Angelfall

Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1

By: Susan Ee

Narrated by: Caitlin Davies

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

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 17-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 Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister, and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

©2012 Feral Dream, LLC (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Ee’s debut novel is a promising opener to what looks to be a YA series worth following, one that explores what it means to be human and what it means to be a hero." ( Locus Magazine)

Interesting angelic apocalypse story

This book was recommended to me by one of my Goodreads friends. It sounded interesting and ended up being a decent read. I am a bit sick of post-apocalyptic/dystopia type novels right now, so take that into consideration when reading this review. This is another YA post-apocalyptic novel but with angels!

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was okay. This isn’t one of those audiobooks that was so stellar I would recommend listening to this instead of reading it. Still the narrator did a decent job of distinguishing between character voices. I had a bit of trouble with the different male voices since they sounded awkward and occasionally similar to each other.

Penryn is trying to survive in a world where angels have recently (6 weeks ago) ravaged many major cities on Earth. As if just surviving isn’t bad enough Penryn has a psychotic mother and a handicap younger sister (who can’t walk) to take care of as well. When an angel with black wings kidnaps Penryn’s little sister, Penryn is determined to rescue her. Penryn has decided the best way to do this is to kidnap an injured angel from the scene of the crime and make him take her back to his aerie.

This book was okay. It was pretty typical YA post apocalyptic type of fiction. In this case rather than a nuclear disaster or a plague wiping out humanity it's a host of angels attacking from heaven that wipes out all the major cities. This isn’t ever explained very well and it seems like even the angels aren’t all that sure why they attacked the humans.

Penryn is an interesting character. She is small but tough. Penryn’s mother thinks that she (the mother) gets possessed by demons and is worried about hurting her daughter during one of her demonic episodes. As a result of this insanity Penryn has been trained to fight from a very young age. Penryn has this very practical attitude towards life and just kind of goes with everything. Her dedication to her family is admirable.

The other main character is the angel that Penryn rescues, Raffe. To be honest Raffe is kind of a pretencious jerk through the first part of the story...then again Penryn isn’t very nice to him. As the story continues we learn that Raffe is a complex set of secrets and has a very complicated history of his own.

There is a lot of grotesque and horrific stuff in here. Including cannibalism, genetic tampering/torture of small children, and of course angels attacking humans in brutal ways. There is actually quite a bit of talk about sex as well; the angels really love human women and Penryn is constantly in danger of being sexually assaulted. Needless to say it's an incredibly dark story with very little light or hope throughout.

The book was decently enough written, but this book just basically sets everything up. We don't ever get any resolution around anything by the end of the book. There is no explanation as to why the angels have attacked humanity, as to why humanity couldn't defend themselves, or even much explanation about the angels' society in general.

Then there is the whole star-crossed love thing going on between Penryn and the angel she saves. This kind of made me roll my eyes a bit. I get a bit sick of the tortured man forbidden to love a human girl thing that seems to be ever present in paranormal YA.

Overall I didn't really love this book, but I didn't hate it either. It was somewhat engaging and an okay read. I did like the idea of angels causing an apocalypse, that was creative and intriguing....however, why all this happens is never really addressed. Penryn is an okay heroine, but didn’t really stand out for me. The world is interesting but not all that well developed. I guess in general I am just a bit sick of post-apocalyptic YA and this book didn’t change my mind about that. So if you are a huge fan of post-apocalyptic YA I would tentatively recommend this to you. I personally will not be reading any more of this series.

Nothing Special, But Not Sappy Either

I'm not entirely sure why I was drawn to this book. As much as I'm fascinated by angels, most fiction about them tends to be fairly limited. Many have remarked they are this generation's vampire, and that's true to a certain extent. Like zombies and vampires, there are just too many of the same stories, many of them trying desperately to stand out by being different, and failing precisely because these beings aren't supposed to be different from what they're meant to be.

