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A review by saucy_bookdragon
Angelfall by Susan Ee
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I can see how Angelfall would standout at the time it was published as a paranormal YA dystopia with teeth. The angels are deadly, the world is horrific, and it's not an outright romance. None of that actually made the book good though.
Everything about the novel was paper thin, half-baked, or misplaced. The horror, humor, and romance just do not gel in the slightest. The humor was often out of nowhere, the romance made no sense, and the horror was so gruesome it crossed the line into gratuitous. And I understand saving world building for later novels, but I don't even have a bare bones idea of who the angels are or what their world is like even though there were opportunities to give something throughout the book. Penryn spent the entire book with an angel, why was there no discussion about what heaven's like, or if that's even where he's from?
The novel was also incredibly ableist. Penryn's sister Paige is paraplegic and is belittled significantly by the narrative (and magically able to walk at the end). Penryn's mother is implied to be divinely mad or schizophrenic and its depiction is as yikes as you'd expect. There's an albino angel whose features are exaggerated to be considered monstrous. And overall none of the disabled characters are allowed to be full characters with wants and desires, characterized entirely by their disability which either makes them helpless, monstrous, and/or ugly.
Everything about the novel was paper thin, half-baked, or misplaced. The horror, humor, and romance just do not gel in the slightest. The humor was often out of nowhere, the romance made no sense, and the horror was so gruesome it crossed the line into gratuitous. And I understand saving world building for later novels, but I don't even have a bare bones idea of who the angels are or what their world is like even though there were opportunities to give something throughout the book. Penryn spent the entire book with an angel, why was there no discussion about what heaven's like, or if that's even where he's from?
The novel was also incredibly ableist. Penryn's sister Paige is paraplegic and is belittled significantly by the narrative (and magically able to walk at the end). Penryn's mother is implied to be divinely mad or schizophrenic and its depiction is as yikes as you'd expect. There's an albino angel whose features are exaggerated to be considered monstrous. And overall none of the disabled characters are allowed to be full characters with wants and desires, characterized entirely by their disability which either makes them helpless, monstrous, and/or ugly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail