Angelfall

Book Title: Angelfall

Author: Susan Ee

Number of Pages: 283

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy

Books like it: Fallen by Lauren Kate

My favorite quote:

“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.

Brief Synopsis 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.

My Summary:

Normally, I don’t jump on the bandwagon and go with the hype. Most of you are laughing at this, because I fell in love with Hunger Games, Divergent, and for most part, the Selection. I loved the Infernal Devices, especially. But, I did not jump on the bandwagon for Fallen, The Mortal Instruments, or The Fifth Wave. It really depends on the book. I hate getting my expectations up for a really popular book, and then it turns out to be horrible. This is why it took me such a long time to get around to reading Angelfall. Some of you might know that I didn’t really enjoy the Fallen series by Lauren Kate, and since Angelfall is kind of the same idea, I was afraid to give this series a chance.

I guess fate was begging me to read this book, because it was one of the only books in the Young Adult genre for the Kindle Lending Library.

So I clicked the check out button on the screen and started reading.

I was like: Hello, book.

And the book was like:

The characters of this book were very amazing. I felt their feelings. The tension, the hatred, the grief, the love- I felt it all. HOWEVER- the reason this book got 3.5 stars instead of 4.5 is because  Susan Ee was too much like Veronica Roth. She was super good at making the reader feel emotion and connect with the characters. The one thing she wasn’t good at? WORLD BUILDING. She never fully explained how the angels got to Earth, why they were here, or anything like that.

I hope she explains this all in the books to come.

Because otherwise I will not be a very happy camper.

My Synopsis:

This book is like is an apocalyptic, the world-is-ending type of thing. So you know, the typical genre for these times. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon. This book is sort of original, if you take Fallen out of the picture. Basically angels aren’t the sweet, peaceful things that you have on top of your Christmas tree. They’ve taken over Earth, and no one knows what they want. All anyone knows about angels is they are stronger, faster, and powerful than anything.

Penryn is a survivor of the angels’ wrath. She is on the run with her crazy, delusional mother, and her little sister.

Then one day, Penryn sees something that changes her life forever. While her family is on the run, they hear some angels talking and quickly hide. Penryn goes to investigate the noise, and what she sees is horrifying.

Two angels have overpowered another angel and are standing  over him while he cowers helplessly. She watches as they take the angel’s beautiful wings and cut them off.

That is when they turn around and see Penryn and her family. In a rush, she realizes that in that moment, she and the wingless angel are allies.

So she throws him a sword and hopes that he won’t point it  at her.

He doesn’t.  

He fights back at the angels.

In all of the commotion, Penryn’s little sister is picked up by one of the angels.  And the angel takes her away. Then, Penryn’s mom runs away and Penryn is left with the wingless angel, whose name is Raffe.

She decides to keep him captive, because he will know where the angels are. And where the angels are, her sister is bound to be too. In return, she will find a way for Raffe to get his wings back. The two of them form a temporary alliance.

What Penryn doesn’t expect is the feelings that come when she’s with him.

And moving on now….

Wow that synopsis was one of the worst that I have ever written. Sorry, I am really tired today. Basically this book is about a girl who is stuck with a wingless angel. They go on an adventure to rescue her little sister, and she falls in love with him.

Yeah, I should have just said that in the beginning.

About that romance thing….

It doesn’t feel like Penryn is really into the romance, at least, not to me. It kind of felt forced. I was rooting for Raffe to fall in love with her, and then HE DOES SOMETHING HORRIBLE!!! My heart broke for the poor girl. Here is basically what he said. It isn’t word for word, because I turned the book back in today and I don’t have it with me.  :

(They have just kissed.)

“You should know that I don’t even like you.”

(YES. I know. IT IS VERY RUDE of him to say that. )

I was so frustrated by the stupid guy at this point that I wanted to chuck my book against the wall. Except, that it was my Kindle.

Not an actual book.

So the reason this isn’t a five star book:

To conclude this book review, I’m just going to tell you,  I was greatly frustrated with this book. There were plot holes, a GREAT lack of world building, and the romance was cheesy at sometimes. I don’t really get why this book is such a worldwide favorite.  I’m guessing that sometimes girls get so desperate for love in their lives that they exhaust their energy into reading cheesy romance books.

Not me. I am perfectly fine being in love with a movie actor.

Or a singer.

DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT.  AT LEAST THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE.

Of course, if you are the kind of person, please, continue fantasizing over someone who isn’t real. Maybe one day you guys can start a fantastical life together.