With this in mind, I went through this story anyway. The first 2/3 or so is pretty basic. The "rules" of angelkind are honored, which is a plus for me. It means that nephalim are the big warning about what happens if there's an angelic romance with a human, and it means the characters in the story are abhorred by this idea. Also, they have reason enough not to trust one another, so it makes for a far more believable story. There's very little about this story that's particularly earth-shattering. If you're familiar with the Christopher Walken Prophecy movies, you'll be right at home here.

There are two standout moments for me. The first is the (no pun intended) that this whole thing is kicked off when Gabriel comes to earth and is shot by the fearful humans. I've never seen this approach before, and I totally buy it. It's something we monkeys would do. The second is the climax when we find out what the angels are doing with the humans they capture. I think this is supposed to be a nod to Clive Barker's rather disturbing prose style and twisted imagination. Most can't pull it off, and while the author is outclassed by this example (who isn't, let's be honest), she is successful enough to make you squirm with her descriptions. Kudos on that.

On the whole, I'm not drawn in enough to want the rest of the series right now, but this was a fun read all the same. I may eventually come back to it, but I'm not that invested. That's probably because I could care less about post-apocalyptic stories, although to be fair, this story works better precisely because of that setup. The characters are solid enough to be believable, though we could see the archangel Raphael a mile away the moment the name was mentioned, so there wasn't much of a reveal there. I love the concept of the insane mother fighting her own inner demons in the middle of all this. I feel like there were some missed opportunities here as well, and some inadequate explanations about a great many things. Maybe that's left for the sequels? Time will tell.

One point of mention... this is a self-published title, and that rarely works out this well. This writer understands something about editing, story pacing, and such, and has paid attention to examples she's studied and enjoyed. You just don't see that much. So, more kudos. On the whole, far better than expected from angelic YA fiction, but still not as powerful as the potential of the genre could be. It's early in the series, so we'll see what happens.

Suprisingly great book!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have already recommended this audiobook to friends. It is such an unusual story, well written, and very well narrated.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I though Penryn's crazy mom was a hoot. I really enjoyed Penryn's reactions too her...oh something weird and unusually is happening..."Guess I know where Mom is."

Which character – as performed by Caitlin Davies – was your favorite?

She did a really good job with the characters, the voices were very different so you could really tell the characters apart.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes I did want to listen to it in one sitting, and I purchased the other two books in the series as soon as I finished the first.

Any additional comments?

This book has just the right amount of sexual tension, violence, humor, mystery and suspense. Not overly sexual or gory so I would approve of my teens listening to it, but I enjoyed it as an adult too.

Can't wait for book 2!

What did you love best about Angelfall?

The story kept you entertained the entire time.

What other book might you compare Angelfall to and why?

Reminded me of twists from Hunger games and twillight.

Which scene was your favorite?

The last of the book!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The book had many emotional ups and downs.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed the book. Can't wait to hear more of this story!

Amazing beginning

This is a wonderful book, I couldnt put it down i had to keep listening.

My introduction to Dystopian/post apocalyptic novels.

Since reading this book in 2015, I have read more of this genre and started writing my own. This is better than a lot of people say it is. If people say Penryn is unpleasant that is because the setting is also unpleasant.
But enough about that. I gave this book five stars because, as a writer I know good writing, this story is an excellent starting point to get into the more intense novels of this genre.
The characters are unique, personable. The story is well written. And I look forward to listening to the next two books.

way better than I thought

I thought this would ultimately end up being some dumb teen fantasy romance. glad it was on sale or never would have listened. it's pretty gruesome and badass female character. I hope the second one is just as good.

AWESOME!!

What did you love best about Angelfall?

Oh man, I loved the whole book!!

What did you like best about this story?

Really, everything is great about this book.

Have you listened to any of Caitlin Davies’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I have not listened to any others performances by her.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES!!! I hated when I had to stop listening. Finished it in a two days tho.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book.

Must Read

Loveeeeddd this book! Absolutely not what I was expecting but I thoroughly enjoyed this addictive book

Finally a series I can get excited about

What did you like best about this story?

I am a big reader and sometimes you go through a dry spell when every book you choose end up being a dud. Then you finally pick one that turns out to be good - a story that entertains and excites you.

I also really like that they let the first book be about the story (a girl and her family) and not about the obligator romance.