By Susan Ee
Publisher: Amazon Children’s Publishing
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
To Sum It Up: Angels have brought destruction to the world, and Penryn Young is just another human trying to survive, one day at a time. She shoulders a particularly heavy load of responsibilities, having to look after both her schizophrenic mother and wheelchair-bound younger sister, Paige. When Paige is taken by angels, Penryn vows to find her, even if it takes striking a bargain with one of the very beings who’s made life on Earth hell for humanity. Penryn’s mission seems impossible, but she refuses to give up until she’s been reunited with her sister.
Review: If you’ve ever wondered what the world would be like if angels weren’t benevolent protectors and instead fearsome instruments of the apocalypse, look no further than Angelfall. I don’t normally associate angels with dystopia, but thanks to this novel, I do now. Angelfall is brilliantly dark and unlike any of the other angel books I’ve read.
At just under 300 pages, Angelfall packs a punch with its tightly paced story. You’re immediately pulled into a bleak, battered world where you do whatever’s necessary in order to live one more day. This can range from eating cat food to fighting off roving street gangs. Penryn, the protagonist, counts both of these among her life experiences, and they’re actually some of the least horrible things she faces in the novel. Penryn is a tough young lady, though, and she doesn’t back down from whatever’s thrown at her. And a lot of stuff gets thrown at her. From the outset of the book, you quickly learn that she’s essentially holding her family together. Her mother is schizophrenic, and her little sister, Paige, is wheelchair-bound. Penryn’s battle to rescue Paige after she’s abducted by a group of super scary angels drives this novel, and I was riveted. There are no lulls in the story, and I turned the pages eagerly.
While you never lose the sense that this is a world that’s been shattered and forever altered, the desolation is broken up by the crackling banter between Penryn and Raffe, the angel with whom she forms a very tenuous alliance. I loved their attempts to out-snark each other. The tension between the pair is perfect; just when you think one of them has had the last word, the other comes back with an even wittier retort. The sarcasm was definitely a standout for me, but I also want to say that there’s so much more depth to Penryn and Raffe’s relationship than that. You bet it’s complicated and it takes some surprising turns, but those are the elements that make it so compelling to read about.
Penryn and Raffe encounter a good many brushes with danger as they try to make their way to the angel aerie, where Penryn hopes to find Paige and Raffe hopes to have his severed wings reattached. But nothing could have prepared me for the craziness that goes down in the last quarter or so of the book. “Chilling” and “creepy” don’t even begin to describe it, and, as usual, I happened to read these chapters at night. For every impulse I felt to hide under a blanket or something, I also couldn’t stop reading. I reached a point where I didn’t care how late it was or how many pages remained, I had to finish the book then, and I did, and it was totally worth the bleary eyes the following morning.
In imagining angels as bearers of darkness and destruction, I thought Angelfall put a very unique spin on them. Add some really insane plot twists, and what you have here is a book that will not only keep you guessing but also unwilling to put it down.
All in All: This is an impressively written debut, and I can’t wait to read the sequel, World After. I can’t reiterate enough how different Angelfall is—if you decide to read it or have read it, you’ll understand completely.
