World After by Susan Ee

Title: World After (Penryn and The End of Days)
Author: Susan Ee
Genre: Dystopian, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (21st November 2013)
Blurb:

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. As Penryn searches the streets of San Francisco looking for her, she’s drawn into the heart of the angel’s secret plans, where she learns the horrifying extent to which they are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them he can’t rejoin the angels, but when faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn to survive, which will he choose?

The sequel to the internet phenomenon, ANGELFALL

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

WORLD AFTER is the sequel to Susan Ee’s brilliant ANGELFALL (review), and the second book in the PENRYN AND THE END OF DAYS series. In this book Ee continues Penryn’s story from where is basically left off in the first book. Finally reunited with her family, things seem to be going okay for Penryn. Until they don’t. Forced to search for her younger sister once again, Penryn finds herself drawn back into the angels’ brutal world.

I was one of the later readers of Ee’s ANGELFALL, but I fell in love with the characters and the world. WORLD AFTER was no different; as soon as I picked up the book I fell straight back into the dystopian world like I’d only just put it down. I think Ee did a brilliant job in capturing the chaos of not only the events of the previous book, but also with the growing revelations of just what the angels plan to do. Most WORLD AFTER focuses on Penryn and the events that happen around her, and although there are more than a few interesting insights into Raffe I would have loved for him to appear on the page sooner than he did.

If you are a fan of ANGELFALL and you haven’t got to this book yet, then I highly recommend that you do. WORLD AFTER is just as engrossing and compelling as its predecessor. I again enjoyed how Ee wrote the angels in this book. There is definitely a thread of biblical lore to them, but at the same time they are also very definitely Ee’s creations – the majority of them are warriors. I also quite enjoyed the way Ee wrote humanity in this book. It wasn’t always pretty, but I think it was probably quite a realistic interpretation of how we could react as a species.

Penryn was a brilliant main character and narrator of the novel. I have to admit that I really loved her reaction to being told she was a hero at one point in the novel – it said so much about her. I also liked the fact that Penryn was still so determined to do right by Paige, even after the events of ANGELFALL. I think she is probably one of the bravest characters I have read about. Raffe was typical enigmatic, but there was still something strangely compelling about him. I look forward to reading the next book in this series which comes out in 2015.