Review: Angelfall

Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

The description on Goodreads is woefully understated, not nearly enough to get a person interested in what this book is all about. To be honest, I think I only requested it because it was a YA post-apocalyptic and I could get the first two books for free. And while it had its issues (the whole "feelings" thing between Penryn and Raffe seemed too close to insta-love for me), and some of the storytelling was a bit overdone, overall I really enjoyed the read.

Penryn, while completely clueless sometimes, is also a pretty strong character. She doesn't wait around for someone to save her or her family, she does it herself. It's only coincidence that someone usually comes along who's stronger and more able to help (which is a little character-defeating, since the only scrape she gets herself out of is when she beats the crap out of a guy who is threatening her). I would have liked to see her a bit more self-sufficient or at least have the opportunity to do some actual saving, instead of rushing into something without much thought, getting stuck, and someone else doing the rescuing. But overall she had a very strong personality and she was loyal to a fault despite her loyalty being divided at times.

Raffe I couldn't quite get a grip on. He's an angel, and we learn more about him in the last 1/4 of the book, but other than that he just seems like a moody pain in the ass who falls in love with a human, all the while denying that he even feels anything but still acting like he's her boyfriend. His character by the end seems more fully fleshed out, and I appreciated his actions more after hearing what he and other characters revealed about his past.

The whole first-person thing is overdone and boring, but since the vast majority of YA is written that way now, I guess I can't fault the author for capitalizing on something that people seem to eat up.

There were some pretty gruesome parts in here, stuff I don't normally like to read - it veered into horror/thriller territory at times and I'm not a big fan of that, but I got through it. It sort of made the book a bit more adult to me.

Overall, this was a quick and easy read, interesting and fast-paced. I didn't have a hard time getting through it, or wanting to get through it, and I'm giving it 4 stars because I enjoyed the ride even if it wasn't perfect.

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