Judith's Choice Reads: Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 5 of 5 genies
Published: May 21, 2011 by Feral Dream
Pages: 255
Source: Purchased
Format: Kindle
Purchase At: Amazon.com

Goodreads Summary

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

So this is what withdrawal feels like. I thought I knew, because I've read few books before and had some reaction close to this but nothing so profound. This book blew me away, and with three days until New Years I can safely say that this is the best book of 2011. I'm crying right now and I'm so sleepy because it's almost 4am where I am, but the only thing that matters and that I care about is that the book is finished.

And I'm in withdrawal.

No aspirin can fix this...

Full review to come in the morning.

The following day/days, UPDATE!

I don’t like rumors. In this case, someone was spreading a particularly vicious one that there existed a phenomenal book floating around - of which the online reading community was raving flying penguins about - an ebook, with stellar and amazingly well fleshed characters and chilling setting to boot; but wait for it… this book was supposedly .99cents

Only .99 cents; a meagrely almost-dollar.

Now what load of bull is that?? No way could something estimated as so incredibly good by a great majority of my Goodreads friends, and others, actually be so cheap. I couldn’t believe it, and because I happen to have a darling kindle as present from my 18th – say hi to my kindle, Tookie everyone *Tookie waves* – I needed to be sure that these rumours were not true. Also I had no ebooks to speak of and Angelfall seemed an excellent place to start. At least it was something.

I was determined to find out the truth. This had to be a joke, right?

Oh, who am I kidding?!

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That was awesome!!

I love rumors – the good kind – and especially when they lead me to something truly ground-breaking and awe-inspiring as this! I did not stop reading for a moment, I took this to the treadmill with me and while Raffe and Penryn were treading the forests, I was beating it on that machine!

There was no way in any world – crazy post-apocalyptic or now – that I was leaving this book behind just to sweat. Sweating could wait, but you know when you get used to ordinary and then you experience something so startlingly new and so far from the norm that you really need to pinch yourself – or in my case almost fall off the treadmill – just to believe the marvelous thing in your hands/world astounding at the moment truly exists? Yes, well I can’t imagine a better example of that than my experience with Angelfall.

But first, let me speak to you of withdrawal. The condition, as some of you may know, involves aversive reaction to the removal of something otherwise deemed essential to sustenance. So basically, at the end of my journey that night/very early morning, I experienced withdrawal.

This, this is what I went through:

And get this, I finished at just a little after 3AM because the last few hours of my reading consisted of me dozing off – I’d been reading that whole day and at 1AM, I was exhausted – and then darting immediately back to Angelfall. It was like everything in me knew the importance of finishing, my subconscious went right back to it, like a drug. And when I was done, it hit me like the worst case of hangover ever; I cried and clutched Tookie to myself, promising that the world was not this way – not yet – and I would never leave her behind to suffer so cruel a fate. I…I think she smiled a little at me at that… and I think we shared something?

*Cough, creepy! So creepy* And moving on…

Simply said, I could not go without at least checking this book out; and hearing about Angelfall the way I did is really the best example of why I so love this community. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was raving about this. There were discussions upon discussions about how flipping amazin’ Susan Ee was; I needed to see what all the hoopla was about. Best. Decision. Ever.

For once, there will be no spoilers, nothing to ruin a single moment for anyone who hasn’t gotten their hands on this yet. Go buy the novel, it’ll rock your world and it’s priced at what, barely a dollar. Some online fiction is 3 times that amount and not nearly as good, what on earth are you waiting for?

Characters: Part of why I love Angelfall so much is because of its kick-butt characters. You’ve heard of Penryn? No? Well then you should have! She is the embodiment of perfection. Like really, this girl has it together where it counts and so strong…I couldn’t imagine being that way and in her position. Favorite and strongest female lead of the year. Not to mention, her mom is probably the most frightening person in non-existence. And somehow Penryn copes in a world where there is no medicine for her mother’s madness, she does not abandon her.

The praises keep coming as this girl also deals with the disappearance of her sister, Paige and the horror at the end when she discovers her once again. Like I promised, no spoilers, but how freaky was that for those of you who’ve read it? I have chills just thinking about that scene in general.

As rare as this is to have happen, the Angels were actually characters too – masterful and researched in detail – but they are portrayed so differently from what is standard. There are politics involved, scary deals made between individuals of unbelievable power, these beings long made out to be just good. They care most of all about hierarchy and who is in power, there are some willing to kill for that.

Truthfully it was hard to digest. I imagine no one else could have made me believe in any of what I read but this author. Long was it common assumption that Angels be just beautiful, cordial and well, kind; but all of that prior knowledge was subject to thorough distortion. Safe to say, it was the best experience I have by far had of something so ingrained and familiar being altered. My religion is still the same and I hold fast to it, but what Ee offered was a break from what was expected, a look into what the end of the world is supposed to look like, and through her eyes. The woman is a genius.

If not for anything else, read Angelfall for its new concepts, get it for that alone. So many of the characters still tug on my heart, most of all Penryn and Raffe.

Ah, Raffe.

And where exactly would a leading lady be without her suitable counterpart? In this case certainly nowhere. To anything that Raffe said, I was pretty much like:

Because he was a hot Angel and he was boss. Seriously, why can’t I get a guy like that, why?!? Does it really take the world ending~~oh no, no way~~for me to find a decent guy! The standards the majority of males today adhere to are much too low and must be lifted, because Ee is in town and with her around, well the normal men will be competing with Angels.

BAM, now how do you like them apples?!

The setting of this book was dead on fantabulous, and the plot has actually inspired me to do better myself with how brilliant it was and every single thing about this book is special. I don’t know if all the comparisons of Angelfall to the Hunger Games is much to go on, but I’m willing to try Hunger Games just to find out.

I need more of this, or something very close to it, I have been reading at too low a standard for much too long. The release of the next book needs to happen now. I need Raffe and I need Penryn; to be honest, I think I needed them much before ever reading about either. This whole experience was so worthwhile, there would have to be something wrong with me if I didn’t encourage everyone to get their hands on this.