Random Reads Review - Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall

Series: Penryn & the End of Days #1

Author: Susan Ee

Release Date: 2011

Pages: 283

Goodreads Rating: 4.24 stars

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

My Content Rating: 16+ (Violence)

Summary 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.

Recommended for ages 16 and up.

Angelfall is an exciting story about the end of the world - or at least what seems like the beginning of the end.  The enemy isn't attacking aliens or anything else that we traditionally think of as scary, though - it's angels.

I won this book awhile back and I was very excited to see that it was chosen as one of my March Random Reads.  I'd heard great things about this book, but didn't really know much about it beyond that.  Thankfully, Random.org chose a fantastic read once again!

The negatives:

• Disbelief.  One thing that I wondered about is why Penryn seemed to scoff at supernatural things - like her mom seeing demons, or some of the things that Raffe tells her.  Really, the world has been destroyed by angels!  How does anything else seem unbelievable at this point?  I kept thinking that Penryn had to be the most skeptical person in the universe.
• Want more!  I could have used a few more details about who the angels are, what they want and exactly how they've destroyed the earth so quickly.  It's all hinted at in this book, but I'm hoping to get lots more!!

What I LOVED:

• Penryn.  Penryn was one of those characters that feels real.  She's smart, brave and strong, but she also sometimes makes really dumb choices (a couple that had me scratching my head).  She knows what she wants (her sister) and she's willing to do just about anything to get it.  I felt like her voice was authentically young, with just the right amount of snark.  And I just generally wanted to get to know Penryn more and more as the book went on!
• Dark.  This book was a lot darker and creepier than I expected it to be, which I loved.  Especially the last few chapters, when it really turned the corner into freaky-town.  Some of the imagery was incredibly creepy - if I was the type of person who had nightmares over books, there were one or two things at the end that would have put me over the edge.  
• The romance.  The romance was NOT the main focus of this book, which I appreciated.  Penryn had more important things to think about most of the time than the hot angel who she was traveling with.  And, let's face it, he and his buddies destroyed the earth - it's hard to jump right on board with a romance after that.  Still, I felt like Ee did a good job of slowly introducing Penryn to the idea that Raffe might not be the evil that she first thought.  But, I also loved that he didn't completely turn into a bleeding heart who just wanted to help the humans get away from his big mean angel enemies.  Which brings me to my next point...
• Complicated good/bad guys.  After reading the whole first book in this series, I'm still not 100% sure who all of the good and bad guys are (besides a couple of obvious ones).  The mystery of why the angels came and what their purpose on earth isn't really answered in this book, but we start to get hints.  I want to read more to find out!!!  I also appreciated that Ee stuck to a Biblical interpretation of angels and didn't turn them into sweet, fluffy caricatures.  Let's face it - the angels in the Bible sometimes bring good news, but they often bring wrath.  Is it God's wrath that they're bringing in this book?  I'm not sure, but I'm eager to find out!

If you're looking for an exhilarating, sometimes terrifying YA read, then you won't be disappointed with Angelfall.  I give it 4.5/5 stars.