Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1) by Susan Ee * * *

Rating books is hard. Did this book excite me, make me want to seek out fanfiction, make me sad that I only have one more book to read? No. Not five stars then. Did it make me check the release date for the next instalment? No. Not four stars either. What it did do was have me not notice the bath water turn cold, and reach for the next book. 3.5 stars.

Now about the story. Without spoiling much, it's obviously about a girl and an angel. The majority of the angels showed up one day and started killing people. Why, I have no idea. We start the tale a bit in the middle, and learn of Penryn's story from flashbacks. I'm not sure if I like that. Do other people? I like to see at least one normal day before everything goes South. That could be just me though. The rest is spoilers.

The two main characters are Raffe and Penryn. We see the world through Penryn's eyes in present tense, which I still don't like much. Sometimes I catch my brain converting the tense to past.
Penryn is not annoying. Nowadays, literature seems to have an abundance of annoying heroines, so I'm glad to report Penryn isn't one of them. I can empathise with her need to take care of her disabled sister, and look after her mother. Family is always hard. She's also pretty sensible. She doesn't fall into insta-love. She can think on her feet. She's resourceful. She doesn't sit around waiting for her angel.
Raffe is the angel. He is sufficiently superior-feeling, glaring, pretty. Not a fool either. What was a bit annoying about him was that he kept putting Penryn down for asking questions. Worse still, Penryn felt chastised for asking them, and like a child. To me, questioning everything is important. Penryn was right to ask them. Raffe was just being an arse.

Overall, I liked the book. It was fast paced and interesting. I'm reading the series for sure. The angel theme is a bit troubling as a non-Christian, but I can ignore that.

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