Angelfall by Susan Ee: Book Review

Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult, Angels
Author: Susan Ee
Date Published: June 14, 2011
Publisher: Feral Dream
Size: 255
Edition: eBook
ISBN13: 2940012975348

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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.

Review:

Holy f*ucking cow! Why haven't I read this ASAP the moment my friend suggested this to me?!? 9 months! I have neglected this in my shelf for effing 9 months!!! I just missed 9 f*cking months of my life!

The moment I read the first word of this book, I haven't left it until the sun rose for the morning, not even when my stomach's been empty for half a day! (Well, I'm used to it) This book is very entertaining, you'll be huddled in wherever you are. There are times when I can't restrain myself to laugh out loud. And fall in love.

Sketch

Seventeen-year-old heroine who's supposed to be thinking of proms, wound up looking after her crippled 7-year-old 'twin' sister and fearing for the safety of her crazed mother or rather the safety of the people around her crazed mother, when the father ran off from duty. Tweedledee and Tweedledum just ventured out of Alice's Wonderland to wreak havok in the World After with their mischief and pose as Spy Masters for the Army of Resistance. Or rather, redheads Fred and George Weasley of Harry Potter became the Tweedle twins in this parallel world where Angels thrive, killing mankind and making earth a territory of their own.

Apparently, the Angels chose San Francisco to be their hideaway, in a luxurious Art Deco-themed hotel which they called the Aerie (the name suffices for winged creatures) where they whore with the Daughters of Men in 1920s costumes (think Celestial beings in tuxedos, yummy!). With the earth in total chaos, mankind was made savage. Food becomes a luxury over high-end gadgets, even over mansions (think Zombie movies). A piece of an angel becomes a trophy for a price- food for the people. Dismembering an angel and selling their parts would be lavishness for the homeless and hungry mob (think lowlife gangsters).

The book is told in the perspective of Penryn Young, two months after the outbreak of Angels from Heaven. Sadly (this makes my heart cry out in pain), with the world overhyped with the idea of Apocalypse (especially of Zombies; just my opinion, apparently... or was it because of 2012 belief?), golden-winged Gabriel, Messenger of God was gunned down in Jerusalem the moment he landed onstage with a horde of Angels at his back. And was aired on tv for the whole world to see. He perished without giving formal announcement of God's intentions. And hence, the onslaught of carnage all over the world with the avenging angels.

Penryn then met Raffe (Rah-fie) who was seconds away from being a roadkill against five other angels and possibly with the lynch mob later. Why the angels attacked something of their own, or why they had to outnumber him five-to-one, that's for Penryn to find out. They cut off his fluffy snowy wings with their swords, that and the need to escape death made her help the injured angel when she should feel revulsion on one. Things happened, her insane mom fled from the scene, Paige got kidnapped by the gang of angels who just attacked, and Penryn was left with an ethereally beautiful and most of all, shirtless but brutally bruised, now wingless angel lying helplessly on the ground. It's one thing to drool on heavenly beauties and quite another to repulse them for killing your kind.

To the next level!

I salute the author for having researched quite well when it comes to military. There are lots of books that talked of military people but didn't really flaunt the necessary skills of military men approriately in circumstances which shout for real force. It's more on the scenes and situations actually. Some books just talked of rogue military protagonist that would later display their military adeptness but in meh-sort-of scenarios for such rogue men. Or maybe they just don't know how to show profoundly nor were they interested in telling the details of the actions and the tell-tales of the scenes. They just love to showcase military men simply for machismo (much more when they're good-looking and rich). Okay, I understand the usage merely as background of the character.

To expound just a little bit of the author's brillance without blowing some scenes aka spoilers, there's the how-tos and accounts on military tactics shown on the part when Raffe got himself captured by Obi's men (Obi, a unit leader of the Resistance Army) and the things that Penryn noticed of the camp in all the duration from when she ran in pursuit of Raffe's captors until her grandeur with scrubbing stains out of sheets. If you read that chapter, you'll understand. Just with that chapter, I was convinced that the author knew what she's writing.

Aside from the military adeptness, I'm well sure she (the author) knows tons about martial arts, if she's not a practitioner herself. There's also the keen details and rational things about angels. I was NEVER been more impressed with someone who fictionally wrote about angels, fallen or not, especially when most versions of The Bible talked of them briefly (okay, I'll save Dante's Inferno for this). Susan's fiction is the closest sensible thing I could get about angels compared to other fallen angel books I read so far *coughs* Kate's Fallen series, *coughs* *sputter, sputter* Hush, hush, *coughs* Sniegoski's Fallen, *coughs* Clare's Instruments and Devices *bleh!*, among others.

And I never knew I could fall in love with a first character *specifically Raffe* of a story again. I did notice I didn't quite describe him. Oh, how can I?! He's just so great that I couldn't grasp him in words. If you want to know why it's so easy to fall in love with Raffe, then I highly encourage you to read this book. Please, you'll never regret it! Likewise, the way Susan Ee wrote in the perspective of Penryn made me decide that the protagonist is not one of those dull ones I used to read in YA books. Penryn kicks ass. And I love that about her.

High-alert Spoilers:

I did talk about how I laugh myself out loud didn't I? Here's just a taste of one whole paragraph you might consider. And think of other possible hilarious paragraphs too. I might be able to corrupt your soul into "our" Susan Ee's Angel Fall cult:

In a civilized world where there are laws, banks and supermarkets, being a paranoid schizophrenic is a major problem. But in a world where the banks and supermarkets are used by gangs as local torture stations, being a little paranoid is actually an advantage. The schizophrenic part, though, is still a problem. Not being able to tell reality from fantasy is less than ideal.

That was Penryn addressing her crazed mother.

Damn, sorry. My fault. I can't just give 1 paragraph. I'm going to blow it all off! Penryn would always somehow get tangled into verbal arguments with Raffe. And they are mostly funny. Here are some scenes:

"They're not `fellas.' They're not anywhere near human. They're nothing but leaking sacks of mutated maggots, just like you." Lookswise, he and the other angels I'd seen were closer to living Adonises, complete with god-like faces and presence. But inside, they were maggots for sure.

"Leaking sacks of mutated maggots?" He raises his perfectly arched eyebrow as though I'd just failed my verbal insult exam.

"That's a pretty intimate demand in the angel world. It usually takes dinner, some wine, and sparkling conversation for me to give up my feet."

That calls for a witty comeback.

"Whatever," I say.

This one was when Obi (a Resistance soldier) asked for Penryn's name. I get the impression that Raffe was a bit jealous with the intimacy Obi insinuates that the conversation goes:

"What's your name?" asks the leader. There something intimate about the way he asks me this question as he is about to feed me.

"My friends call me Wrath," says Raffe. "My enemies call me Please Have Mercy. What's your name, soldier boy?" Raffe's mocking tone brings a flush to my cheeks for no reason.

Simply writing what I wrote above (though it seems long) deemed not enough for me to share this out-of-this-world book. And despite being indie! It's never easy to see an angel, let alone touch one. Heck, only biblical characters had seen one. Thus, this book is not from this world. It belonged with the angels in... wait, not heaven, right? Oh yeah, they're in a parallel earth. *I must be groggy with all that I've read. This book just made me drunk* Ok, I understand I'm not making sense. This book is so damn good, it left my senses mushy. And my chests (or the lack thereof) still heave just remembering things about Raffie. I couldn't contain my love for him (and for Penryn too) that I'm willing to share him to you.

So now to wrap things up, let me give you a dozen reasons why I'm literally begging you to read this awesome book: