I was watching Good Omens recently, and I must admit that I am total trash for any good vs. evil tropes that, ya know, cross boundaries and show that good and evil aren’t as black and white as we are initially led to believe. I think the best example of this beloved trope is angels vs. demons—good vs. evil, light vs. dark. You get the drill. Are all angels really good? Are all demons really bad? Is there a little bit of the other in each? Read the below books to judge for yourself!

Books to Read if You Love The Angels vs. Demons Trope

 

1. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he even a boy? This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors born with angel blood, dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It certainly won’t be her last.

 

2. Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She wishes to protect their power. Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic show-stealing servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy.

 

 

 

 

3. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Nora Grey is responsible and smart and not inclined to be reckless. Her first mistake was falling for Patch. Patch has made countless mistakes and has a past that could be called anything but harmless. The best thing he ever did was fall for Nora. After getting paired together in biology, all Nora wants to do is stay away from Patch, but he always seems to be two steps ahead of her. She can feel his eyes on her even when he is nowhere around. She feels him nearby even when she is alone in her bedroom. And when her attraction can be denied no longer, she learns that she’s found forbidden love with her fallen angel. Despite all the questions she has about his past, in the end, there may be only one question they can ask each other: How far are you willing to fall?

 

4. Slayer by Kiersten White

Into every generation a Slayer is born… Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic. Until the day Nina’s life changes forever. Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

 

5. Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

Weston has no idea how he survived the category five tornado that killed his parents. And he has no idea if the beautiful, dark-haired girl who’s swept through his dreams every night since the storm is real. But he hopes she is. Audra is a sylph, an air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its alluring songs, and can even coax it into a weapon with a simple string of commands. She’s also a guardian—Vane’s guardian—and has sworn an oath to protect Vane at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life. When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra’s forced to help Vane. Their greatest danger is not the warriors coming to destroy them—but the forbidden romance that’s grown between them. Can promise that Audra is a little more up-front with her heroics than Aziraphale in Good Omens.

 

6. The Cold Is in Her Bones by Peternelle van Arsdale

Milla knows two things to be true: Demons are real, and fear will keep her safe. Milla’s whole world is her family’s farm. She is never allowed to travel to the village and her only friend is her beloved older brother, Niklas. When a bright-eyed girl named Iris comes to stay, Milla hopes her loneliness might finally be coming to an end. But Iris has a secret she’s forbidden to share: The village is cursed by a demon who possesses girls at random, and the townspeople live in terror of who it will come for next. Now, it seems, the demon has come for Iris.

 

7. Angel Thieves by Kathi Appelt

An ocelot. A slave. An angel thief. Kathi Appelt weaves together stories across time, connected by the bayou, an angel, and the universal desire to be free. Cade Curtis is an angel thief. After his mother’s family rejected him for being born out of wedlock, he and his dad moved to the apartment above a local antique shop. The only payment the owner Mrs. Walker requests: marble angels, stolen from graveyardsBut there’s one angel that would be the last they’d ever need to steal; an angel, carved by a slave, with one hand open and one hand closed. If only Cade could find it… Zorra, a young ocelot, watches the bayou rush past her yearningly.  Before Zorra, Achsah, a slave, watched the very same bayou with her two young daughters. After the death of her master, Achsah is free, but she’ll be damned if her daughters aren’t freed with her. All they need to do is find the church with an angel with one hand open and one hand closed…

 

8. The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu

All Magnus Bane wanted was a vacation—a lavish trip across Europe with Alec Lightwood, the Shadowhunter who against all odds is finally his boyfriend. But as soon as the pair settles in Paris, an old friend arrives with news about a demon-worshipping cult called the Crimson Hand that is bent on causing chaos around the world. A cult that was apparently founded by Magnus himself. Years ago. As a joke. Now Magnus and Alec must race across Europe to track down the Crimson Hand before the cult can cause any more damage.

 

So, who would you pick? Angels or demons?