Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Sep 06, 2011 Regina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, post-apocalyptic, owned-kindle, first-in-series, urban-fantasy-uf, cheapie-ebooks, favorite-series

Angelfall was better than 4 stars for me, but not quite 5 stars. ETA: I am upgrading this to 5 stars because months later I cannot stop thinking about this book. I think that means the book warrants 5 stars. This is one of my favorites for 2011. I am pretty sure that my review cannot do Angelfall justice. So I will be quick.

The story straddles several genres; the main character is 17, there are supernatural beings and the world as we know it has ended – so a young adult urban fantasy post-apoc ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2012 Lisa Wadsworth rated it really liked it

Shelves: epubs, young-adult-fantasy

Good book!

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 23, 2013 Rachel-RN rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2014

Wow! This book was intriguing. Totally dark, twisted take on angels. Still so many unanswered questions. I really liked Penryn and having to take care of her family aged her much more than her 17 years. (She has to take care of her paraplegic sister and schizophrenic mother- who is off her meds).
This is how a book should be. It had me from the very first sentence and didn't let go until the last. I couldn't predict which direction it would go and once I thought I knew, it changed course again. T ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2013 S H A R O N rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopian, fiction, paranormal, teenybopper, urban-paranormal, young-adult, 2013

[I also reviewed this title on my blog: Ishari's Bookshelf]

There is a lot of love out there for Angelfall. I think it's well-deserved love. Angelfall is one of those books that hooks you by its bat wings and drags you along for all 247 pages until you finish and go "whoah!". It's compulsively readable and so fast-paced you feel like you are sprinting away from the killer angels right along with Penryn.

So you may be asking - if you liked it and if it's such a readable book...why knock it down two [I also reviewed this title on my blog: Ishari's Bookshelf]

There is a lot of love out there for Angelfall. I think it's well-deserved love. Angelfall is one of those books that hooks you by its bat wings and drags you along for all 247 pages until you finish and go "whoah!". It's compulsively readable and so fast-paced you feel like you are sprinting away from the killer angels right along with Penryn.

So you may be asking - if you liked it and if it's such a readable book...why knock it down two stars?

It lost a star because it was just too short. Yes, 247 pages is not enough for this book. It easily could have had another hundred pages to flesh out the world and the situations Penryn and Raffe found themselves embroiled within. Because the book IS so readable and fast-paced, it felt like I was flying by each plot point within the book. I know it's set in a modern-ish world, but I still felt like more world-building and more building up of the plot could have really made this book a lot more satisfying.

It also lost a star because there wasn't much character development. It's hard to feel anything for a romance or for a character's suffering when you hardly know the character. I think the lack of character development may have been a result of the book being too short...again, another 100 pages would have allowed Ee to really establish the characters. As it stands, I could really care less whether Penryn recovers her sister and/or she gets together with Raffe. *shrugs*

Don't get me wrong - I really enjoyed this book. Despite my ambivalence towards the characters and their plights, I already went out and got my hands on the second installment. It really does deserve all the love it's been receiving as well - it's one of those books that makes you scratch your head at publishers wondering why they chose to pass on this gem. It's always great to see an indie book make such a huge splash.

Bottom line - check out Angelfall. While I may have not liked its shortness and/or lack of character development, I am definitely in the minority. It's a fun, quick read with an interesting premise. ...more

Like · see review

Jan 03, 2016 Mashara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fantasy, contemporary, postapocaliptic, youngadult

Mind. Blown.
You might start this book and see the obviously unhelpful mother and the totally helpless little sister and the tough as nails older sister and main character and you might get the wrong impression of this being another knockoff postapocaliptic teenage dystopia of The Hunger Games. And you'd be wrong, because it's no knockoff of anything. Although a comparison with The Hunger Games is not erroneous, because it's about as dark and Penryn has nothing to envy Katniss' courage or resourc ...more

Like · see review