Review: Is Angelfall the Next Twilight or Hunger Games?
When a book series you love comes to an end and doesn’t seem to have any future content coming in the near future, you naturally look around for the next great series. I’ve been searching, probably along with the rest of you, for the next book series that will launch into superstardom in the publishing world. I’ve read quite a few Young Adult novels, many of them dystopian, others not. Uglies was good, but not great. Despite the flurry of excitement over Divergent, the series just never grabbed me and I never went back to it. It was the same with three other popular up-and-coming YA titles that I read and didn’t really love.
Like millions of people out there, I went through a Twilight phase. It was pure escapist fantasy and a great short term obsession. Then I was introduced to The Hunger Games and I quickly got over Bella and Edward. Katniss was so much more interesting. Smart, politically aware, and responsible. I finished City of Bones recently and really enjoyed it, enough to be very excited for the movie this year, but it just wasn’t quite enough to truly get my book blood running.
Then along came a Google Alert touting Angelfall by Susan Ee as the “next Hunger Games”. I rolled my eyes. Everyone loves to call something The Next Hunger Games. Agents and publicists seem to fling the phrase “If you loved The Hunger Games you’ll love…” around without a care in the world. But the book was only $2.99 on Amazon, so I picked it up and let it sit on my Kindle, figuring there was no rush starting yet another book about a teenage girl living in a dystopian world.
On New Year’s day, I was bored, so I flipped through all my unread Kindle books and started on Angelfall. By the next morning, I was done. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t been so exhausted from our New Year’s party that I’d have finished it the same day. The parallels to Katniss are pretty evident. Set in the Silicon Valley area of California, 17 year-old Penryn Young is about to go outside with her wheelchair bound little sister Paige and her mother, who has long suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. So right there we’ve got a teenage tough girl protecting her little sister and taking care of her mentally ill mother. Sounds pretty familiar, right?
Only when Penryn goes outside, we find out that six weeks ago the world was mostly destroyed by angels who descended from the heavens and began razing whole cities to the ground. Gangs have taken over the streets of the city surrounding her condo and they’ve stayed in their condo for too long already. The trio is on the freeway making their way through a maze of abandoned cars when a vicious fight between angels breaks out in front of them. As one angel has his wings cruelly cut from his body, Paige makes a soft sound of sympathy, alerting them all to her presence. After telling her mother and Paige to run, Penryn tries her best to cause a distraction by saving the angel being cut, then runs after her family. Sadly, angered by her interference, the leader of the group of angels plucks little Paige right out of her wheelchair and flies off with her.
With nothing to do but save the injured angel from approaching gangs (who would sell off his body parts for goods) so that she can find out from him where to go to rescue Paige, she wheels him into an abandoned office building and waits for him to wake up. From here, Penryn’s adventure takes an interesting series of turns as she travels to San Francisco with the angel Raffe to find Paige, hoping against hope that she isn’t already dead or worse.
This book is very cross-genre friendly. Fantasy mixed with dystopian mixed with young adult with an unusual yet strong family dynamic. And Penryn is nowhere near as helpless as Bella. Because of her mother’s mental illness, she’s been hardened by the world long before the angels descended to wreak destruction. This has long been my problem with teenage female protagonists in other YA novels. We meet so many of them when they’re still naive, innocent, and relatively helpless. The appeal of Katniss was that we meet her when she’s already learned the hard lessons of her world and is ready to meet them head on. The same can be said for Penryn Young, which to me makes her exciting and interesting.
In my search for that next superstar series, Angelfall is the first book to make me think that this could be the one. Don’t get me wrong, the book isn’t perfect, but what book is? We all know that great writing isn’t necessarily what sells books (cough cough, Twilight/50 Shades) and I thought Susan Ee’s writing was well done, especially since this was originally a self-published e-book. Her book gained a fan following all on its own, which speaks a lot for the book.
You won’t find deep political messages in this one, but it’s wonderful escapist fantasy mixed in with real world situations that people could face in a post-apocalyptic scenario. It doesn’t hurt that Penryn travels with an Adonis-like angel either. I’m confident that fans of The Hunger Games and fantasy fiction would enjoy this just as much as I did. And as an added bonus, there’s no love triangle. I’m so over them.
