Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)
Author: Susan Ee
Pages: 283 pages
Format acquired: Paperback
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Published on: August 28th 2012
Source: Purchased from Fully Booked
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble



It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

(Image and summary taken from Goodreads.)

Review:

It's so rare to find a angel-themed book that differentiates itself from other books of the same genre. I always have this mentality that when I read a book that's based off of very mainstream themes, it's not going to be as good as its predecessors, but Angelfall certainly proved me wrong. Angelfall is literally the best angel-themed book I have ever read. It puts the Hush, Hush series to shame and whatever else you can think of. It's such a different yet very out of the box take on angels and that's what makes it so appealing. Susan Ee took a very popular paranormal idea and turned it into something more.

Angelfall is set in a Post-Apocalyptic world where God has sent angels to pretty much destroy everything on Earth. And now, the humans are forming rebellions, angels are killing people and seventeen-year-old girls are on the run, what's not to be excited about? When Penryn's handicapped little sister, Paige, is taken from her by an angel, she finds herself in a huge pickle. Especially since her sister was taken because Penryn decided to help a white-winged angel being attacked by other angels. (White-winged angel's wings were cut off by his aggressors.) So what does Penryn do? She takes the unconscious angel, holds his wings captive and forces the angel to help her. And that's how Penryn and  Raffe's explosive duo came to be.

There's never a dull moment when it comes to Penryn. If I'm not laughing my socks off, I'm on the verge of tears. Penryn is one of those teenaged girls who were forced to grow up at such an early age. Because of the fact that her mom is a complete religious nut, she couldn't be relied on by either Penryn nor her other daughter, Paige. So now, it's up to Penryn to take care of both her sister and her mother. I honestly felt that it was just unfair that she had so much responsibility being placed on her shoulders but when the world is ending and you're trying to survive, I guess you really can't be picky as to who gets the responsibility. The fact that Penryn managed to still have a sense of humor really made the book all the more lively. I don't think that I would have survived the story's gloomy setting if it weren't for Penryn and Raffe's quips and antics. Penryn's desperation was what really drove her to great lengths to find her sister, it was like a shot of adrenaline in her system. My heart hurt for her and I wanted to attack everyone that belittled and threatened Penryn. Rage!

You'd think that because there's an extremely hot and extremely unorthodox angel present that you'd have a ton of romance-y scenes but no, that wasn't the case with Angelfall. I think Penryn was too busy worrying over her sister to try and jump Raffe. I really liked that fact that it wasn't really focused on the romantic aspect though. It gave the book a sense of realism and it emphasized the more important parts of the book, such as Penryn and Raffe's struggles, the super badass fight scenes, the slightly dark but very amusing commentary and others. But I will say that even though the romantic parts were scarce, doesn't mean that they weren't there. I like to think that Susan Ee knows what delayed gratification means because trust me, even though the Penryne + Raffe ship was delayed, I was definitely gratified. There was an underlying tension between Raffe and Penryn that you just know will turn into some more. I wanted to ask for that more but I couldn't so... I'll be waiting for the next book!

I don't think that there's a specific moment when I knew that I had fallen in love with this book. Was it when Penryn pretended to be an angel? Was it when Raffe decided to go shirtless? Was it when Penryn saw _____? I don't really know, but what I do know is that all those moments were what turned this book from good into extraordinary. Angelfall is an insanely straight-forward book, it doesn't tease and it' definitely no-nonsense, just like its heroine. I'd like to think that the last quarter of the book was what really defined the story, there were a lot of things revealed (very gruesome and disturbingly cool things) that will just leave you open-mouthed and wide-eyed. How Susan Ee was able to come up with all that, I'll never know. But great job! *thumbs up*

Angelfall left me both extremely satisfied... and not. I loved and hated the ending at the same time. But what I hate the most is the fact that I have to wait months till I get the next book. I meant it when I said that Angelfall is the best angel-themed book I have ever read. Angelfall was exciting, engaging and a whole lot of fun! I can't wait for more Penryn and Raffe!

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