This book is a novelization of the first episode of Angel. For those who don’t know it, Angel is a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

As the title says, Angel is the main character (of the book and the series). He is a vampire who was cursed with a soul and remembers everything he did before that.

As this is the first episode of a series, we can’t judge it the same way that we can other books in terms of character development. We see a lot of how Angel lived and changed through several flashbacks, but the real evolution of the different characters happens throughout the series.

What I loved about this book is that it is not just a novelization. There are also many scenes that are not in the episode, but help with the background of several characters. We see flashbacks of what happened to Spike and Drusilla and why she is so weak in season two of BTVS. We also see how Angel got his soul, which is something I don’t remember seeing in any of the series (other than a brief mention).

Other flashbacks are about things seen in BTVS. Fans of the series will already know what happens in them, but it is very helpful for people who have forgotten the details or for those who never knew them and just want to read this book as a stand-alone vampire novel. The great thing is that it doesn’t matter if you know any of these series or not; you won’t feel completely lost.

A must-read for fans of both series. ( )

Good novelisation of the tv pilot. ( )