The book gets graphically violent at times, with some very disturbing scenes, so I’d caution parents to read the book and determine appropriateness before gifting it to tweens or young teens.
The first five chapters are available for free on Susan’s blog, so feel free to check it out and see if you’d like to pick it up. It’s currently $5.79 on Amazon for the Kindle and $5.55 for the paperback from Barnes & Noble. If you end up liking the book, be sure to follow my new site Daughters of Men.
Book 2 of Penryn & the End of Days is due out this fall.
Sounds interesting, though I don’t really enjoy fantasy books. I think one reason why people liked THG, along with the main protagonist, was because of it’s sense of reality.
That’s why I loved Divergent (and Insurgent) so much, because I could imagine the events happening in the story taking place in our world in the future. That’s why I was a little surprised why Divergent didn’t capture you. When I read it, I thought “Could this be as good, or even better, than The Hunger Games?” I also had the same feeling with the Maze Runner trilogy. All of these stories, I could see happening. Of course, they have hardly a chance of really happening. But they feel “real”.
So in my opinion, I see Divergent or the Maze Runner as the next, “Hunger Games.” You sounded like you really enjoyed this book, and even though this genre isn’t my favorite, maybe I should give it a read.
@IJ I enjoyed Maze Runner a lot, but I didn’t like how many loose ends it ended up leaving in the last book. I’m excited for that film adaptation!
The concept of Divergent just didn’t seem realistic to me, which is probably why I didn’t care for it. It was supposed to be real world dystopian, not fantasy dystopian.
Hi Crystal, I read the The Hunger Games because I like to try to read the books of movies I want to see. I was pretty much hooked from the first page. Loved the series. I’m very surprised to hear you didn’t take to Divergent. I really want to urge you to read the 2nd book in the series. the first book really only focused on the initiation period whereas the 2nd book tells the true story. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Somehow I don’t picture this as a realistic description of angels. Really? Angels from Heaven just come down and start demolishing people? Hardly. Demons maybe, but not angels. I probably won’t be picking this one up any time soon.
Blake, reread in the bible about Sodom.
My friends were raving about this book a few months ago and said it was the best book they have ever read (and way better than The Hunger Games). I nodded my head, but did an internal eye-roll. I’m tired of reading about things being compared to The Hunger Games (so many times I’ve read books that were said to be better than THG- Divergent, Matched, etc.- and I ended up not liking them at all) and I know no series will EVER replace the bond I have with THG. I haven’t really thought about it… until now. I thought it was just my friends loving some new book (and knowing that we don’t share the same taste- they’re into the supernatural/bad boy/love triangle/drama stuff), but since you give it a raving review… I might just check it out.
Yeah… no. I’ll pass on this one. If you all want to read something excellent that is similar to THG, read “The Darkest Minds” by Alexandra Bracken.
@Kitty Darkest Minds sounds interesting, thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like it just came out only a few weeks ago?
You’re right about that, Liz. I just meant randomly. It wouldn’t be realistic for angels to do that randomly and the story is making angels appear like the bad guys. That’s all I’m saying. Sodom was not a random event.
@Blake And you’re saying the angels are doing this randomly because you’ve read the unpublished sequels to Angelfall?
This is a FANTASY book with a bit of realism thrown in. It’s like saying you don’t enjoy True Blood or Twilight because vampires aren’t real. That’s not really the point because it’s obviously set in the fantasy genre. I can see if you don’t like fantasy fiction, but it sounds like you’re saying that the problem with Angelfall is that angels wouldn’t do that?
@Crystal I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. It’s just odd that angels would do that. Doesn’t sound like Biblical angels. But I will wait for the whole series to come out before I get upset. They may actually not be making angels into bad guys, but I hope you can understand why I as a Christian would feel disturbed the story. I apologize for being too harsh.
@Blake No need to apologize, I do recognize that her using angels could bring the ire of people of religion, so it’s understandable to feel the way you do and I apologize for not making that clear too.
