REVIEW: WORLD AFTER BY SUSAN EE.

Title: World After (Penryn and The End of Days #2)
Author: Susan Ee
Edition: Paperback
Published: November 21, 2013
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 438
Source: Bought from Fullybooked
Genre: Dystopia, Romance, Paranormal
Trailer: Not available.

Synopsis:

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?

I bought my shiny copy of World After last year during its release week but I didn't get at it right away. I was just busy I guess. But I enjoyed Angelfall so much that I didn't forget what happened in the story even after a year later.

Everyone thought that Penryn is dead. She rescued Paige and got stung by the scorpion locust that slowed her heartbeat and paralyzed her entire body. When she finally wakes up, the people from their camp thought she was an anomaly just like Paige who is stitched back together like some Frankenstein experiment. She tries to fend for Paige but she's different now, she couldn't even keep any human food down. When Paige attacks and feeds from a human who initially tried to harm Penryn, she was almost killed by the people from the camp but they were herded by the locusts. Paige ran away and Penryn tried to find her again. Along the way, Penryn did her best to know what truly happened to her sister and where is Raffe.

I was a little disappointed with World After. I mean, the world building was still crafted beautifully and Penryn is still kickass but I wasn't that really impressed with the development of the story. It dragged. It would have been nice if the slow pace is compensated with a thorough and well-slated back plot but it didn't. I still have a ton of questions left from Angelfall only to be jumbled up with the questions from World After. The Apocalypse business isn't still clear. Instead of getting answers, the story focused on Penryn and only Penryn. There were parts and moments that didn't add up to the entirety of the novel and I think it would have been a good opportunity to present what is lacking. Well, benefit of the doubt, there's still books 3 and 4 so those might provide the best answers to all this.

Also, am all about Raffe here. Without the legions of angels and Raffe of course, this wouldn't have happened. But Raffe's part here was just minimal. It was starting to get annoyed that I was past half the book and he's still nowhere to be found. It was that moment when I was so tempted to DNF it. I found Rafee finally only to be separated with him again. Like, I was only with him for a hundred pages or even less. And honestly, I want unlimited Raffe.

What I enjoyed though are the obvious things: Penryn is still the kickass protogonist I met in Angelfall, Paige (though not the Old Paige) went from being vulnerable to someone who can defend herself (the way she did morbid things to Beliel left me in awe), Raffe, though torn with whatever he was sworn to to falling in love with the Daughter of Man, remains rational, brave, romantic and handsome and my favorite of all, the mystery behind Pooky Bear.

World After is a promising sequel to Angelfall. With its undeniably chaotic world to unbearably romantic struggles, it did try to deliver what was expected of it. Dark world, morbid ways of living and horrible creatures await -- reasons to be hopeful until we get Book 3.

"Body language says a lot in the world, and the last thing I need is to look vulnerable."

"You're a hero. I'm hoping you'll restore my faith and show me that we're worth saving."

"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."

"I watch him get far from me. He never even knew I was near."

""Don't let me go," he says."