Last year, after seeing it pop up in several blogs I follow, I read , the first installment in the “Penryn & the End of Days” trilogy by Susan Ee. I liked the book, so I was looking forward to the 2nd part. I got it as soon as it came out, but I wasn’t that quick reading it. I just finished it a couple of days ago.
This sequel starts off with things a little bit too complicated. Let’s see:
1/ Mom is gone much more coo-coo than before
2/ cute little baby sister now looks like an autopsy corpse come to life. Oh! And she has razor blades for teeth. Nice.
3/ Everyone thinks you are the spawn of evil (or at the very least, the Devil’s bride) because you came back to life when you were dead
4/ Your hot boy-crush now looks like a demon and thinks you are dead.
Did I miss something out? Oh! a group of people capture your creepy baby sister. Which doesn’t end well, obviously. You then go all over San Francisco looking for her. Your search leads you into the heart of the angels’ secret plans where you catch a glimpse of their motivations, and learn the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go. Meanwhile, (Adonis) 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 you survive, which will he choose? Guess!
I’ll try to this spoiler-free, k?
THE PREMISE
The whole World After scenario, following an angel apocalypses is still great. But I have two objections: (1) stop saying it is the World After every 5 seconds!!! We get it, ok! And (2) I feel like the only reason we have this book, is because the editors wanted a trilogy. Nothing much happens. Penryn just keeps going from place to place. We do learn a bit of new info, but all the book could be somewhat summarized and be the first part of a long book that joins number 2 and number 3.
THE GIRL
I still like Penryn. Luckily, cuz all the book is from her POV. Is one long train of thought. I liked her relationship with Raffe’s archangel sword. That was interesting. And she is a true survivor. It’s incredible to see the things she is willing to do to survive and keep her family safe. Even though I keep picturing her as very young (even younger than 17. I don’t know why. It happened to me also in the first book), she is a complex character. Full of surprises. She makes hard decisions and you may not always agree with her. But she is resourceful and practical.
THE GUY
I swear I thought I was reading the wrong book. In a 300 page book, Raffe doesn’t appear until page 120 (more or less)! I was desperate!!! But when he does appear… *le sigh*. Ok… I’m not saying I didn’t like the book because the hot guy was missing from the first part. Actually, the first part was pretty good because you can see Penryn fend for herself and make choices without anyone’s input. But yeah…they are still dragging this relationship. But it’s so adorable to watch Raffe battle his feelings for Penryn. And the reunion, after he has been thinking she was dead all this time, was so great. It’s no all fluffy and pink and cute and emotional. It’s just… real.
The best part? The conversation they have about the sword (when they are actually talking about something else)*
I’m still wondering how he looks like. I can’t wrap my mind as to the fact that he probably looks like an 18 year old. I’m sorry. Thing is… It’s kinda disturbing to have an ancient archangel act like a teenager. On the one hand, he sometimes seems like the leader of angels, the all powerful and respected and feared archangel Raphael and then, right in the next paragraph, he acts like a hormonal 16 year old boy. Please, have him be either or.
THE PACE
Penryn goes from trouble to trouble. There are fights, escape plans and all. But the book does seem to drag a bit. It isn’t as quick as the first one. May be it’s because of what I said before. They had to fill space to create a trilogy instead of just the 2 books.
Though, I gotta say, Ee is one brave chick. She’s taken these books to a whole new levels. There’s a lot of violence, gore, suspense and terrifying moments for a YA book. For that, I have to congratulate her. There were a lot of parts when I found myself cringing. I meet, would any other author of a YA novel torture a cute little 7 year old and turn her into a monster? Moreover, there are a lot of monster and horrible things, but the true horror comes from what humans are reduced to. When humans are forced to go savage and primitive.
THE ROMANCE
Lovely dialogues. Tension filled stares and glances, lots of feels at the reunion. But come one! Make it happen!!! They are dragging it as much as Olicity, please! I know that their relationship is forbidden and that Raffe would have rather died than hook up with a Daughter of Men, but… Raffe, really. How long will you make us suffer?
THE TRILOGY
Kinda lost interest. I’ll keep reading to see when Raffe just gives in and kisses the daylights out of Penryn.
* Get your mind out of the gutter, you pervs!!!
I agree with you – I found the book a bit uneven. I loved some parts of it and others kind of dragged on for me. Definitely didn’t devour it like I did the first one, I literally could not put the first one down and finished it in 2 nights. I have also lost some interest but will definitely get the 3rd one to complete the series. Hopefully it doesn’t go the way of the Divergent series…. Talking to you Allegiant!!!
Exactly my thoughts. I sort of inhaled the first book and loved it. It was different from all the other I had read. But the 2nd one was 50% goo and 50% boring.
I hope it doesn’t end as Allegiant. That was disappointing!!!