Reading Review - Angelfall by Susan Ee

Welcome back! Today's review is going to be on a book I read during the Bout of Books. That is Angelfall, by Susan Ee. I think that this was her debut novel, so even though I deviated from my set TBR, I did stay with the theme. I read this book with Kerrie, and it was a lot of fun and the book is wonderful. Initially, we had thought to read about six chapters a day, but we both wanted to read on, and suddenly six became twelve which became random six chapter sprints throughout the day as we wanted to know more about the novel. Here's the cover and official Goodreads synopsis -


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.

Recommended for ages 16 and up.

Angelfall on Goodreads      Visit Susan Ee's Website

 Angelfall is a post apocolyptic novel about Earth after angels have come into the world. The main character is a survivor of the ensuing chaos, and she, along with her family, are struggling to survive in a world now overrun by violence and destruction. Penryn, the protagonist, is a determined, loyal character who is trying to save her family and find some hope for a life. In the midst of all this, Penryn's younger sister is abducted by some of the angels. Now, Penryn is allied with another, injured angel in order to rescue her sister. Raffe, the angel, is sarcastic and enigmatic, but also endearing and a really interesting character to read about. Together, these two have a great dynamic. They were entertaining, but also had good character development and their characteristics and personalities complemented the other's well. The supporting characters in this book were also very well written. For example, Penryn's mother is very different from any YA character I've read, and whenever she was involved, the entire scene could be different depending on what she did. The characters in this book were very well done. They were interesting, dynamic, and worked well together.

Overall the pacing of the book was good as well. It was difficult to stop reading, and I was really interested in what was going on, and how the world building and story went well together, neither overshadowing the other. However, I did have a problem with the ending. I'm going to keep it spoiler free, but at the very end, things seemed a little unlikely in the turn of events. It felt like some of the practical qualities that had been included in the world and character building were lost. That did affect the way the story ended, but it wasn't something that drastically hurt an otherwise fantastic novel.

I gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. Again, my problem was with the execution of the ending. Regardless, it obviously didn't hurt the overall quality of the book too much, with such a high rating, and this is definitely a series I'm looking forward to continuing. The sequel, World After, is already published, and so Kerrie and I have plans to pick that up soon. I'm very excited to continue on with the series and I would recommend it!

From the paper world,
V