Good Omens book review

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Published by William Morrow / Harper on August 7, 2007
Pages: 384
Goodreads

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

Put New York Times bestselling authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett together . . . and all Hell breaks loose.

I wanted to read Good Omens before I watched the TV series, and not only that but I was really intrigued to read a book by two of my favourite authors, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I will say that you can tell that this book was written by two different voices and they are very distinct voices. I loved hearing Terry Pratchett’s voice throughout this book, but I will say it felt a little bit like a jumbled mess at times. I struggled to keep track of who was who and what their part in the story was, especially when it came to the kids of the story, I didn’t quite connect with each of them and that made it hard when they started to play a bigger part in the story.

I loved the main two characters in Good Omens, Crowley and Aziraphale were some of the best characters that I have read in a long time. I think that they were perfect contradictions of each other but then they also pushed the boundaries of what they were supposed to be like to the absolute extreme. I loved watching their interactions all the way through, there were some really uniquely funny moments that made me chuckle. I do think as mentioned that the bits surrounding Adam and his group of friends weren’t as well done and struggled with figuring out their point in the story. I definitely enjoyed the story but could have done with a little more help distinguishing the characters from one another.

I think the best bit of Good Omens would definitely have to be any of the interactions between Crowley and Aziraphale. I think the way that it all falls into place and they begin working together actually made this book ten times better. I thought that the dynamic all the way through and the way that the mythology was used and described all the way through was really well done. So well developed, probably one of the best books I’ve read for this. It was really a great comical read with some really great stand out moments.

This section is going to be really short, because the only issue I had with this book I have already touched upon and that was the lack of clarity around Adam and the kids in that village. I will also say that the ending was a little neat for me but it offered a great amount of closure.

I would definitely recommend Good Omens, I loved the story and the characters and how the story dealt with some potential complicated issues with comedic grace. I loved the way that the voices were interwove throughout. This will be definitely one of my favourite books of the year!

Have you read Good Omens or watched the TV show? What did you think of the two characters? Let me know.