World After by Susan EeSeries: Penryn & the End of Days #2
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton on November 19, 2013
Genre: Angels, Apocalyptic, Demons, Dystopian
Pages: 314
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★★★
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?
I need to start out with a quote from another reviewer, because they said it perfectly:
“75% Meh and 25% AWESOMENESS”
MP “Iheartbooks”
This is is 100% accurate.
I was bored for the first 75% of World After. That large portion of the story reads very much like a filler book. There’s not a lot happening. There’s just traveling, moving back and forth, and an overall sense of, “What do we do now?” A couple plot pieces do get moved around the board, but super slowly over that 75%. And to top it off, we get no Raffe.
I’m sure most people will agree with me when I say that Raffe made me fall in love with Angelfall. Yes Penryn is also a fabulous character, but Raffe and Penryn together were EXCITING, CHEMISTRY, FANTASTICAL. All those great adjectives (and a noun.. whatever). Take Raffe out of the picture for 75% of the book, and it’s a lot less exciting. One of my pet peeves if when you have a romance (or in this case an “almost romance”) then the love interest gets jerked out of the story in book 2 only to reappear at the end. I was devastated to see World After fall victim to that method.
When things finally do turn around in the last 25%, they are pretty awesome! All the great memories of Angelfall’s epicness came flooding back. Suddenly things are INTENSE, there are epic BATTLES that feel super important, there are crazy angel SWORD things going on. And, of course, Raffe FINALLY makes an appearance.
The last 25% of World After finally lived up to the awesomeness of Angelfall, but I’m really sad to say that the first 75% was majorly lacking. I just don’t feel like the first 75% had any of the same qualities that Angelfall had. It didn’t have Raffe’s playful character. It didn’t have the same sense of urgency or intensity. It didn’t feel…. epic.
The end is awesome, so definitely hold out until that point! Susan Ee did a great job getting me super pumped for book 3! World After ends on a great note and opens up some really exciting possibilities. I’m just still pretty massively disappointed that the first 75% flopped. 🙁
The Verdict
Was seeing this book around the blogosphere a lot. But with only 25% of awesomeness, I just don’t see it being worth the purchase.
I started reading AngelFall but didn’t really like Angel’s being bad guys, so I didn’t get very far..I keep thinking I might go back to it..just never been a huge Angel in a book fan..I actually got a copy in the mail of World After so I feel like I should give it a try again.
Oh, boo! I haven’t read the first book but read a ton of raves about it. Always sad when a series you’re invested in doesn’t live up to what you need when it comes to that last book.
Boo. Sounds like a bad case of second book syndrome. 🙁 I’ve heard great things about the series though so I’ll still give it a try!
P.S. Love your new book blogger site! It’s amazing!
Hmm, I’ve been wondering whether to read this one. I liked Angelfall, but I didn’t LOVE it like so many did. I gave it 3 stars, and if World After isn’t up to the same epic standards, not sure I want to continue. I really do want to know how the story goes though! Perhaps I’ll wait until the third book is out and read the second and third back to back, hoping for more epicness in the third.
I agree. I’m almost done and so far it has just been Meh. BUT I’m just getting to the Raffe scenes so I think it is going to get awesome.