Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"Angel Down" by Daniel Kraus
INCLUSION MILESTONES
2026
• Response to Diversity/Equity/Inclusion rollbacks by Trump admin included: pressure on marginalized people; protests; lawsuits; longest government shutdown; partisan media; education, research, & workplace program cuts; mental health issues; and voting outcomes.
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Grew up in Fairfield Iowa. Loved scary movies and drew monsters as a kid. Created horror tales in high school. Became screenwriter before writing horror and sci fi novels. Learned about Angel of Mons legend while writing Angel Down. “These days, I change everything that I can from one book to the next. Genre, POV, tense, style, length of sentences and paragraphs, how the chapters and sections are organized, everything.”
GET THE BOOK
Featured Reader Wanted!
Featured Reader
– Share your key take-away about inclusion in this book in a sentence or two.
WW1 soldier’s struggle to protect angel, teenager, the world.
Shell-shocked soldier guts and then wears actual horsehead while carrying angel.
One-sentence novel described by author as “exceedingly gory book.”
Sentence that is this book lasts 8.5 audio hours or 304 pages.
Help someone who’s been left behind.
You’ll be discussing WW1 war and gore and playing an intense game of rock paper scissors, so plan accordingly. Resist urge to roast rats or other vermin and go with doughboy rations – canned corned beef, hard biscuits, raw bacon served in mess kits -- or a WW1 food fantasy – porterhouse steaks delivered by actual angel, not online meal service. Finish with chocolate bar and rainwater gleaned from tire tracks.
“Fear not”
Gather in a local church (if Iowa is not handy), or a woodsy area a fairy might inhabit, a Veteran’s cemetery, battlefield (military site or other scene of violent struggle).
"More than 14,000 servicemen and women, including the first African American WW1 Medal of Honor recipient, lie in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, about 150 miles northeast of Paris.
WW1 Centennial Commission identified 100 WWI Museum/Memorials in 100 cities, including Washington, D.C., Kansas City, MO and Atlantic City, NJ.
https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/100-cities-100-memorials-home.html"
Angel Down in development as film; Whalefall (2026). Kraus co-authored The Shape of Water screenplay and its novelization with Guillermo del Toro. Kraus co-wrote screenplays for The Living Dead, Pay the Piper and the Netflix series Trollhunters. Other feature films written by Kraus include Musician and Sheriff.
Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World (2026), Whalefall (2023), The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (Volume 1 2015; Volume 2 2016). Completed Romero’s unfinished The Living Dead (2020). The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1917).