World After by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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?
Trigger warnings for violence, gore and parental abuse.
World After picks up moments after Angelfall, with Penryn back with the Resistance and finding out what they think of the weird changes wrought by the angels, the least of which is her seemingly rising from the dead. Adjusting Paige back into a human life is more difficult than she imagined, and when she loses her (again), she has to once again brave her life and go into the lion’s den to find her. Meanwhile, Raffe still thinks she is dead and is hunting down Beliel to retrieve his wings, but we don’t see much of that because Penryn POV. But we also get a glimpse into angel plans because of her covert operations.
Now, this book is a good sequel because it primarily answers some questions from book 1, namely the why, when and how of the angel’s invasion. Uriel’s political plans are warped and complex, which is why Angelfall was so confusing. (I still don’t forgive that book though) And we also get to see some actual development between Penryn and Raffe that was rushed in Angelfall – you see them falling back into banter and comfort. And with the Raffe POV that we get through her dreams, we finally see why His Broodiness was being so hot-and-cold then and is all heart-melting-warm right now. Penryn also realizes that there is not much difference in being an evil angel or an evil human, especially when she sees how other humans treat her sister for being different. Speaking of Paige, I was cheering her on throughout the book because she is such an adorable little monster. And the running gag of Mrs Young being the thing that is causing all the weird problems around the plot and generally creating distractions and mayhem when needed.
In all, a definite step up from Angelfall, but more because of shortcomings in the latter. On its own, it still has some plot arc issues, and some really convenient events to tie up things. Even so, I am eager to read the finale, End of Days.
Previous books in series
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