I’ve read stories you have posted before and I really respect what you say. I may just read the books for myself to see what it’s like. That would be the best thing to. Not judge something without knowing more about it.
I loved Angelfall too. Way more than I expected to. I think I went in a sceptic because I wasn’t a fan of some of the other books that were originally self-pubbed and for whatever reasons hit big and got book deals… But Angelfall was really great. Bold. Scary. Unflinching. Awesome.
This i just my opinion, but the book recommended does not really appeal to males. Myself being a sixteen year old guy who has read the hunger games trilogy, divergent, insurgent, and legend, i read those books because they had an interesting concept and i feel like they had something to say about society. Teen guys who red for pleasure (there are not many) want a mentally stimulating book with action, adventure, a good plot, and maybe a little romance. The reason that the hinger games, divergent series, and legend were appealing is because they have the romance and emotional scenes that a girl may want, but the story a guy desires. Sorry for the rant, but i had to voice my opinion on this matter
Ps Why dont they write any dystopian novels with the main character being a male?? Just an observation
@THG Fan: I agree, when my husband asked what was so darned interesting, I told him he probably wouldn’t like it since it does seem overall to be a “chick book”. Still, it’s got action and a girl fighting tooth and nail to survive, so I don’t think it would alienate ALL guys. Also, Twilight was a smashing success and that’s definitely an overwhelmingly chick book.
I do wonder if this could be a YA PG-13 movie because the dark themes go way past Hunger Games sometimes.
I’VE ACTUALLY READ ANGELFALL.
Now that I got your attention, it’s a nice book. Will it be the next Hunger Games? I’m sorry
to disagree with you Crystal, but I don’t think it stands a chance. There are already lots os book series generating a lot
of attention right now (“Divergent”, “The Mortal Instruments”, “The Infernal Devices”, even the not-yet-published “The Dark
Artifices”, which will be the 3rd Shadowhunter book series by Cassandra Clare). Also, the last time I checked, “Angelfall”
was a relativily unknown book, very few people actually talk about this.
That being said, I liked this book a lot. The thing I like the most about this book? God, “Angelfall” has an extremely
DARK atmosphere. This vision of destructive Angels that don’t care for human lifes is not exacly a new concept (TV Show
Supernatural, “The Mortal Instruments” saga, …), but it stil is great to see an author exploring the concept, and Susan
Ee is doing a good job writting this seriously dark post-apocalyptic angel history. In fact, let’s stop righ here.
Look, there is a fine line between “dystopian” themes and “post-apocalyptic” themes, and people sometimes tend to forget that line and mix them up. “The Hunger Games”, imho, is a dystopian themed book – It doesn’t really matter how we got to the Hunger Games Society, but we have and it’s dystopian, not exacly post-apocalyptic, and the same thing goes to “Divergent”. “Angelfall”, on the other hand, is post-apocalyptic: people are fighting to put everything back on track as it used to be before the Angels destroyed everything. In fact, I would say it’s not POST-apocalyptic, it really is just apocalyptic, Susan Ee puts you right in the middle of the action.
I remember I read the book and 2 hours later a posted a review in a Portuguese Forum about it. I have that review right here in my second monitor, and somewhere along the way I told something that I think really tells lots about this book. I said that, even though the story telling might be confusing at some times (even thought this is intentional), the atmosphere is so messed-up dark that you just think “Ok, I understand that something really strange and horrible happened in this world, lets just see where it leads”. Seriously though, the atmosphere is so dark and the author projects the character feelings and fears so well that you end up NOT wanting to question the story affraid the book will just eat you up. It’s like you’re part of it, you are there with the character, living all that.
But not everything is great. I mean, the graphic violence is just too much for an YA book, I think. The end of the book has so much gore in it that it didn’t seem an YA book, it seemed horror. The vocabulary sometimes is a little too dense, and there were one or two things that don’t make much sense, and I’ll be waiting for the next book for an explanation.
Bottomline: it’s a great book, better than most of you right now are giving it credit for in the previous comments
@CRYSTAL: Regarding “Divergent”, I had trouble believing in the setup of that society too – I’m not sure if that’s what you were talking about when you said you didn’t thought the concept realistic. I mean, I understand how that system works and I believe that it would actually work but… How do we get from a society like ours (where people are so used to being what they want) to the one “Divergent” speaks Of? It would be impossible to institute that society in present days, the majority of the population would never agree to such a system. UNLESS you read to the end of the Divergent Saga 2nd book and realize that MAYBE that society is not exacly something people agreed to, but maybe someone brainwashed them to believe its how it allways worked. Didn’t you ever wonder why the Divergent Society seems to be confined to that small Chicago area? Why is there fences arround the city? Is there no life “outside”? I was shocked (it actually gave me goosebumps) with the ending of “Insurgent”(Divergent #2) because it raises all these questions, and the third book will certainly answer them.
@mtX The thing about Angelfall though, is it’s got 1100 reviews on Amazon with 4 1/2 stars. Divergent has 1800 with 4 1/2 stars, so Angelfall shouldn’t be counted out. It’s got word of mouth advertising on its side and I think it’s got huge potential to skyrocket.
That being said, I agree with you about it being extremely gory and violent, which is why I cautioned parents. I think it being targeted at a PG-13 audience would hurt its film adaptation a lot.
@Sith Lord: I found Legend to be exactly how you described Angelfall. To be blunt, it was just kind of boring. Marie Lu never really uncovered enough of the mystery for me to want to read her next book.
Sorry my bad, Divergent is at 2000 reviews. Still, 1100 is not a shabby number!
I liked Angelfall but I didn’t love it. There was just something missing. But the next big thing for me has to be Legend by Marie Lu. I’ve loved that book since the day it was released and eagerly waiting for the 2nd book Prodigy and the film.
I would suggest The Chemical Garden Trilogy, With Wither as the first book.
VERY good
@THG Fan: I’m a guy myself but… did you find Divergent #1 interesting? I read Divergent expecting something like “Hunger Games”, but it turned out completely different. Ihe second book was amazing, but the first one is kinda boring. There is too much romance and little action for my taste. And this is not just me, there were many people who agreed that this book was too long… You had to read 400 pages before you actually got to the action part and then the book ends. Angelfall, on the other hand, it has almost no romantic stuff at all, it talks about a wrecked world and there are loads of scary parts, and I’m not even counting the heavy and dark atmosphere.
@Crystal Yeah I’ve a lot of people say that. You should give the second book a try though. I heard it’s a lot better than Legend. C
P.S Cool site. I just found out about it today through Susans Ee Twitter
@Crystal: Angelfall being PG-13? I just can’t imagine it. I mean, they had trouble keeping “The Hunger Games” PG-13 and it only had some fighting and straight forward killing – even with all that stuff toned down in the movie, parents still complained. Angelfall has piles of bodies, some of them even become “undead” or something, there are angels riping each others wings and sewing them up to their bodies… It’s messy, really messy. I can’t imagine a PG-13 rating for this.
I can’t either and tbh I don’t want one. I’d have been happy with an R Hunger Games too, though that’s probably because I can go to R movies without issue, haha. The other day, Erin and I were fantasizing about an HBO Hunger Games series and getting all carried away with it, even imagining the “Previously on The Hunger Games” recaps. hahaha
I’m was raised in a pretty strict Catholic household and I found Angelfall to be a very good and unique read. It didn’t offend me one bit though I can see it having a lot of controversy. I really commend Susan for writing a book so out of the norm. I hope the film can live up to the book. Isn’t Sam Raimi directing it? I think it’s on his IMDB page. If its true, I doubt the film will be PG13. I hope they dont water it down.
I read Angelfall when it came out, and I absolutely loved it. I’m happy for authors when they get more fans, but I hate how people always compare an adaption to other successful adaptions to show how popular it is. Like when the Hunger Games was just a book series everyone kept saying how it was like the next ‘Twilight’. I hate it how people say ‘Twilight’ instead of saying ‘next big book to movie franchise’ because they are only comparing the how big the adaption will be.
