Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on January 20, 2014 | 32 Comments


Review: Angelfall by Susan EeAngelfall by Susan Ee
Series: Penryn & the End of Days #1
Published by Feral Dream (5.21.2011)
Genres: Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eBook, 283 pages
Source: I own it
Buy on Amazon


3 Stars

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 thoughts

Man. I was really looking forward to reading this book, as I’d seen SO many glowing 5 star reviews about how AMAZING it was. Guess what? Black sheep again. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but I didn’t necessarily like it either, if that makes sense. It was one of those books. You know, the books you read that you don’t really care about either way, that don’t give you much inspiration or make a lasting impression on you. My overall feeling about this book was just meh. Perhaps I simply set my expectations WAY too high, but I was completely underwhelmed.

I did like how gruesome it was, though. It was rather dark at times, but it still wasn’t the gritty novel I thought I’d get. But I did like that it was borderline disturbing at times, and there was plenty of blood and violence.

Yes, it was a different angel story; it wasn’t cliche. But – it still had a lot of romance, in my opinion. While the relationship between Raffe and Penryn developed pretty slowly, I felt like there was a lot of emphasis on it (even if it wasn’t actually lovey dovey). I had heard that there was little to no romance, but I found this to be untrue. No, there wasn’t much (or any? Can’t even remember) kissing/touchy-feely scenes, but I didn’t expect there to be a relationship at all that leaned toward romantic. I thought it would be all world and action.

I did, however, really like Raffe. He stood out to me from the very beginning, and I wouldn’t mind learning more about him. I liked Penryn for the most part, too; she was fiesty! 

Sometimes there were things that seemed almost absurd to me. Sadly, I don’t have examples (I usually do…it’s weird). I had trouble putting my finger on it, but there were things that annoyed me. Most of the time it was a very tiny passing annoyance, so I didn’t bother to keep track of them. But I noticed quite a few of them. Either in the dialogue being…awkward, or the happenings being a bit nonsensical. The one example I have: Raffe was agnostic. An angel. An agnostic angel. Umm…

It wasn’t unenjoyable, but I still wasn’t impressed. Actually, I feel rather disappointed because I was expecting much, much more from this book. I’ll definitely still pick up the next book in hopes that I will like it more!

quotes

I am an ant in the battlefield of the gods.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 4/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Feels: 1/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 3/5

Jessi (Geo)

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32 responses to “Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

  1. This review surprised me Jessie! I read the book a while back and thought it was just okay. I couldn’t agree more about the romance–I would’ve liked the novel better without it. Also, I wanted more gore and disgusting and graphic things. The only thing I might disagree with you with is that I didn’t really like Raffe. I mean, he was okay, but nothing special.

    1/5 for the feels? High five! (No? Okay, that’s fine lol.)

    • ME TOO!! In fact, that was one of the two things that made me rate this 3 instead of 2.5 was the gore! (The other fact being that it was different)

      Haha *high fives back*

      • Which is why I love Kendare Blake’s novels… gore everywhere? Count me in! >_< I'm not sure if I want to read the sequel to this one, though. Maybe if my friend gets a copy I'll just borrow it after she reads it…

  2. Oh no! I wish you enjoyed this as much as I did, Jessi! >< I had so much feels for this one, I'm sorry that you only gave it 1/5! I loved the snark! But since Raffe was your favourite aspect of this novel (is it safe to say so?), you may be a little disappointed like I was, that in World After there's pretty little Raffe. There's still lot of action and gore, though! :)
    Fantastic review all the same, Jessi! :) <33

    • I’m still going to read the second book in hopes that it gets better! I can deal with less Raffe as long as there’s more of that lovely gore in the second book ;)

  3. Oh, that’s sad you didn’t enjoy this that much, Jessi :c I read this and its sequel last month and I really loved them. Anyway, I think you’ll enjoy World After so much more than Angelfall because it’s totes better :D

  4. I’m a little sad you didn’t love it, but at least you liked Raffe and didn’t hate Penryn ;) Also, I’m kind of a black sheep when it comes to super hyped-up books, so I do understand you. Absurd? The lab, maybe…

  5. I am always nervous reading a hyped up book – I think that maybe you had such HIGH expectations that it fell short for you. I wonder if you would have rated it differently had you gone in blind? Oh well, we can’t all love the same things, that’s why there are SO MANY BOOKS! :-)

    • I think so too! I’m doing a discussion on the Hype Monster next Wednesday. It really bugs me :( *sigh* I suppose we’ll never know! And yep, all the bookssss :D

  6. Awww nooo! :( I’m so bummed you didn’t love this! I’d be really curious to see what you think of World After. Because I loved Angelfall but thought World After was ‘meh’. But then I saw someone else comment the total opposite!

