Angelfall by Susan Ee

 Title: Angelfall

                                                      Author: Susan Ee

                                                      Pages: 255 

                                                      Published: May 2011, by Feral Dream

                                                      Series: Penryn and the End of Days #1

                                                      Genre: YA novel, post-Apocalyptic

                                           Stars: 5/5

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.

This book was ah-maz-ing! I do admit, that I did not think this novel, from a self-published author, would be this good......well that just goes to prove us (yeah I know you thought so too) wrong and that you don’t need the support of some big fancy publisher in order to get your book known and to be bought.....okay enough of that and down to the real hard core review!

Just when I thought we ran out of original and likeable new female characters in the YA world, Penryn showed up!  Penryn is one of the most unique characters I have known. She is just a typical teenage girl, there is nothing special about her, but what she has gone and goes through throughout the book, begs to differ. She’s not uber strong or pretty like Helen from ‘Starcrossed’ or Celaena from ‘Thrones of Glass’, but instead has taken just normal paying self-defence classes, she doesn’t have a unique ability or power like Juliette from ‘Shatter Me’ and she’s certainly not an important person that her existence (or death) means a lot like Tris in ‘Divergent’. Penryn is just a normal girl, burdened by familial responsibilies and trying to make family live by whatever scrapes and pieces she can find. Her mum’s crazy, her little sister is wheel-chair bound, possibly by the hands of her mother and Penryn alone tries to make the best out of the dire situation they are in, even if it is destroying her. She is just so likeable and I root for her all the way. She will do anything to protect her family, mostly her sister and for that she gets her very own 5 star rating!  

I LOVE Raffe! Argh reading all these heart throbs and unrealistic guys in these books makes me want one so badly! Gosh, why can’t they be real? I love Raffe for his cunning personality, his never-ending insults at Penryn, not to mention his extremely otherworldly good looks. I mean seriously, he is described to be looking like a Greek god! But I also fell in love with the softer and emotional side of Raff. Raffe has struggled to find his feet (literally), since his wings were sliced off. He looked as if his entire heart was ripped out of him nevertheless, he still held a glimmer of hope that there was still a way to save them and get them sewed back on.  He always wore a mask, making sure nobody gets a true reading of him. There is so much more to this guy and I REALLY want to know. What made me surprised was that he’s an agnostic angel! Agnostic angel! But the justification he gives and how it’s actually similar to agnostic humans was really clever. Susan, my dear, you are one good writer!

Penryn and Raffe’s relationship is one of the BEST YA relationships there has ever been written. It is bubbling with sexual tension. They both merged together. There really isn’t much else I can say about this, just that their relationship seems to be really unique. Especially that KISS!!! Wowzaaa! I mean, the way both characters felt when they kissed each other at the angel nightclub, is exactly the same way I would have expected them to have felt. But then Raff goes on and says that utter sentence that made me laugh so much, "I still don't like you."! 

I LOVED the way they kept arguing and throwing insults at each other back and forth and having a sly comeback at the ready. In this otherwise dark ambience, their love-hate relationship was the only potential source of light. But aside for her feelings for Raffe, Penryn did not become sidetrack from her familial responsibility of saving her sister from the angels and finding her mentally challenged mother. But it was this slow-burning romance between the two that made them even more perfect for each other.

Okay, now I thought I got the gist of all angel-related books, especially between fallen angels and nephilims, but boy oh boy, clearly there is soooo much more. I loved the twists to the whole angel business, which makes this such an original book! Susan introduced us to a completely new world of angels where they are vicious, cunning, power-hungry, politically-driven....and they’re not even fallen angels! I LOVE the whole angel political business aspect, where every angel is fighting for the position of being the new messenger of God and loyalties are currently in different places. It was sooo good!

But the climax at the end was EPIC! That is what made me give it a 5 out of 5 stars! No spoilers, but it absolutely thrilling and entertaining. I loved it how Susan did not also hold back on any of the gruesome and disturbing parts. Safe to say, this book it not childish at all and it made it even more delicious, letting the readers know the actually extent of the situation that Penryn and Raff are currently in. Oh my gosh, but the conclusion for Raffe is what made me tear up and my heart shift in its position! Poor Raffe! After everything he has gone through and had hoped for, the ending for him in ‘Angelfall’ was sooo terrible! I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope his gets the revenge he needs to in the other books!

I DEFINTELY recommend this book to anyone, regardless if you like angel books or not, because believe me, this is no ordinary angel-related novel! Oh and there are four more books to come!!!

Notable quotes/passages: 

“It is not the gentle kiss of a couple on a first date, nor is it the kiss of a man driven by simple lust. He kisses me with the desperation of a dying man who believes the magic of eternal life is in this kiss.” 

“Here,I’ll show you how to use it. Let me see your foot.”
“That’s a pretty intimate demand in the angel world. It usually takes dinner, some wine, and sparkling conversation for me to give up my feet.” 

“What if they don’t let us go through?” I ask, trying not to move my lips. 
“They will,” he answers from the dark recesses of the backseat footwell. 
“How do you know?” 
“Because you have the look they’re looking for.” 
“What look is that?” 
“Beautiful.” His voice is like a caress from the shadows.” 

“Oh, please. Your giant head is getting too big for this forest. Pretty soon, you're going to get stuck trying to walk between two tress. And then, I'll have to rescue you." I give him a weary look. "Again.”