OnlineBookClub.org

World After is the second installment in the Penryn and the End of Days series and as usual, Susan delivered a sequel that left us screaming for more.

Summary:

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 angles’ 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 thier leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

This book starts exactly where Angelfall left off. Penryn is reunited with her mom and Paige and they are with the resistance now, even though everything is awkward and tense when you are in a confined space with a crazy woman, a stitched up look alike doll girl and a dead teenager.

I tried to make this review spoiler-free but I just couldn’t.

In this book we get to know a little bit more about the other characters. Dee-Dum are always a delite to read, they are still goofy and light hearted even when the world is falling apart around them. The interaction between them and Penryn are hilarious, this is one of my favorites:

“Can I name your sword?”

“No.” I pull out a pair of jeans that might fit and one sock.

“Why not?”

“Already has a name.” I continue digging throught the pile for a matching sock.

“What is it?”

“Pooky Bear.”

His friendly face suddenly becomes serious. “You’re naming your collector’s item, kick-ass sword that’s made to maim and kill, specifically designed to bring your ginormous enemies to their knees and hear the lamentation of their women–Pooky Bear?”

“Yeah, you like it?”

We also get to see more about the relationship between Penryn and her mother and sister. Penryn’s mom is crazy as usual, but we get to discover the reason behind one of her actions, and let me tell you, it’s pretty clever. Now that Penryn has Paige back, she has to face the marks those angels left of her baby sister and that is not an easy thing to do. She feels bad for what she feels everytime she looks at Paige, Penryn knows that under all those painful looking scars and stitched flesh there is her little sister but still she can’t help the need to avoid her gaze, and her heart breaks because of it. Paige is important in this book, we find out a little bit more about the transformed kids, the locusts and Beliel.

We are introduced to new characters, one of them becomes a important part of the story in my opinion. I think she is a little underrated, but for me Clara has a big impact on how Penryn sees herself and she is, through the journey Penryn starts in search of her sister again, the reminder that our badass protagonist has what it needs to be a hero.

“You broke me out of the grasp of a living horror when I thought all hope was gone. You gave me the opportunity to crawl back to life when no one else could.”
She glances over at me, her eyes shining in the dark. “You’re a hero, Penryn, whether you like it or not.”

Then we have Pooky Bear. Oh Pooky Bear. For most of the book we don’t get to see Raffe, but this kick-ass swords will give Penryn a few glimpses of Raffe’s past that will make us understand a bit more of the angel’s behavior. There is one flashback that will have you squealing like a little girl on Christmas, you’ll see.

Let’s talk about Raffryn. Every single moment between Raffe and Penryn is perfection. From the very first moment they find eachother, the moment Raffe lays his eyes on this girl he reconizes her inmediatly, even when Penryn herself said that she was so different that not even her mother would reconize her, but Raffe did.

Oh the reunion. I had to put down the book and take a deep breath to calm myself in this part. It was perfect! I’m not gonna tell you anything about it, but from the moment they see eachother and what happens next will have you over the moon with feels, just remeber that Raffe up until that moment thinks that Penryn died at the old arie. The trust they have in one another is just beautiful and feelings are exposed, but not acted upon them, this is frustraiting I know, but every detail, every gesture will have you smiling like an idiot.

Then again, NO LOVE TRIANGLES IN THIS ONE EITHER.

This book is full of adventure, dicovery and fights, like I said in the review of Angelfall, they are flawlessly written by the amazing Susan Ee. World After thought has more crude scenes than the other, you can imagine every detail of the scenes, even when there’s blood and gore in it.

Would I recommend this book? YES, YES AND YES!

Rating: 4.5/5 (only because I would have loved to see more of Raffe on this book).

It's a good read. I enjoyed it and the first book as well even though I tried very hard not to judge Penryn's mother. I too love the fact that there is no love triangle, which seems to be more than half the storyline for most YA and actually most adult fiction.

I can't wait for the third one to see how it ends.