, who is a veteran of the Falklands War and is a youth counsellor for their religious community and who holds separate weekly Bible study classes at his flat.

The main story does involve Robert's perception that he is seeing a presence and a manifestation which he seeks to exorcize with the help of his friends. This is mostly handled from Robert's POV so you might believe that it is due to Robert's own mental health issue. Tracey interacts with it as well though, and it also appears to have knowledge that it shouldn't, so an actual demonic possession could be the case. Your own beliefs will likely influence your acceptance of one or other here. Saying much further would be a spoiler, but I'll just add that slightly similar to New Cold Climate, the end of the book makes a time jump to show the end results.

While this might all seem serious and supernatural, the main focus is on the community, the kids lives and their joy and love of music. A favourite section for me was Tracey (who is a drummer in their occasional pickup bands) trying to work out the drum patterns of New Order's Blue Monday (1983) which is, of course, played by a machine in the original. If you've ever loved that song or perhaps played in any band trying to work out how to copy a song, then perhaps you'll understand why this is obsessive fun stuff for me. Non-pop-music fans may not understand.

Also I simply liked that the Christian faith of the characters was not something to be mocked or sneered at. It was simply accepted, just as all faiths should be. I'm not particularly religious myself, and even lean a bit to my Estonian heritage animistic roots, so this bias isn't from any fanatical point of view from me.

Anyway, this is another winner from Weatherglass, and I've already subscribed to their 2nd year of releases. The current schedule lays out a plan of 3 releases per year, and the 3rd release of 2021 will be the non-fiction What They Heard, by Luke Meddings, expected later in September 2021.

Other Reviews
The Angels of L19 by Ian Mond, Locus Magazine, September 3, 2021.
Book Review: The Angels of L19 by Jackie Law, Never Imitate, August 20, 2021.
An Ambitious Flawed Experiment by Nina Allen, The Guardian, August 12, 2021.

* Canadian nerd confession. The title code letter-number meant nothing to me. I waited throughout the entire book to learn its secret meaning. Various absurd theories went through my mind. Did the L mean 50 written in Roman numerals? Was there a Bible book with 50 Chapters with a significant 19th verse? Did Leviticus 19 have a special meaning? After finishing the book with no answer, I finally googled What does L19 mean in Liverpool, England? to get my answer. Yes, OK, laugh if you want to. ( )