Although I really enjoy the Hunger Games Trilogy, and it’s adaption, I feel like it’s getting old making all these book to movies. Films before had original scripts, but today it’s mostly just about making money
I actually read angelfall to and I loved it more than I thought I would cause usually what I get out of angel genre books is stupid pointless romances and its strange to me that people call it fantasy cause I have a hard time reading fantasy books and to me it didn’t seem fantasy more like dystopian with angels in it and for those who haven’t read it and are worried about the romance taking up the plot trust me that’s not an issue its really a great story with a great heroine who can actually kick ass and I don’t think it should be compared to THG cause its it own story and seriously why would anybody compare anything to twilight unless it was a crappy story like twilight then ya u can compare but anyway all I say is angelfall is a great unique dystopian story and I think everybody should give it a try its really good:)
WAIT! They are actually turning this into a movie? WOW, I had no idea. Well, good for the fans – I would see it, sure -, but I honestly don’t believe it’s going anywhere anytime soon. But We’ll see.
Sam Raimi is producing and Joe Drake (Lionsgate!) is exec-producing. I don’t think Raimi is directing.
Sorry to post something slightly OT but I wanted to recommend another to-be series for YA fiction lovers (this is fantasy, I think, but not dystopian fiction): I just picked up a book from the library called The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen. Anyone read this book? I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but wanted to mention the title in case anyone is looking for more fantasy but not dystopian fiction reading material.
@shelly I read The False Prince! I thought it was pretty good with a nice twist, though it’s probably more for a younger set than YA. It felt more “kiddy” somehow. I still enjoyed it though.
@THGtribute and Stephanie Regarding the term “Next Twilight” and “Next Hunger Games” please know that I mean it in a “next blockbuster book” sense. I think that’s usually what people mean since the “next Twilight” should technically have been Midnight Sun. (still mad about that)
Thanks for the write-up Crystal! I’ll definitely read it. I pretty much will read anything I can get my hands on, so thanks to everyone else who suggested books as well. I agree with everyone who is saying that Divergent book 1 was a little slow. I liked it a lot but didn’t love it. I’m about to read Insurgent so we’ll see how that goes. And @mtX, THANK YOU for finally pointing out something I think the media is really messing up lately: the difference between post-apocalyptic and dystopian literature. As a future English major, it sticks out like a sore thumb when people mix those up
Granted, they are very similar, but there is a difference between them that has often failed to be recognized.
I had been looking for a new book series to read too when I found Fallen by Lauren Kate for $5 at TJ Maxx. I am halfway through and I really like it. There are 4 other books in this series and I read that they are turning it into a movie.
@Crystal- I’m still steaming about the Midnight Sun thing too. You’re not alone
@Emily414: You’re Welcome… You’re an English Major and here I am making English mistakes :p I should start writting in Portuguese, that way there would be no mistakes. Anyway, as for Divergent #2, it really is a lot different from the first one. Yes, I found the first one too slow, but the second book was amazing. In a review I wrote of these books in another site, I actually said it was worth reading the first one just so you could read the second. At least that’s my oppinion, you should give it a try.
Cumprimentos (portuguese for “Regards”)
It’s probably better because like I said, protagonists who are naive and clueless make for *really boring* protagonists. Same for Delirium, sadly. Lena was too clueless for me to like her.
I read Divergent in one day, then Insurgent and loved them both! It starts out slow but gets really good! AngelFall sounds intriguing; I’ll check it out. Also, the Mortal Instruments was a good read that is being made into a movie.
I read it a couple months ago and I thought it was alright. After reading Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices, stories about Angels will have a lot to live up to. The next Twilight or Hunger Games is going to be Mortal Instruments movie.
I enjoyed City of Bones, but have a hard time liking Clary. Still, I’ve got City of Ashes on my must read list this month.
I have read Divergent and I LOVED it. (As you can see by my username…) I have also read Uglies, the first book to Maze Runner, and Maximum Ride. I really liked the Uglies series and the Maximum Ride series. Maze Runner was good but not great. I think that the Divergent series is better than THG. I don’t have anything against THG series but Tris Prior was less of an ‘I’m the hero’ type person.
