Review: World After

Title:  World After
Series:  Penryn & the End of Days #2
Author:  Susan Ee
Age Group:  Young Adult
Published:  November 19, 2013 by Skyscape
Source:  Bought

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?

My Review:  I actually was avoiding reading this book for the longest time.  I've have it sitting on my shelf since Christmas and I was so afraid to pick it up because I had heard that Raffe wouldn't be in it much!  A lot of times, when the hero in a series is away for a while, it can make the book a little less interesting for me because I'm so anxious for him to come back that I can hardly pay attention to what's going on.  Even though Raffe wasn't in this book as much as the he had been in the previous one, I am happy to say that I enjoyed it very much!

We start off nearly exactly where we left off in the previous installment: everyone thinks that Penryn is dead.  That first scene set off the tone for the rest of the book; it was filled with intensity and tension and sprinkled with some much appreciated and well done humor!  While reading, I found myself cringing one moment at the chill-worthy situations and descriptions and then laughing out loud the next because of something Penryn said or thought.  Her wit and humor made this post apocalyptic novel all the better!  Without it, this story would be very dreary, sad, and creepy.  I mean, it's still sad and creepy but it's also funny and fun to read.  

Penryn is absolutely amazing.  Seriously, one of my favorite protagonists.  She is just so easy to relate to!  I could see myself doing similar things if I were in her situation (fingers crossed that never happens).  She was both brave and scared.  She showed tremendous courage when dealing with the evil angels, the monster mutations, and even her sister.  But she wasn't so infallible that we weren't able to see that she had her weaknesses.  She wasn't perfect and she was definitely terrified at times but she loved her family enough that she wasn't going to stop for anything.  While we didn't see Raffe much, we did see his sword quite a bit!  I loved his sword.  It became a character itself as it went on this journey with Penryn and that was really awesome!  What we did see of Raffe made me love him all the more!  We definitely saw a different side of him in this novel and uncovering this new layer of him and his past was so interesting.  I'm excited to learn more about him and see the way his character grows and changes in the coming books.

The plot was just as intense and terrifying it was in the first book!  The situations Penryn is thrown into are scary and creepy; a lot of times, I felt like I was having a heart attack while I read.  I was anxious the entire time, dreading all of the bad things I knew could possible and probably would happen.  

World After was a home run sequel!  It had bone chilling imagery, high stakes situations, and characters that felt real and were three dimensional.  I do hope Raffe is in the next novel more, though!  I can't say I regret waiting so long to start reading this book because at least now the release date for the third installment is closer!

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