three stars for the first half of this book, and a million for the last 3/4.

i know. i am the outlier. i am the one percent. come on and occupy me.

i have read all your reviews of this book - you, collectively, the YA goddesses of goodreads.com, and they have made me salivate for this book. and the second half or so, basically everything after the "tree" scene, was really great.

but for me, it was a slow start.and i was nail-biting the first bits, thinking to myself - "i am going to get flayed for not liking this book! the goddesses, they will scoff at me!!" here's my problem - i am not a paranormal romance fan. and i am not generally interested in the romantic subplots of books. i love me some YA survival books, but the romantic elements of those books are the parts i myself am surviving, in order to get to the good stuff like "how to make a cozy fort out of snow" and "how to start a fire using a shoelace and a kumquat." useful information i am sure i will not retain when it comes time for me to need them. and the time will come, believe me.

and the beginning of this was very paranormal romance-y. even though it was all just build-up, it was pretty clear how these two characters were responding to each other, and what the dynamic was shaping up to be. and although it should have been awesome angel-mythology backstory, it was mostly just two people bickering flirtatiously. and it didn't seem that different from something like this would be:



except she's you know, an octopus. WTF?

and even that would have been fine,a serviceable romance novel between a young girl and an angel, but i was a little scornful of this angel that talks just like a real boy. i didn't want him to be spouting scripture or anything, but he was written just as this hot, unattainable guy who is better at everything because of his supernatural powers, "shhh, human, don't talk so much," and i was just like "shades of twilight..." i would have liked a bit more, i don't know, majesty from my angel.

plus, the survival elements lose a lot of tension when there is an angel involved - even a "deflocked" angel such as we have here. his preternatural skills and abilities mean that there is an increased chance of survival, although it does manage to get hairy a couple of times. it's hard to be invested in the characters' survival when one of them has super-hearing and vision and strength and all that. less risky.

but once they stumbled into the compound, things got pretty cool. and i have to confess that i fell in love a little with those twins. but don't tell - my stance on twins has been well-documented.

after that, things really picked up for me, and i found myself way more engaged in the plot, and i could relax and feel like the YA fold would not oust me. you haven't ousted me, have you?

and you know if there is ever a movie version of this,i want it to go back in time and allow for jarmusch to play the "albino angel"



(i swear to the angels, there was this iconic photo of him in a white suit, but alas, GIS fails me)

but on the positive side - penryn was a great character. she had mad fighting skills that were justified, for once, and the reason given for her abilities was perfect. and chilling.

also - big ups for the nephilim inclusion. having just finished stress of her regard not too long ago,i am pretty well-psyched on that particular bit of angelic lore. very cool.

and while i never really grew to love raffe, i still ended up really liking the book, and i definitely appreciate its turn towards the dark end of the spectrum. not a tidy paranormal romance, after all.

part of me would love it if it just ended here - no sequel, no answers, just ending on this jagged note that leaves the reader taut with yearning. but in YA, that never happens, does it? but i know i will read the next book, and i hope penryn's mother is in it a lot more, because she is phenomenal, and i still want to know what happened to paige: when she was little, and after... well, what happened to her.love this development, by the way. love.

and - jeez - would it kill you to have some more backstory about the origin of this angel-attack? this all happened like two months ago? it seems so...progressed from where it should be. this seems like something that happened more than two months ago, and i know the characters know what happened, but the readers need a little more exposition about how it all fell apart.

but so glad i read this, and looking forward to more, although secretly wishing it would just end, where no one gets their answers, and the author just goes on to write a different book - heh heh.