Review: World After, by Susan Ee

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? -Goodreads

3 Stars

Initially, I truly liked World After. Now, after further contemplation, I found that this book did not exactly live up to my expectations. So, I lowered my rating to 3 stars.


Dear World After,

I am regretfully informing you that I had not enjoyed you as much as I had hoped. I hate to say this, but at times, I found you a bit… boring.

Don't get me wrong, your actions scenes were extremely well-written; one of the best I've read in a while. The evil-things were quite horrifying and repulsive. I still love Penryn, and loved witnessing her growth as a character. Raffe wasn’t there for a bulk of you, but when he was present, I found myself treasuring their moments together.

Also, I loved that you are set in San Francisco!(where I was born) It was extremely depressing, though, to know what occurred to my homecity.

What I did not appreciate about you, however, was the lack of progress. It pains me to say this, and I know it must be an incredibly insulting label to you as a book, but I can’t help but feel that you are nothing more than a filler book. You suffer from the second-book-syndrome. I’ll be completely honest here, and I say this as a true friend: nothing much happened in you.

Sure, there were action scenes, and pretty awesome ones at that, but what was the end result of these fights? I’m not entirely sure.

I felt like I was waiting for something big to happen. Something, I might add, that was pointless to wait for. I was waiting a revelation or plot twist or something of the sort to keep the suspense level high, but in my opinion, throughout the book the suspense levels were surprisingly low, uncharacteristically so. If I stripped you of your numerous, albeit repetitive, fighting scenes, what would I have left? Practically nothing. I’d even go so far to say that you are simply an action-only book, blind to everything else.

I can't believe I hadn't noticed this while reading Angelfall, but I'm not the biggest fan of the writing style in you. The only time it improved was during the action bits.

Like I said earlier, World After, no progress occurs in you. I hate to compare friends, but Angelfall was much more successful in its pacing. You dragged way too much, something I had not anticipated nor hoped for. If someone were to ask me to give them a summary of the events in you, I would be completely tongue-tied and at a loss for words.

I’m sorry, World After, if I have offended you, but I am merely saying the absolute truth. That’s what friends are for, right?

Your reader,
Summer <3

P.S. Pooky Bear? Really? >.<

On a completely random note, this is my 100th review! *throws confetti*