Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"Angel Down" by Daniel Kraus
INCLUSION MILESTONES
2026
DEI rollbacks spawn pressure on marginalized people, protests, lawsuits, govmt shutdown, partisan media, education/research/workplace program cuts; mental health issues; 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.”
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– 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.
Treatment of black soldiers in WW1: torn corner of selective service form for people of African descent leads to dangerous assignments
Comparison between how Germans and Americans treat Black people
Coercion as recruiting practice
The role of rank/power; cruel officer with birth-defect and how regenerated arm was used
Con man’s treatment of his marks/his fellow soldiers
Judgement based on physical characteristics (lummox)
Reaction to war and gore, an angel, miracles, underworld death engine
Women lusted after or missed: prostitutes, wives, girlfriends
French allies
German enemies
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).
Why is a person deemed insignificant or dispensable by the military in this novel and in life?
The legend of the Angel of Mons grew from a 1914 Arthur Machen short story titled “The Bowmen.” Talk about how fiction can be foundation for beliefs and how to interact when fiction is presented as fact.
How does this version of the Angel of Mons fit into the context of other iconic saviors of Christianity and other religious traditions?
Why are angels presented in form of the form of a woman?
How do beliefs in religion and the afterlife affect behavior?
When have you encountered something hard to bear and reacted in a way reminiscent of “think of anything else in the world”?
What can be motivations for acting as a protector? Why are familiars liable to generate a protective instinct? What happens when a needed protector is not there?
Discuss playing the role the other needs and seeing who you need to see.
How does the novel portray race in WW1? How were black American soldiers treated in subsequent wars?
Reflect on this: “Gotta prove you are better to get what you deserved in the first place.”
How did the gore and violence affect the novel and your reaction to it?
Where’s the line between killing and valor?
Why is anger easier to handle than grief?
How does rank shape behavior?
How were the enemy, allies, and civilians viewed and treated?
How are people judged and helped or thwarted by each other and the angel?
What causes/breaks the cycle of generational prejudice?
How can an ongoing series of wars be avoided?
"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).