@HG Fan: Classic dystopian novels all had male protagonists. Writing dystopian novels with a female protagonist is a new trend – the success of THG is probably the reason why, but even if everyone wrote only dystopian novels with female protagonists for the next 10 or 20 years, it would still feel like a change from the previous hundred or so years. Let’s face it, unless we’re talking about the romance genre or fairy tales, fiction in general is overwhelmingly written from the male POV.
stephanie: Popular books were always adapted into movies. Gone with the Wind was for a long time the most successful film of all time (and it may still be, at least when it comes to the box office, when the numbers are adjusted for inflation). Besides, neither are original screenplays a sign of deep and lofty artistic and/or social message intentions, nor are adapted screenplays a sign of the lack of those. So many of the original screenplays of Hollywood movies have very little originality or innovation to them.
Off-topic, but there is a new contest courtesy of EPIX (the TV channel airing THG) that can win you awesome prizes. Here is the link: http://sot.ag/mKkn/
Read other reviews and the first few bits. I’ve been looking for a book with characters as likable as those in THG were. Reading it, THANK YOU!
Was unimpressed by Angelfall, but… I got my HG fix by devouring Ashfall and its sequel, Ashen Winter, both authored by Mike Mullin. This survivalist series is also a trilogy with the final book, Sunrise, yet to come. The lead character, Alex, would be a great role for Josh Hutcherson.
@mtX- my goodness, don’t apologize for your mistakes! You seem perfectly fluent to me. I speak Spanish, so I could probably get at least a small percentage of your Portuguese, haha. I’ll definitely give Insurgent a try. Thank you for your response!
@Crystal: Regarding The Mortal Instruments (don’t worry, I won’t spoil these for you), Clary is in fact a little bit clueless and it made me mad that she ends up being so useless in the beginning. The first two books are, for me, the worst. I’m not saying they are bad, but they didn’t impress me. Regardless, when I start a series I finish it, and I kept reading it. And I’m glad I did, because the books get exponentially better from there. I remember writting about this (that’s another thing about me: every book I read, I review it in a Portuguese forum, just for the sake of the Community) and I said that TMI#1 and TMI#2 had a “non-existing atmosphere” – it didn’t felt like anything except a little futile. But then Cassandra Clare changes her approach to the book: Clary stops being so clueless and the author starts narrating through different points of view, and everything gets better. The Third book felt like the last Harry Potter. The 4th and 5th book are even better: characters that weren’t so important in the first 3 books now become the center of the story and Clary almost falls behind… almost. It’s darker and Cassandra’s Storytelling is really improved in these last ones, I think.
The same goes for “The Infernal Devices” series – Cassandra Wrote these books between the release of the 3rd and 4th TMI book, so the StoryTelling of TID is already really good, and the books have a very “grey” atmosphere, that Victorian London rainy climate only helps that feeling. The Characters behaviors are in accordance to that year and overall I liked these characters a little bit more. Interesting fact: TMI and TID are connected by one or two storylines that fans are eager to see concluded. Both series even share some characters and obviously the ShadowHunters families are the same, so it’s also nice to see the contrast between the TMI Lightwood family with the TID Lightwoods
@Ivana: regardind what you said about movie adaptations being something that already existed before Twilight or Hunger Games. It is obviously true, but the more I read about movie adaptations to be released in 2013, the more I was convinced that 2013 was special, so in the Portuguese Forum I keep talking about I actually opened a topic to discuss exacly that – are we seeing right now an increase in adaptations? Or was it allways like that? Some people said that it was allways like that, some people considered that in fact we were watching an increase in adaptations. Two days later, I found an MTV article with the title: “2013 – the year of the literary movie?”, and that article actually said that movie producers were, more than ever, producing book adaptations. In 2013, we will have at least 20 adaptations, and many of them are movies that come from extremely popular books (“The Hunger Games”, “The Caster Chronicles”, “The Mortal Instruments”, “Ender’s Game”, “The Host”, etc etc). So, while I agree with you that adaptations allways existed, I also believe 2013 will have more popular adaptations than ever. Even 2014 is promising – “Divergent”, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part1″, maybe “The Mortal Intruments: City of Ashes”, maybe the second book of “The Cast Chronicles”… We’ll just have to wait and see, but I will be spending a lot of money in movie goings this year
@mtX Oh don’t worry, I fully intend to keep reading TMI! I enjoyed the first, even though I’ve heard from lots of people that the first book is the most boring.