  7. I set my hopes too high on this one too!! I had seen so many amazing raves about it, so when I saw this book on sale for like $3 on amazon, I snatched it up. I read it the second I got it in the mail, but I just could not see what everyone thought was so amazing about it. I just couldn’t get invested in the characters or story, I suppose. I’m not really sure what it was about it either. It was just meh. Glad to see I’m not the only black sheep on this one. Great review, Jessi. I’m still trying to decide if I should give book 2 a chance or not…

    -Becca

    • Ohh glad it wasn’t just me! I thought I was all alone, adrift in the sea of Angelfall fans haha. I do want to try book 2, but it’s definitely not a priority!

      • Hahaha! It’s actually on my shelf, waiting to be read, but like you said, it’s not one of my top priority books right now! It will get read one of these days, after I get through the ocean of TBR books in my room!!

  8. Aww, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it as much as others did. I haven’t read it either but I’ve been recently contemplating on doing so. I think I will read it, but my expectations aren’t that high. Great review!
    Cheers!

  9. I haven’t seen many reviews for this one yet but I can certainly see where you didn’t exactly like it. The blood and gore seems really great for this book, but the romance definitely seems like it played a major component even though you expected it to take a backseat to all of the action happening. I know what you mean about somethings being absurd to you, though. Sometimes I’ll be reading a book and something just jumps out as me as out of place even though I can’t really figure it out at first. Fantastic review, though, Jessi! <33

    • Thanks Leeny! Yeah, I hate when I can’t put my finger on it because I like to back my claims with examples. I feel like it takes away from my credibility when I can’t prove it >.<

  10. Aw no feels! *pets*

    It’s “okay” is always a good thing because not everyone is going to like. Everyone’s gushing over a book called Me Since You that I absolutely hated. It just didn’t do it for me and yep *all the white sheep move away from me*

    Maybe you’ll like World After better? Hehe?

    Great review Jessi <33

    • That’s so funny, I was in Walmart about a week before I read it and came SO close to buying it just because it’s pretty and I like hard copies better! Now I’m grateful that I didn’t spend the money, it would have been a waste for me. I hope you enjoy it more than I did! <3

  11. I’m one that loved this book because I connected very well (and easily) to Ee’s writing style. Sometimes a book just hits the mark and this one did so for me. When I read it I’d not heard anything about it so was able to go in fresh. I think that makes a lot of difference. If I were to read it now after hearing about how amazing it is I’m sure I’d still have loved it but I’m not sure it would have rocked me as hard. So happy you read it and could find elements that you did enjoy.

  12. We can be black sheep together! I just don’t get the hype surrounding this one. Yes, the angels didn’t fall prey to cliché, but apart from that I found the plot dull and meaningless. It all feels like one random scene after another, just to build up the disturbingness — which, I feel, didn’t add to the book at all, like it was just used for shock value. I agree with you about the romance: I’d heard the same, that there wasn’t much in it, but Penryn kept pining after Raffe, and it did have hints of instalove to me. So frustrating!

    Will you be reading World After? I really don’t think this will be a series I’ll be continuing.

    • Yay! Glad to have someone else that can relate! And YES the pining was so annoying! She didn’t even know him. Argh.

      I think I will give it a try anyway, in hopes that it gets better!

  13. When I first read this, it was back in 2012, and I literally gave up not even half way. But then my blogger friend, Lori, said I have to try to read it up to at least a couple of chapters, and so I did. And I fell IN LOVE WITH IT! I love this book and the second. Such a shame you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did :( But i hope you try the second book though! It is SO good! :D Great review nonetheless :)

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