World After by Susan Ee

World After by Susan Ee
My rating: 5 of 5 genies
Published: November 19, 2013
Genre: Paranormal, YA, Apocalyptic, Romance, Dystopian
Publisher: Skyscape
Source: Purchased
Pages: 438
Format: eBook
Purchase At: Amazon.com or The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

In this sequel to the bestselling fantasy thriller, Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world.

When a group of people capture Penryn's sister Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

My Review

There are no words for this book. The funny thing is that I went in expecting nothing but perfection. Ee floored me with Angelfall and I just couldn't conceive of a world where the book following such excellence was lacking in any way. I needed World After to be as good, if not better than Angelfall. Spoiler Alert: It was.



The curse of the second is pretty much something I implicate when going into sequels, simply said, they tend to be less enthralling than their predecessors. But the curse? It didn't exist for this book. Ee is an author after my own heart, this is why her books are my kryptonite, I feel like she writes for me. So thank-you for this, Ee, it was superb.

World After follows the events of Angelfall and Penryn is slowly recovering from the scorpion sting that left her paralysed. She's with her family, Paige is finally returned, but the experimentations done on her have altered Penryn's baby sister in ways that go much deeper than the physical. Her pain was palpable, and finding the sister she lost in the "Low Demon" now in her stead was a struggle for Penryn. Her mother, craziness aside, latches onto her daughter and encourages Penryn to look in Paige's eyes because those haven't changed; she is the same sister and daughter they know and lost. Surprisingly, Penryn has difficulty with this, and if things aren't hard enough, they still don't know what to feed Paige. It isn't until one incident at their base refugee camp that the gory answer is arrived at.

Paige needs meat. Raw meat, most readily available in human beings. There is an uproar, and the rest of the survivors try to capture her and she flees the camp, leaving Penryn and her mother to find Paige yet again. Clara, an unexpected survivor who Penryn saves from being sucked dry by the scorpions/"locusts" comes along for the ride, and together they embark on the quest to save Paige from the unpredictable angels, herself, and from hurting anyone else.


Yeah, not so much.

I was taken rapture, by the incredible storytelling and the characters brimming with anguish and determination to survive. I think more than anything, this series is a chronicle of survival and persistence even at the worst of times.

Penryn grew, into the kind of Heroine one cannot forget about simply by closing the book. She stays with you, making you question her actions as well as what you might do in her place. If your world was turned upside down, the man you loved apart from you, and your family ravaged...what would you do? I'd hope I would act as Penryn did and kick some serious ass! Can I get a "what-what" for her skills with Pookie Bear!?



I was very pleased, and excited that more of Raffe's past was revealed through his sword and also that some insight as to what Paige went through was provided. I think I would have hated it if her whole experience with the angels was glossed over, and Ee gave just enough detail about her abduction that satisfied but did not completely satiate my curiosity. As always, I am hungry for more and the next book is something I absolutely must have.

World After was full of action and entertained me to the very end. Much is revealed about the Angels as well as their purpose on Earth. Uriah's motives are despicable, but then again was any less expected? Things are more complicated than they appear and I am glad there will be 5 books to unravel the mystery of this new world and its many conspiracies.

Did I mention, I am hella pleased to have more Raffe and Penryn coming my way? I NEED this two to happen, damnation aside. Their chemistry is crackling and my tummy warmed at their reunion. I'm shipping this so hard, it hurts. Raffe did not disappoint me and the fact that he recognized Penryn right away made the romantic in me swoon for days! I'm in love. World After is the kind of book that satisfies and I am so happy.



This book was everything I needed it to be, the perfect sequel with an ending that makes me ever loyal to Ee and this series. So beautifully written...All I want is the next book!

5 FLAMING GENIES!

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?!




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 endingoh no, no wayfor 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.

5 genies: WOWZA. Yes, this is that book, the book you've been looking for! You need this novel in your life, take it from me.

I selected this post to be featured on Book Review Blogs. Please visit the site and vote for my blog!