Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1)



Susan Ee Website

Book Details: Written by Susan Ee, US Today best selling author. Publication May 21st, 2011. 247 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Angelfall Synopsis: Angelfall is set in a post-apocalyptic world where our protagonist, Penryn, is trying to survive in a hellacious environment with her mother and little sister Paige. A few weeks into the apocalypse gangs rule the streets and angels of the apocalypse rule the earth. Penryn and her family are trying to escape from their apartment in Silicon Valley into a less urban area outside of town. Paige is in a wheel chair from an accident when she was little and their mother is no longer on her psychotropic medication to keep her semi-sane. Penryn is basically in charge of keeping her family safe from the world crumbling in on them.

While attempting to exit town in the cover of night they are suddenly delayed. A white winged angel, Snow, falls from the sky fighting off five other angels. Penryn and her family dash behind an abandoned car to hide. The five angels land near Snow and cut off his wings, Paige makes a small sound out of sympathy and ends up getting the attention of the angels. Penryn tells her mother and sister to leave while she distracts the angels, her mother scurries away without helping Paige push her wheel chair and Paige is left to wheel herself. Penryn grabs the sword that Snow dropped when falling and throws it to him, using what’s left of his energy he fights off the angels. One of the five becomes very angry with Penryn for interfering and grabs her sister from her wheel chair as he flies away, while the other angels flee leaving a wounded Snow. Penryn collects the angel along with his cut off wings and sword and lifts him in the wheel chair knowing he will be her best chance of finding Paige.

Over the next couple days Snow is asleep and recovering, Penryn discovers angels have a very quick recovery time. Once he wakes she learns his name is Raffe. He tells Penryn that he believes they will find the angels who took her sister at the Aerie, the main location for the angels, located in San Francisco. Together they travel to the Aerie with her mother some how following their path and showing up occasionally. While on their journey, Raffe and Penryn fight off gangs and struggle to feed themselves, resorting to cat food when needed. When they finally make it to the Aerie they realize the situation is much worse then they could have guessed.

My Thoughts: Angelfall has an extremely interesting plot and was easy for me to get caught up in and want to know more of this world after the apocalypse. I really enjoyed the relationship between Raffe and Penryn; they start off as archenemies since angels destroyed most of the world she knows and humans are compared to monkeys by the angels. Over the course of the book they become slight friends that rely on each other and care what happens to the other even though neither would admit that. Some of the descriptions used to explain the extent of the apocalypse were a little gruesome but necessary for the reader to understand how bad the world has become. Overall I really pleased with the book and cannot wait to read World After the second book in the series.