Summary: (From Amazon)
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 Raffe, an injured enemy angel. Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco, where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.
Rating: 8/10
Unfortunately, when I started this book, I was in a bit of a reading funk, so, even though it was short, it took me a while to get through it. I really enjoyed it once I got into it though. It was one of the most unique novels I’ve ever read. The characters were all great, and there was just enough humor to balance out the darkness.
At first, the writing wasn’t my favorite, but the more I got into it, the more I liked it (that’s been happening a lot lately!). Susan Ee does a really good job with descriptions and really making the scope of the destruction visible to the reader. It was like reading a movie.
I’m really interested in finding out where things will go from here. I can’t wait to find out more about Penryn’s mother. There’s just so much that could happen with her because she is so crazy. Like I said, all of the characters were so unique. I’m really excited to continue this series!
***Spoilers Below!***
As I said in the review portion, I’m really interested to see what’s going to happen with Penryn’s mother. It makes me think of that writing tip that goes something like, ‘if things are slow, send in a guy with a gun.’ She is this story’s guy with a gun. The living, breathing, plot twist waiting to happen. I have a theory though. It’s a wild, crazy, highly improbable theory, but here it is:
What if Penryn is Nephilim? Her father is absent, and doesn’t support them at all, so maybe he was damned like the offending angels were. Raffia mentioned the wives of the offending angels several times, but we still don’t know what happened to them. Obviously it was something really terrible. If it wasn’t super duper important to the plot, why would she hold out on telling the reader? So… What if the punishment for the wives was that they would be forever haunted by the devil and demons? Like Penryn’s mother? I know the Nephilim are supposed to be evil and all, but maybe that’s a misconception? I know it’s an insane theory, and I have no hope of it being true, but it works in my head.
In a review that I watched (you should watch it, too!) the person brought up a good point. Raffe and Paige end up paralleling each other. They were both crippled in some way. Paige couldn’t use her legs, Raffe lost his wings. They both got them back, but at a price. I think that was pretty brilliant of Susan Ee’s part.
Speaking of Paige… I cannot believe that she’s a low demon. That’s not going to end well. At all. What if she has to be killed? Or what if she kills someone she cares about? There’s no good way for this to end. I’m really worried for Paige. Really, really worried.
The whole part at the aerie was bizarre. Those are some seriously twisted angels. It wasn’t at all what I expected. I’m interested to see where things are going to go with Josiah and Leylah. I hope we get to learn more about both of them, but, from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not a fan of Leylah. I am curious as to what hers and Raffe’s history is, though.
The scorpion angels… the scorpion angels… That was honestly one of the creepiest things I’ve read in a long time. I still can’t get that awful visual out of my head. And, even though I’ve already mentioned it, the children/low demon things. It was inventive, I have to say, but creepy as hell.
I’m curious to see what’s going to happen with Raffe and Penryn. There’s obviously something there, but where is it going to go? I’m sure they’ll reunite at some point in the next book, but I don’t foresee Penryn being able to overlook everything the angels have done, though. I sure wouldn’t be able to. Then again, Raffe doesn’t know why the angels are doing what they’re doing, so are they completely, 100% unforgivable? Regardless of whether or not anything happens with their relationship, it’s going to cause some issues. Someone’s going to figure out that the sword is an angel sword, and that’s going to raise a whole lot of accusations against Penryn. The resistance will definitely be questioning where her loyalties lie. The same goes for Raffe. Beliel and Uriel both saw him grieving for Penryn at the end, so they’ll definitely stir up some trouble with that. Then there’s the matter of the super creepy demon wings… Neither of them have a pleasant road ahead.
I really can’t wait to read the next books. This was such a different book, and, after everything that happened at the end, I have to know what happens. I’ll be getting the next book soon!
Read, Write, Dance 