REVIEW: Angelfall (Penryn and the End of Days #1)

Angelfall (Penryn and the End of Days #1), by Susan Ee
Published August 28, 2012
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Format: audiobook, purchased from Audible
Genre:  young adult fantasy/post-apocalyptic
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble

Rating:  5 STARS

(From Goodreads) 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.

There's been no shortage of hot angels in YA fiction in recent years. Patch. Daniel. Akiva. But, see, you haven't met Raffe yet. Otherwise known as Raphael. The archangel. Or, maybe you have. But, I guarantee you haven't met Susan Ee's version of him yet. Because once you do, all those other guys fade into the background.

I finished Angelfall five days ago, and I'm still reeling. I am amazed at Susan Ee's ability to create this crazy, amazing post-apocalyptic world complete with angels, demons, monsters and heroes. It is unlike anything I've ever read before.

The setting is San Francisco, six weeks after angels invaded Earth, causing world-wide destruction by way of natural disasters of all kinds. Now, it appears as if the angels are finishing off the remaining humans in horrible and brutal ways. Seventeen-year-old Penryn is running with her handicapped sister and cray-cray mother when they are witness to an angel getting the crap beat out of him, his wings ripped off and left for dead. Her mother runs, her sister is taken, and now Penryn is left with a lame angel to guide her to their headquarters in order to save her sister. What begins as a volatile partnership ends as something much more as Raffe and Penryn face life-threatening challenges in order to accomplish their goals.

I read Angelfall after my bestie, Jen from At Random, started fangirling over it. Jen never fangirls over anything, so I knew it must be a good one. I remember about 10% or so into Angelfall sending her a text saying that I wasn't sure if I loved or hated Raffe. In the beginning, it's very easy to have this love/hate relationship with him. I think Penryn does too. He plays the angry angel card very well.

The glimpses we start to see into Raffe's psyche through the course of his and Penryn's journey will definitely sway you toward the love end of the love/hate scale. He's just as tortured as Penryn is. He's lost his wings to his main enemy. His only choice of a surgeon to sew them back on is a female angel who he hates. He lost his troops. His friends. He's an angel all alone, and they hate being alone. So, I get why he's an ass most of the time.

But, the more things that Penryn does that he doesn't expect, the more his outer shell cracks, showing glimpses of his true self. One who has a snarky sense of humor. Who might not think humans are all that bad. Who might actually want to HELP Penryn. It's that version of Raffe that I fell in love with.

Penryn is my kind of chick. She is a complete badass, forged by a crappy home life. She took self-defense lessons in order to protect herself from her unpredictable and mentally unstable mother. Then, the world fell apart and she was able to put her knowledge to very practical use. If any "Daughter of Man" was suited to team up with an equally badass archangel, it's Penryn. One of my favorite parts of her is her dedication to her family and her reluctance to give up even in the face of insurmountable odds. Well, that, and the fact that she has the guts to stand up to Raffe, a trait that I think he loves much more than he lets on.

You want a book with action, then you have it here. There are plenty of battles, both supernatural and human. The pacing is fantastic - there was never a moment when the story lagged for me. And, I really enjoyed the audio version of Angelfall. Caitlin Davies did a great job with the narration. This was the first book of hers that I've listened to - I'll definitely be seeking more out in the future.

Susan Ee continued to surprise the heck out of me. I thought Angelfall was simply an angel book. But, there are zombies (of sorts), monsters and demons to contend with. Not to mention radical humans bent on re-taking our world. This was an incredible book about loyalty, love and lies. The twists and turns were exciting and gripping. There was never a dull moment - it was exciting and action-packed the whole way through to the frustrating, amazing ending. You need to read this book.