World After by Susan Ee

World After

by Susan Ee

published on November 21st 2013 by Hodder & Stoughton

Young Adult/Post-Apocalypse/Urban Fantasy/Romance

part of Penryn and the End of Days series (book #2)

314 pages

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In this sequel to the bestselling fantasy thriller, Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world.

When a group of people capture Penryn's sister Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

“It is painful to see that people prefer a bad guy who looks like an angel to a good guy who looks like a demon.”

I read the first book of this series, Angelfall, last year, but didn't review it because I couldn't get absorbed enough in the story. I felt like the hype was too much and was disapponted when I didn't get it. But here I am, two days after finishing the second installment and still can't stop thinking about the book! Now I know. I think once you get past the gore and all (It took a while to get used to, because, well, there's cannibalism, low demon creatures in the form of little kids that could yank out your flesh with its sharp razor teeth, scorpion demons with long tail that sting and suck your body liquid until it dried... Things like that), once you're ready to read the *disturbing* parts of it, you'll start to enjoy the story better. I did.

Penryn continued to be her awesome kick-ass self in the second book. All along her motivation didn't waver a bit — To make sure her mom and Paige safe. World After is still filled with a lot of fighting scenes with SO much badassery. Seriously. Usually when an author write about a scene where the female main character was part of a fight, lots of sugarcoating ensued. The words were refined to soften the whole thing. But Susan Ee didn't do that! The fights were real. Penryn knew where to go, how to stand, what to do, which body part to kick to defeat her opponent in the best way. You'll want to stop a while or take a breath when she fights, for it's like watching an actual fight in front of your eyes.

My favorite fighting scene? The one in the ocean. SO MUCH WIN.

And the dark humor in Susan Ee's writing is definitely not like any other. It's the best thing, actually. From Penryn naming Raffe's (powerful, respected, strong archangel) sword with such a ridiculous name like POOKY BEAR, or where she dressed herself with a leopard jacket, tie, and color-mismatched socks. It's really strange that even with all the gore, horror, dark, sickening, super-creepy parts of the book, you still got a good laugh from it. Every aspects are so well-put. I'm in love.

“Pooky Bear."

He’s silent for so long I’m beginning to think he didn’t hear me when he finally says, “Pooky. Bear.” 

“It was just a little joke. I didn’t know.” 

“I’ve mentioned that names have power, right? Do you realize that when she fights battles, she’s going to have to announce herself to the opposing sword? She’ll be forced to say something ridiculous like, ‘I am Pooky Bear, from an ancient line of archangel swords.’ Or, ‘Bow down to me, Pooky Bear, who has only two other equals in all the worlds.’ ” He shakes his head. “How is she going to get any respect?”

Bad news: There wasn't much Raffe this time. Not as much as in the first book, at least. Thanks to POOKY BEAR, though, we all could get a glimpse to his memories of some events that happened in book one. Apparently Pooky was like a recording tape of her owner. And once Raffe and Penryn reunited (yes, don't you worry), umf, things got A LOT BETTER. THE SHIP SAILING HARD, people. The amount of obnoxious giggles that came out of me everytime they *flew* together, oh, you wouldn't believe.

I love their relationship even more in World After! They were strong as two individuals, but AMAZING when together. Now that it's clear for Raffe not to let Penryn be hurt (or dead) again, this pair's bond is better and stronger. And though I hope Raffe will still get his (original, beautiful snow white angel) wings back, it's good to see him started embracing and already knew how to handle the demon wings better.

It's rare to like the second book more than the first, and I hope the next books will continue to stay on this path. It's one of two series which features angels (or nephilim, or seraphim, well, similar creatures like that) that I actually like. The other one is Daughter of Smoke and Bone series (Akiva! Weee). Up to this date, Penryn & the End of Days is planned to have 5 books. Another awesome thing about this hugely praised series? It started out as a self-published eBook before Holder & Stoughton bought it! :)

“She wasn’t made to be alone.” 

“I guess none of us are.” 

Our eyes meet and an electric tingle runs through me. 

“She missed you,” I say in a whisper. 

“Did she?” His voice is a soft caress. His gaze into my eyes is so intense that I swear he sees straight into my soul. 

“Yes.” Warmth flushes my cheeks. I… “She thought about you all the time.” 

The candlelight flickers a soft glow along his jawline, along his lips. “I hated losing her.” His voice is a low growl. “I hadn’t realized just how attached I’d gotten.” He reaches and moves a strand of wet hair out of my face. “How dangerously addictive she could be.”

Hop on the boat! What other people said about World After: Jaime Arkin from Fic Fare | Jen from The Starry Eyed Revue

PS: Rumour has it that Angelfall is going to be made into a movie!!!!

Have you heard about the series before? Have you read this book? What do you think of it? Do you have any recommendation with similar themes like this one? Read anything good lately? Tell me!

Have fun and read some more! :)