Book: Angelfall by Susan Ee
Series: Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1
Genre: Fiction/Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
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.
Six weeks after humans gunned down the angel Gabriel, the Earth has been torn apart by an apocalypse brought down by God’s own soldiers.
Now, how’s that for a hook?
Angelfall’s post-apocalyptic San Francisco setting is wonderfully fresh, setting it apart from all the other angel YA out there. There were a few points where I would have loved some meatier worldbuilding about the angels, as Ee is very vague on their mythology.
But it was Penryn that sold the book for me. Here are a few reasons why Penryn is one of the most badass lady main characters in YA:
- She’s trained for years in combat and martial arts, and it shows. The research put into her fight scenes is solid and works brilliantly.
- She values her family — her schizophrenic, violent mum and her wheelchair-bound sister — above everything else.
- She doesn’t let falling for the enemy, an angel, get in the way of her own goals and her need to protect her family.
I originally picked this book up because it was on sale at Amazon, and I can heartily recommend it for YA fans looking for a fresh new story and a genuinely awesome protagonist.