Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1) in YA Apocalyptic and Dystopian Fiction

Mar 25, 2013 Christina (Ensconced in Lit) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow. This was voted as my next read by my loyal blog followers this month and boy, they were right.

Angelfall by Susan Ee focuses on a teenaged girl, Penryn, who fights to protect her small and dysfunctional family in a post-apocalyptic Silicon Valley where angels have destroyed much of the technology and population. She has a psychologically unhinged mother who is no longer on medication, a sister who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, and no safe haven or regular food or water source. She meets ...more

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Oct 06, 2014 Badz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2015, kickass-heroines

Wings on the cover and Angelfall as title. This book screams angelic presence. So I was expecting the typical Angels of God story or at the very least, fallen angel-ish--something along the lines of Hush Hush. That's how I got it all wrong.

In Angelfall, angels are not the spiritual beings of god that would bring eternal peace and harmony on earth. They are the exact opposite. The world was on the brink of permanent destruction and the angels are behind it. They swooped down in all their mythical ...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Brianna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really liked Penryn. :). She was one of the smarter YA heroines I've read. She thought everything through before she did it, and I was never annoyed with her.

Raffe is such a mystery. I'm excited to see what happens with them in the second book. I can't wait to read it. ...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Ruth rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: summer

*sigh*

I don't even know where to start. You don't come across books with such a high rating (4.38) very often. Especially, if it's a self-published book. I even failed to find a negative review. Everyone's loved this book so far. I guess, it's pretty obvious why I've picked up this book ready to love every teeny tiny bit of it. Unfortunately, I did not fall head over heals in love with Angelfall. Why? That's a mystery to me.

There is no doubt this book is well-written. It even has great characte *sigh*

I don't even know where to start. You don't come across books with such a high rating (4.38) very often. Especially, if it's a self-published book. I even failed to find a negative review. Everyone's loved this book so far. I guess, it's pretty obvious why I've picked up this book ready to love every teeny tiny bit of it. Unfortunately, I did not fall head over heals in love with Angelfall. Why? That's a mystery to me.

There is no doubt this book is well-written. It even has great characters to give the story the right seasoning. I mean, Penryn is one of the strong heroines who is brave and willing to do almost anything to save her family but she never looses her humanity, softness and femininity. Raffe is tough as nails and yet somewhere deep inside he's also gentle and kind. Not to mention he's incredibly, out-of-this-world kind of handsome and super hot. I loved their dialogues and couldn't wait for them to get a chance to say more. The smart-ass witty comments they gave each other made me laugh out loud.

I feel sorry for Raffe, really it's heartbreaking the struggles he face with his wings. I can only imagine how hard it must be to be unable to do anything about something so truly wholly yours being taken away. And who Raffe really is? I honestly never saw that coming. I now that probably makes me look stupid but way to go for camouflaging that from me. I usually pick up on that kind of thing pretty quickly.

Angelfall is an action-packed, fast-paced book. For an unknown reason though, it didn't consume me and didn't make me stay up late just so I could read some more. It had all the right elements but somehow it failed to entertain me as much as it should. I could say it's because the setting got a bit ridiculous and hard to get used to but that would be a lie. If a story's good enough it can make you enjoy almost anything, even the things that may not be your cup of tea, the way the Dauther of Smoke and Bone does.

I really enjoyed the first 1/3 of the book until they stumbled upon the resistance camp. Starting from there it all kind of turned into a ridiculous set of events and let's be honest, ridiculous people. Scratch that, it wasn't just people but also angels and weird creatures (I still have no idea what they were supposed to be).

I could easily get into the whole angel world, it was exceptionally believable, possibly because of the history and bible background the author took time to study and understand. I failed to believe the rest though. Why would angels be sleeping with human women when 1) they knew they could end up creating the terrible nephilim and 2) there are female angels who look a lot better than human women who they also often refer to as monkeys. Also the thing with the monster devil kids and scorpion-angel creatures was a little over the top.

