ARC 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?

I received this ARC from the publishers in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


I was positively ecstatic when the publishers asked if I would like to review Susan Ee's World After! I mean really, there was no question about it I have been dying to read this one since I read Angefall a few months ago!

World After was positively awesome!! Penryn and her family are back with Obi and his crew, but it's not long before Paige disappears. Paige is a completely changed child now. Not only can she walk, but she's been cut and scarred and erratically changed by the monsters that took her, turning her into a monster herself in some ways.

And when Paige is gone, Penryn is determined yet again to find her, although this time she doesn't have Raffe with her. So she's truly on her own. Her crazy mother is there occasionally, much like she was last time. Although I feel she wasn't really in the picture as much as she was in Angelfall, but she was still pretty funny. Her whacked out craziness is totally chaotic, but there are moments that I found myself chuckling when she would do something. She can be pretty insightful at times despite the craziness. 

I was quite sad that Raffe wasn't around as much. Thinking Penryn dead, he gave her body back to her family and left. As it turns out, Penryn was only paralyzed and seemed dead. But while working with the sword, Penryn is able to experience some of Raffe's memories. Fights he had and won...which in turn helps herself train with the sword that she needs to know how to use. And at a few points, she is able to see him seeing her through his eyes. Complicated way of saying it, but she doesn't get to see how he thinks, but she does get glimpses of moments where he saw her when she wasn't looking. Which was kind of melt-worthy on its own!

The freaking creepy, scorpion hybrid things we saw last time at the end? Those are back in the picture again and they're playing a more prominent role in Uriel's plans. Beliel still has Raffe's wings and Raffe--for he is in the story, thank goodness--is hunting him.

World After continues Penryn and Raffe's story in the World After the angels came to earth and pretty much brought on the End of Days. Things are still chaotic in the world and Penryn is just trying to get through it all and keep her family safe. 

There was a good deal of action in this one, making it a pretty fast read. Almost finished it in one day, but got a little busy at one point and had to stop reading for awhile. It was an immensely enjoyable read! I fell so far in love with Angelfall that I didn't think it possible to leave that world behind! World After was astounding! Although, I will admit to being sad that Raffe wasn't in it as much. I totally understood why since he thought Penryn dead. We got a little bit of him in the memories from the sword and he does finally pop up past the halfway mark, but still...I needed more Raffe! That was my only complaint against the novel.

The ending was remarkable! Of course, Susan has left us hanging a bit again with uncertainty. Things happened, big things and now the future for our characters and where they're headed is unclear. And according to Goodreads the answer might be coming to us in May 2014. I have no clue how accurate that is, but if the book gods (and publishers) appease us, it will be absolutely true!

World After was a sensational and phenomenal read that is one not to be missed! Penryn and the End of Days series is one that I recently discovered, but is now one of my favorites! I highly recommend this series for all those looking for a good dystopian YA read!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars


World After releases November 19, 2013