You can find my review for the previous books in The Great Devil War series here and here.

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Goodreads: The Fallen Angel (The Great Devil War #5)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Average Panda Rating:

It’s been almost two years since Philip left Hell and returned to life—this time for good. But things have changed and so has Philip. He’s haunted by terrifying nightmares and has never felt so lonely. Lonely and angry. Then one day the impossible happens and Philip is brought back to Hell. Not by the Devil, but by the Almighty himself. Although the Great Devil War ended a long time ago, the battle is far from over—and the worst is yet to come.

The Fallen Angel is volume 5 of The Great Devil War series.

Before I dive into my review I just wanted to say that the cliffhanger ending in this book should be absolutely illegal. 😂 What was that?! I’m so sad that the book ended when it did because I was just starting to really feel everything that was happening and then… The end. No. Just… No. This should not be allowed! 😂 😭

Possible minor spoilers ahead for book one of the series, so please read with caution if you’re planning to pick it up!

So with that out of the way, you can definitely say that I enjoyed the last 20% of the book the most! I was very curious to see what happens in this book after the extremely action packed story that was book four (my favourite in the series). Once again, the world building and the take on these characters were my favourite part of the story. The pacing for the majority of the book was considerably slow until about the 60-70% mark when events really start to pick up, but not a lot really happens in The Fallen Angel…

One thing that I do wonder is why Andersen ended book four the way he did knowing that it wouldn’t be the last book. Summoning Philip back to the afterlife when he was supposedly unable to come back again and saying that the issue was (literally) fixed by tape felt a little… anti-climatic? Lame? Disappointing? But okay. Philip is back where he wasn’t supposed to ever return to and things have changed a lot. There’s the mystery as to why Jehovah summoned Philip back but we spend about five minutes with God, and the rest was mostly about Philip trying to figure out where he belongs, and to get used to the fact so much time has passed in the afterlives.

I was surprised to find that Philip wasn’t very likeable for a large part of this story. Yes, he’s a teenager so I suppose there’s that, but he was just so petulant at the start, followed by being completely lovesick in Hell. There’s a lot more of the romance aspect in this book (I guess as he’s a hormonal teen it’s not far-fetched…) and it just felt like that awkward stage. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t really a fan of it and since it took up a fair chunk of the book, that already wasn’t a big win for me.

Honestly, a lot of this book felt a little bit too preachy for me. I’m not a (particularly) devout person but even to me it felt like the author was really pushing the message about God not being the all-powerful, all-knowing, purely good entity that society believes. This idea was frequently repeated throughout the story by many of Gods famous disciples who have turned out to be very bitter, and although I found this take on these re-known characters interesting and refreshing, it did feel a bit too much. I’m all for the controversial but when it feels constantly shoved in your face like an agenda, it just isn’t my jam. 🤷🏻‍♀️

With all that said, if I had to rank the books in this series this would be my least favourite and not even that crazy build up to the end and that cliffhanger of an ending changes how I feel about it. But I am very excited to get my hands on the final book and to see what happens because *oof* that ending though… Well played, Andersen!

Kenneth B. Andersen (1976) is an award-winning Danish writer. He has published more than forty books for children and young adults, including both fantasy, horror, and science fiction. His books have been translated into more than 15 languages and his hit-series about the superhero Antboy has been turned into three movies. A musical adaptation of The Devil’s Apprentice, the first book in The Great Devil War series, opened in the fall 2018 and film rights for the series have been optioned. Kenneth lives in Copenhagen with his wife, two boys, a dog named Milo, and spiders in the basement.

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Thanks to the author Kenneth B. Andersen for inviting me to be part of his ARC team and for sending a free copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I apologise for taking so long to post this review though! This book is now available to purchase and if you have Kindle Unlimited, it’s available on there too!

Have you read The Fallen Angel or is it on your TBR?