The Angel Factory by Terence Blacker
Just the title was enough to make me want to read it. Turning the book over, it says it’s “Teen Fiction,” but I don’t care what age level material I read, a good story is a good story. After all, I was pulling Robert Heinlein books from dad’s pile of library books in 4th grade, so why not read “teen” stuff now, right?
A good story it is, not too long or tedious, it gets going pretty quickly. The main character, Thomas Wisdom – yeah, it’s fiction so the names don’t have to pretend to be real – is a teenager who thinks he is a typical kid. He’s got the “perfect” family – normal, boring mom, dad, big sister, and even a little white dog, Dougal, the Westie. His best friend is the school outcast, Gip, a kid who has none of the advantages Tom has – no nuclear family, stable home, etc., so naturally the two are friends. They hack into Tom’s Dad’s computer, and everything Tom thought he knew about life pretty much changes.
The “Angel” of the title isn’t what you think, this is not a religious book, but science fiction. Tom is adopted, and his parents, sister, and he doesn’t know who else in his life are not even really human, they are an extra-terrestrial species sent to “help” humanity, and refer to themselves as angels. While this explains some things, like his ‘perfect’ family, it doesn’t explain everything, and Tom and Gip set out to find out the truth behind the whole thing.
Along the way, Tom finds his birth parents, the “angel factory” where the “angels” go to get “renewed” periodically, and answers to questions that just lead to more questions. It’s a quick read – 216 pages, but set in 12-point type with wide margins and plenty of leading – with a few surprise twists, an interesting look at what it means to be human, and the consequence of being able to make choices, and I think you would enjoy it, regardless of your age.