Author: Susan Ee
Series: Penryn & the End of Days #1
Publisher: Hodder
Publication Year: 2012
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 326
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.
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Angelfall is the first book in a young adult urban fantasy series called
Penryn & the End of Days. In Penryn's world, the angels fell into the
earth and create chaos. The world is in turmoil. Instead of the heavenly
creatures like they often depicted, in Penryn's world the angels are more
like soldiers. While struggling to survive along with her unhinged mother
and disabled younger sister, Penryn caught in the middle of angels fight.
One of the angels took Penryn's sister. However, an angel named Raffe who's
involved in the fight got his wings cut so he's stuck with Penryn. Penryn
then made a deal with Raffe so he would help her looking for her sister.
Since Angelfall is the first book in the series, of course the focus is
the world building. This book is set in our world so it's not that
difficult to get used to. Magic system is minimal to none. I don't think
there's a specific mention of magic. The angels in this book, like I
described before, is more like a superhuman with wings. They are depicted
as soldiers with a remarkable capability of self healing. Even the
monsters in this book are more like Frankenstein's monster other than
dragons or kraken. One thing that bothers me though, this book starts a
while after the angels came to earth. There's no story on when they first
came to the earth and what lead to the situation they're in. I'm pretty
optimistic that the reason why they came will be told later in the series.
As for the others, I'm not sure; because I read books which left the
starting point unexplained. The readers just have to accept that it is
what it is. That's just how the world is. If this series ended up the
same, I wouldn't like that. I need to know why this book happens in the
first place.
As for the characters, the protagonist Penryn is your strong female
character. Raffe is a mysterious ridiculously handsome man (or angel to be
exact) who appears cold but deep down might actually care. Also, the
tension between the two and the will-they-won't-they dynamic is also
present. I'm not saying that it's bad, I just point out how common these
elements in YA books are. If you've read many YA books back-to-back, I
understand that you could get bored or even annoyed with these. But it
could be fun to read sometimes. If you're asking me though, it's been a
while since I read a young adult fantasy series. I think the last time I
read YA fantasy series is a year ago. So these tropes doesn’t bother me at
all. In fact, it reminds me how easy and fun reading YA fantasy is.
Reading this book is a nice change of pace for me. Overall I enjoyed
reading this book. Nevertheless, I wouldn't recommend it if you read YA
fantasy book regularly because to be honest I don't think there's anything
special with this book. At least as far as I read. Will I read the next
book? Yes.
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