Confessions of a Fallen Angel by Ronan O'Brien

Title:  Confessions of a Fallen Angel
Author:  Ronan O'Brien
Genre: Adult General Fiction
Publisher:  Sceptre
Publication Year:  2008
Stand alone or series:  Stand Alone
Book Length: 323
Favourite paragraph:  Owen himself was a great kid.  He once swiped an arm from a shop dummy that he found in a skip in town and we planted it in one of the new graves with the fingers reaching towards the sky as if in a desperate accusatory plea of Why?  Why have you buried me alive?

 Synopsis
Imagine being cursed with visions of the imminent deaths of the people you love the most.
You would do whatever you could to stop the dreams becoming reality.
Following the narrator's disastrous attempt to save a childhood friend from drowning, a series of terrifying events begins to unfold.  As a young man, he meets the love of his life and the traumas of his early years begin to fade.  With Ashling by his side, it seems he has finally found salvation.
But then the visions return...

My Thoughts 
From the beginning the first line hooked me in and I wanted more.  I felt so drawn to Charlie the main character and I couldn't help but feel sorry, and yes, a bit of a cry at times when he is struggling.  He's done such a wonderful job in creating his very flawed characters, and  I cringed everytime Norman came on the scene.  This was one guy I wouldn't want to run into, anywhere.

The story is based in ficticious town in Dublin and as much as I loved the characters the one thing I felt distracted by was the dialogue.  Because the characters are Irish, the author has tried to show through the accent in the dialogue and I found I kept stopping to work out what was being said.  Ronan O'Brien has done this only a few times so it didn't irritate me to the point of putting the book down.

Confessions of a Fallen Angel is a very full on book, taking the reader through the highs and lows of a man who had died and came back with a gift to see other's deaths.  Bear in mind, there are funny parts throughout this book but there is swearing and violence too.

For Ronan O'Brien's first book I think he has done well and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another book of his.