A few years ago, it looked like the next big trend in YA was going to be angels, specifically angels as love interests. I wasn’t terribly excited about this, especially since it seemed like angels were just taking the place of vampires and we were going to be getting the same old stories.
Then I happened to stumble upon Angelfall by Susan Ee. The first sentence of the description says “It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world.” You had me at “angels of the apocalypse.” Angels as destroyers of the world rather than as love interests is so refreshing and Ee’s take on it throughout the trilogy is both horrifying and fascinating.
But humans don’t come out of it clean, either, and in the middle of the gang warfare and harsh decisions is Penryn, a 17-year-old girl trying to keep her wheelchair-bound sister and schizophrenic mother alive. When her sister is kidnapped by an angel, Penryn makes a deal with Raffe, a wounded angel, to get her back.
I thoroughly enjoyed the series and felt that each book was just as good as the one before it. The characters are great. Penryn’s had several years of fight training (due to her mother’s paranoia) and is a kick-ass heroine. Raffe is a disciplined warrior with a snarky sense of humor. The chemistry between them is so entertaining to read and though you’ll be shipping them immediately, Ee doesn’t take the easy road and force them into a romance right away.
Penryn and Raffe’s relationship continues to develop in both World After and End of Days. I was also surprised (and delighted) to see how dark the story got in places. I say this about every book I love, but I want more!!! I hope Ee does more with these characters in the future.