I wish there was a lot more information about the whole angel attack and a lot of other things I felt were left unanswered. I mean, I don't expect to find out everything in the first installment but it would be nice to at least get some answers. As a reader I like the satisfaction of learning new important details and insides. It makes me feel like somehow I've accomplished something by getting there (I'm not sure it's entirely possible to explain that feeling) and it helps me connect to the story better. I'm always hungry for secrets and revelations so I guess I will always want to know more.

I know I've said some bad things about this book but don't get me wrong - I did enjoy it. I liked it a lot in my own way. I even wish I could give it 4 stars but I just can't do that right now because I tend to idealize the books once I'm finished but those were really things that bothered me while I was still reading. Now I'm thinking that maybe it was only because it was so freaking hot when I was reading it that I failed to like it more. Maybe I wouldn't even have liked the Hunger Games in this kind of weather. I honestly hope that is the case and I actually do like Angelfall a lot more than it seems. Yeah, I'm sure that's it. So I apologize for all the bad things I've said earlier and I will be definitely looking forward to reading the next installment as soon as it comes out. I hope book #2 proves my theory and disproves all my complaints! I'm eager to hear more about Penryn and Raffe, I love both of them! ...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, on-my-ipad, reviewed, book-boyfriend

If you're only ever going to read one paranormal story in your life, let it be this one.

What I absolutely love, love, love about this book is that it's about bad angels! I mean, we've always seen angels as pure innocence, messengers of God, whatever else... but never as the deliverance of a massacre! The angels are the bad guys here. They're the one killing the humans they apparently were once supposed to watch over. I just cannot get over how much I adore this! I know, that sounds pretty horrid If you're only ever going to read one paranormal story in your life, let it be this one.

What I absolutely love, love, love about this book is that it's about bad angels! I mean, we've always seen angels as pure innocence, messengers of God, whatever else... but never as the deliverance of a massacre! The angels are the bad guys here. They're the one killing the humans they apparently were once supposed to watch over. I just cannot get over how much I adore this! I know, that sounds pretty horrid, but it's BOOM! New! Refreshing! I know we've all heard of bad angels before, but this brings it to a whole new level.

And of course, we've all read our fair share of fallen angels. Raffe is just... sigh... He's my perfect Valentine's date. I simply love him. He's so surprisingly human for a celestial being. And this quote just says it: "A sense of humor is one more thing I don't think angels should have. The fact that his sense of humor is corny makes it even more wrong." Raffe is FUNNY. In a sarcastic way. And who ever thought angels to be sarcastic? There's more to him that I'm sure you'll love, but I'll let you find out for yourselves!

Penryn makes an awesome MC. She's strong. She knows how to fight! (One thing I'll always be jealous of is people who actually know how to fight. I wish I knew how to defend myself!) And the whole time, she's on the mission to find her sister. Paige, crippled at a young age, presumably by her mother, was taken away by the angels when Penryn interfered with a civil fight. Paige is the reason Penryn saves Raffe time and time again and lugs around his wings for leverage. And that kind of determination is admirable, but I guess that's what fuels most MCs in situations like these.

Thing about Angelfall is that it doesn't start when the apocalypse happened. It starts after. I think it was exceptionally genius because we're not overwhelmed with attacking winged devils (of course, there is a lot of action throughout this nevertheless). And there is a lot of gruesome scenes in here. I don't mean to sound like a sadist, but it was awesome! It was just the perfect combination of post-apocalyptic paranormal romance! Angelfall had everything I could ever wish to read.

I just cannot believe I got all that for .99 cents on Amazon. NINETY-NINE CENTS. It makes me tear up to think that I had to spend $15 on a horrid school book that was barely 100 pages and was horribly tedious, when I could've gifted away 14 of these lovely copies of Angelfall... But seriously, just one dollar, and you will get so much more.

So there it is guys. This epic, adrenalin-fueled story about angels gone bad, and one particularly sexy fallen angel is not to be missed!

Review also posted on The Book Barbies. ...more

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