Angelfall by Susan Ee

It’s been six weeks since the angels of the apocalypse destroyed the world as we know it. Only pockets of humanity remain.

Savage street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night.

When angels fly away with a helpless girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back…

– Goodreads

Prepare yourselves, folks. Prepare yourselves for an obsessive, glowing, gushing review of a new favorite. Because I can’t help it—I just blew through the first book in less than 24 hours and finished the second it roughly six. To put it simply: I love the shit out of this series and can’t wait for the third to come out in May.

It’s no secret. Fantasy novels are my thing. The more dragons, centaurs, elves, dwarves, kings, queens, knights, and magic there is, the better. I recently read some troll books. Vampires aren’t really my thing, but I’ve read those before. I’ve even read a ghost series. But I’ve drawn the line at angels for some unknown reason. Nope, angels are just a step too far, I thought. Until some people on Goodreads insisted I put a request in for Angelfall on NetGalley.

So I gave it a shot, and I am SO glad I did.

Susan Ee is fantastic. I can’t think of any other words to describe her writing. The way she describes apocalyptic San Francisco…I’ve never been to San Fran, but I can picture everything. The Silicon Valley, the Financial District, the hills, the old hotel, the abandoned streets. I can picture the gruesome, graphic corpses littering the streets, the hideous creatures the angels have created. I can picture the dark devastation that Earth has suffered since angels visited and wiped out the human race.

The angels aren’t the sweet cherubs or radiant saviors you might think. No, they’re superhuman and could care less about the monkeys of earth. They’ll toss a human across a parking lot with one swat and want us gone.

I loved the characters in this book. Penryn was so resilient, determined, and strong. Her primary goal (besides surviving) was to save her sister, Paige, who was taken by the angels. How did she get kidnapped? Well, due to some ill-timed running, Penryn, Paige, and their Crazy Mom stumbled right into the middle of an angel fight. Paige interferes, which results in her sister’s abduction. With only an injured angel, Raffe, left behind, Penryn takes care of him in an effort to discover where her sister is being held.

I also loved Raffe. He was so guarded, yet a small glimpse of him would peek through once in a while. There was no insta-love, just the primal need to survive, the start of a weird budding friendship, and the same weird need to keep each other safe. Don’t let that fool you. I shipped them the whole time.

My only qualm was all of the questions left unanswered. I wish that Raffe’s history would have been more developed. Oh, and why the hell the angels took over earth, anyway. Or why they hate humans so much. And also where they come from. And about a million other things.

It’s a new addition to my favorites shelf for sure. 5/5. Fantastic read.

HUGE thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.