*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*
Synopsis 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.
How I’ve neglected to discover this trilogy until now is besides me. This is the first book that has genuinely made me grateful I decided to do the POPSUGAR challenge. I’m hooked and can’t wait to read the next two books.
The novel follows Penryn, a girl who’s had to be strong for her family, which includes her schizophrenic mom and handicapped younger sister, Paige. Feeling like the protector of her strong family, Penryn is devastated when Paige is taken by the enemy angels and is willing to do anything to get her back. That includes making a deal with the devil angel, Raffe, who lost his wings in a battle with the same angel that took Penryn’s little sister.
Teaming up with the understanding that they’re on opposing sides, the two head off to find the Aerie, the angels home on Earth. Along the way they run into Penryn’s mom, a human gang, a human resistance group, creatures neither Penryn or Raffe have ever seen before, and of course, angels. Making friends and enemies the pair begin to realize there may be more in common between humans and angels than they thought.
However, Raffe knows the risks of an angel getting too comfortable with a human and wouldn’t dare let anything beyond a mutually beneficial partnership happen between himself and Penryn. Meanwhile, there’s a battle for power amongst the angels and secret dealings amongst them. While the humans struggle to recover in this post apocalyptic world the angels have their own issues.
Romance, drama, comedic relief, and more violence than I was expecting, this book was fantastic. Obviously, there’s a great similarity between this novel and The Hunger Games (teenage girl taking care of her mother and sister is not a new plot device). However, Susan Ee does an amazing job of creating a new dystopian world. She plays on this idea of what would the rapture really look like. We’re given warring angels who aren’t even particularly sure why they’re attacking the Earth and some who aren’t even sure God exists.
It’s a twist on an idea anyone that’s walked around New York City has heard from someone screaming on a street corner: “The End Is Near!” Ee gives us beautiful angels that are creatures of destruction and blurs the lines between who we believe are the good guys and the bad. Honestly, it made me want to reread the Bible and see if I could glean any knowledge about what the angels could be doing on Earth and if Ee is really drawing from the Bible or if it’s all fiction. Yeah, it’s that good.
Definitely a book you should pick up if you haven’t already. I listened to the audiobook for this one and it was fantastic, however, it doesn’t necessarily add anything to the story that you wouldn’t get from just reading the novel. Either way you read it, just make sure you do.
Favorite Line:
“Sometimes, as we’re stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”
Stars: 5 out of 5. I loved it!
Borrow or Buy: Buy! Honestly, I wish I had this on my Kindle instead of just on Audible. I might buy it. For reals.
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Zakiya N. Jamal 
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