Review: Angelfall (Penryn & The End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

Author: Susan Ee
Series: Penryn & The End of Days #1
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal,Apocalyptic
Publisher: Feral Dream
Publication Date: May 21, 2011

 

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.

Review
Oh Angelfall Why hast thou forsaken me? I've had a copy of Angelfall sitting on my Kindle since practically it's release day. For whatever reason I just never felt the desire to read it at the time. Fast forward a year and the book had blown up. It seemed like everyone and their Grandmother was reading Angelfall and praising its glory to the Amazon Gods. So, rather than jump on the bandwagon, I let it sit on my shelf unloved and unread until this year. With the release of the series second book I was determined to finally sit down and read Angelfall. Unfortunately, as books sometimes tend to do anticipation vs. reality has other ideas in store. So, instead of giving you some long winded explanation of why this book didn't work for me I'll instead be listing The Good, The Meh and The Awful  of Angelfall.

The Good
One of the best parts about Angelfall is Penryn's Angel companion Raffe. He has looks, charm, is good with a sword *wink, wink* and best of all his head isn't buried in the clouds. He thinks logically not just with his heart and I liked that.
The Meh
 Penryn's sister was one of the low points of the book for me. We didn't get nearly enough time in the beginning of the book to establish an emotional attachment to her and then when she's finally found near the end Penryn shoves her off to her Mother whose btw batshit crazy and was one of the reasons she was taken in the first place. Plus to top it off it's not like her sister was taken by Humans. She was taken by Angels who can you know Fly. Yet here Penryn goes on a quest to find her which of course seems crazy in its own right. I just didn't care, I wish I did but I would've rather seen 100 pages of Penryn wallowing in grief and then getting word she's still on Earth than just assuming she has a chance to get her back. It would've been a nice way to build a relationship between her and Raffe plus given her time to build up reasons why we should care about her anyway.

I also didn't really enjoy the world building. We have Angels smiting everyone on Earth. Let's call it what it is an Angel Apocalypse. Yet, despite this we have no real reason why this is happening beside a few ominous sounding lines from Raffe. We also know that the Angels have no problem partying with Human Women even though it's made clear this is a huge no-no. To top that off we have Kids being kidnapped but no clue why. I mean I get the Angels aren't exactly playing by the rules anymore but c'mon at least establish a pattern of some sort.
The Awful
 I strongly disliked Raffes transformation at the end. I won't give it away but let's just say that in the span of a few hours some corrupt Angels had enough time to work their magic with a demonic bedazzler. It just seemed like such a cheap plot device and I almost threw the book down in frustration at that point.

I also had to laugh at the books 16+ rating. If anything it needed to be more gruesome and terrifying. These are supernatural beings chosen by God for Christ sakes. You'd think those left would be sacrificing animals and people en masse to try and appease him. Nope instead they want to either party with the Angels or band together in gangs looting and killing for fun. Sure some want to fight back but they seem few and far between.

More than anything though my biggest issue with Angelfall was Penryn's Mother. Penryn herself establishes her dislike for her but time and time again she's checking to make sure she's safe, fed and still following behind her and Raffe. Here's the issue her mother is an unmedicated schizophrenic, is a clear danger and yet instead of just letting her wander off alone Penryn's damn sense of loyalty kicks in and she's brought back into the fold like nothings happened. It would be a kindness to society and Penryn herself if her mother was put down by the Angels. She's not good for this world and is dangerous to humanity as a whole you mark my words.

Final Thoughts
If a book could be considered a hot mess than Angelfall would definitely fit the bill. The story felt all over the place for me and left me more frustrated than satisfied at the end. While I can see positives in the Authors writing I'm not sure it really warrants those 8K + 5 Star reviews on Amazon. If I didn't know of some reputable bloggers who loved the book I would assume most of them were paid for. Would I recommend the book? Maybe, but I'm not sure I'd do so out of liking the guts of the story or just to share it's crazy plot failures with someone. With that being said, I'll be rating Angelfall by Susan Ee ★★★.

 *Copy reviewed purchased by me. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in an which way  for providing them.

Want to learn more about this book or the Author? Click below!
Susan Ee:
Goodreads Page
Website

Comments

  1. This review is amazing! It honestly made me LOL
    I love reading about a man who knows how to use his sword;)
    Do you know where I could get my hands on one of those demonic bedazzler? That just sounds like it would be fun to use on people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I think you can find that Demonic Bedazzler online. Just go to SatanLikesSparkles.com and for the low price of $6.66 + S&H you'll even get two if you act now.

      Delete
  2. Ah, man...sorry this one didn't work out for you. I'm still kind of in love with this series, but I can see why some things bothered you. I actually kind of loved Penryn's crazy ass mom and what she brings to the table in both books. You get a little more background on the Angel Apocalypse in book 2, but I think this is a 5 or 6 books series, so she's only giving us a taste right now. Three stars isn't terrible, so maybe you'll be curious enough to pick up the next book?

    ReplyDelete

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