Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

Description from Goodreads

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.

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I read this book on November, 2012 after noticing what a huge amount of hype there was on Goodreads. Angelfall started off as an internet phenomenon. I remember my flatmate warning me that I shouldn't have so high expectations as those books don't always have the same standard as those being published by publishing houses. Nevertheless, I found the description so fascinating that I had to order it from Amazon US as it hadn't been published back then in the UK. 

I probably had to wait a few weeks before the happy day came when the mail man finally delivered the book. I still remember that I read the very first pages in a bus, going to my first lecture of the day. I think I hissed a little when the bus finally arrived to the Uni, because I knew the next time I was able to read the book wasn't until I was going back to home (I have to mention that my bus ride to my Uni lasts over 40 minutes so I was nicely captivated the book when I arrived to the campus).

The first thing struck me as amazing in Angelfall was the absolute post-apocalyptic setting. The world was in ruins, and nothing was exactly same as we know it to be in our world. The world was physically  devastated as the angels brought the havoc. And that leads us to the angels. I hadn't read any angel books before, but I had always been quite interested in the whole angel mythology. Even though Angelfall doesn't exactly play with angelology, I was so captured with the angels of the book - they were cruel, malicious and power-hungry. Nothing what one would expect from a stereotypical angel.

And the characters! First of all, Penryn is such a kick-ass heroine. She is self-efficient, brave, loyal and righteous. At some level, she reminds me of Katniss Everdeen, the heroine in The Hunger Games trilogy (which maybe is my favourite trilogy ever). I think that reference tells quite a lot how awesome character Penryn is. To be honest, I probably wouldn't change a thing about her - I just find her so perfect, even with her imperfections as it makes her more realistic character in an unrealistic world. 

One the most entertaining things in the book is the relationship between Penryn and Raffe, the angel who has promised to save Penryn's little sister Paige with Penryn. The relationship isn't insta-love as Raffe and Penryn are sworn enemies as the first one is an angel and the other a human. Even though it isn't directly said, Penryn does become attached to Raffe. Naturally this the last thing she needs, and Penryn feels conflicted. I love how their relationship isn't straightforward, but there are obstacles and controversies that need to be solved before they can become involved. 

What else, what else (to be honest I could write an endless post about Angelfall, but I think I'm going to write one last paragraph, but I'm having difficulties which perfection I should include). I loved Ee's writing style. She can be very descriptive and even gruesome at points which I just adored. I'm not a big fan of writers who like to embellish their writings, but I enjoy reading when things are presented as they are, even if they are something utterly terrifying. Susan Ee did this in her book, and I absolutely love her for that!

☆☆☆☆☆