Review/Discussion: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Title: Angelfall
Author: Susan Ee
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published Date: May 23rd 2013
My Rating: 4 stars

Blurb on Goodreads:

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...

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This book. Oh, this book. I have heard so many contradictory opinions, and I can see why. It had so many brilliant factors, but it had me rolling my eyes a few times too. It played on my emotions and made a mess of me in the end!

Firstly, let's talk about the writing. I don't particularly care what genre it is I'm reading so long as the writing is good, and Susan Ee certainly has a good writing style. She had me hooked from the very first line if I'm being honest,with the right level of description to add depth but not detract from the plot. The plot itself was great. I liked the setting, the story, the kickass heroine and her determination to save her sister. I liked how we were constantly reminded that this was about Penryn trying to save her sister an not some cheesy romance. 

An agnostic angel. That had me laughing so damn hard. what a joke. This is why I don't take these books seriously but rather with a pinch of salt. When Raffe started looking like a human and dropping his sarcastic one-liners I decided to no longer think of him as an angel but rather a generic other worldly being, otherwise I would drive myself crazy and it would ruin the book for me. Also, technicalities when ignored bother me so damn much. Like th fact that he has super hearing but misses (more than once) the sound of people coming to get him with damn guns. But that aside, this book was completely enthralling and I found myself unable to put it aside for even a minute. 4 awesome stars from me!

Now for the discussion part.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!

Okay I need to whine about that ending. Raffe waits until he thinks she's dead before finally admitting feelings for her? In front of the very people he needs to convince he's not fallen?? AND, (back to the super hearing thing) he can hear everything and he can't hear her breathing? because if she's conscious, even though she's paralysed, surely she's breathing and surely he can hear her?! wow that frustrated me and made me want to scream. This book seriously wreaked havock on my emotions! The aerie was really cool though and my favourite part. I like how (for the most part) the angels who came to cause destruction actually did come across as terrifying to the humans and not just lust-inducing hotties (although there was a little of that but not nearly as poorly done as in other books).

The creepy, gorey parts positively cringed me out, which I loved, and when she finally found her sister I kind of wanted to cry for her. It was seriously disgusting. And her interactions with her schizophrenic mother were kind of sweet in their own weird way. These were the main characters I cared for (as well as Josiah). When Ee writes good characters, theyre btilliant. Obidah , the twins etc were neither here nor there. They didn't particularly feel developed enough for me to create any kind of attachment.

All in all, this book was a pretty great start to what I believe is going to be a 5 part series and I can see that this has the potential to become amazing! Definitely looking forward to reading World After whenever I get my hands on it.