Review: Angelfall

Info:

Title: Angelfall
Author: Susan Ee
Series: Penryn and the End of Days
Publisher:Feral Dream
Publication Date: February 11, 2012

Blurb:

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.

My Thoughts:

Wow, what an awesome surprise this book was! I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book, but I was hooked within the first chapter. Angel books are a bit of dangerous territory for me. I've tried a few different types to varying degrees of success. Fallen angels: too creepy and stalker-y. Holy angels: okay, but a bit too religious. Human-type part-angels: excellent. But Angelfire is another category altogether. Wrath of God angels: oh yeah!

Let's start with our heroine, Penryn. Basically, I fell in love with her. She is so flawed, yet so strong. She really embodies what I believe would happen to someone facing an apocalypse. I appreciated that she was willing to do what needed to be done at the same time as she realizes how she has changed since the beginning of the apocalypse. She sees herself becoming cruel in order to provide for her family and keep them safe, but is strong enough to continue on anyway.

I loved seeing how family remained so important to Penryn. In this regard, Angelfall actually reminded me of The Hunger Games, with the strong old sister going to any lengths to protect the younger one, as well as an absent father and a less-than-ideal mother. We actually don't see much of Penryn's little sister Paige, but from what Penryn tells us, she seems like such a little sweetheart! Penryn's mother is a different story. She is a paranoid schizophrenic and the apocalypse means she no longer has access to the medicine she needs, turning her into a bit of a loose cannon throughout the story.

And the angels! I love these "wrath of God" type angel so much more than whiney, fallen-to-earth angels. In this regard, I saw a lot of parallels with the angels in the tv show Supernatural, which is one of my faves.  Dean's description of angels as "dicks with wings" totally fits here too. And I love the use of angel lore, since I would do a little happy dance inside whenever I spied an angel name I recognized (Michael, Gabriel, Uriel etc.). Angels always walk a bit of a fine line for me before they fall into the realm of overly-religious and preachy, but this was definitely not an issue with Angelfall (hooray)!

The angel we get to know the best throughout the story is Raffe, who I thought was very well done. While I may not have a real thing for bad boys, I do have a thing for the anti-hero and Raffe definitely fell into that category for me. I enjoyed watching him and Penryn together as they both came to see a different side of the enemy they'd been fighting. I always enjoy when a story becomes less about good vs evil and more about us vs them (the world is grey after all, not black and white).

Overall, I really enjoyed Angelfall; it's a great combination of angel-lore and apocalyptic mayhem! I seriously recommend this one to anyone who enjoyed post-apocalyptic or apocalyptic fiction and/or would like to see some not-so-cuddly angels kicking our lazy human butts!

On the Cover:

I'm a fan. I like the wings and the striated effect.There's another version floating around where Angelfall is on the bottom and has a reflection effect going on, which I don't like. But my version is very pretty!

Rating: 5 Hearts

Source: Bought from Book Depository

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