@unwoundtribute No offense here, but Unwind was seriously one of *the* worst books I’ve ever read. I read it after I saw Mainstay’s short and it sounded intriguing, but I thought the writing/tense was terrible and it took me so long to finish it.
I read What’s Left of Me recently and thought that was okay. I don’t think it would make a great movie, but still thought it was better than Unwind. Starters was decent and I think I liked it better than Uglies, but it’s not a series I’m dying to read.
@THG Fan
i am also a sixteen year old guy and i agree with most of what you said, i started reading divergent but i stopped and finished the maze runner trilogy, i never went back to divergent ( maybe i should), but there’s one trilogy that is as good as hunger games in my opinion UNWIND; not to much romance, lots of action, always suspense, and a very very good plot. i am currently reading the second book.( sorry for my english i’m dutch)
everyone who loved hungergames will love unwind!
Unwind is a 2007 science fiction novel by young adult literature author Neal Shusterman. It takes place in the United States, somewhere in the near future. After a civil war—known as the Second Civil War or the Heartland War—is fought over abortion, a compromise was reached, allowing parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old to be unwound—taken to “harvest camps” and having their body parts harvested for later use. The reasoning was that, since 100% (actually 99.44% taking into account the appendix and “useless” organs) was required to be used, unwinds did not technically “die”, because their individual body parts lived on. In addition to unwinding, parents who are unable to raise their children to age thirteen for retroactive abortion have the option to “stork” their child by leaving it on another family’s porch. If they don’t get caught, the “storked” baby then becomes the other family’s responsibility.
Unwind received positive reviews upon release, with praise focusing on the novel’s immersive environment and sociological implications. It also received many awards from young adult literature authorities. A film adaptation of Unwind is currently in production by independent producers.[1] A second novel titled UnWholly was released in August 2012.[2]
Sounds more like a fantasy. The Hunger Games is more realism than fantasy. Everything is the “next” Twilight, Hunger Games, ect. I especially get tired of hearing the same thing with every YA book: if you like [insert title], you’ll love [insert title].
@unwoundtribute Unwind is amazing. I loved that book, though I haven’t read the others. But it is great, I highly recommend it. I’m planning on reading The Host when I have the money. Looks interesting, and the cover looks great. The original cover, not so much the movie tie-in edition.
Am I the only one that thought the idea of God sending Angels to earth to punish sinners was realistic. I thought it was intersting that once they entered earth it seemed like they swayed, not doing what God wants etc. I will never understand when people say that something has too much fantasy. How can something too much fantasy? :O That is what my parents say when I ask them to give Harry Potter a chance
@Crystal great review! I feel the exact same way 
@Zomeatsbrains – For what I remember, we don’t really know exacly why the angels are on earth. That is part of the mistery of the book, so we shouldn’t rush to conclusions saying it was god or not who sent them, or that they swayed, or anything at all…
I wasn’t trying to say that there are no male YA novels, i was just trying to say that it seems like all the new popular dystopian novels are predominantly feminine in terms of the lead character. And yes, i do know that almost all YA dystopian novels used to have males leads, but i think it would be both refreshing and interesting to have a male driven dystopian novel with the same overall idea that thg, divergent, and even legend have.
Ps does anyone hve any suggestions for a male reader. I thought that unwind sounds interesting, and i may just have to read it
I think the thing about Divergent is also that I found Tris to be really boring. So boring that I don’t really care about what happens to her in Insurgent.
At least with Clary, even though I don’t like her, I thought she was interesting, which is why I’ll read the other books.
Wool by Hugh Howey is very limited in scope too. They all live in an underground silo, but what makes that book utterly fascinating is that you *care* about the characters. Howey writes them so real that you feel like you know them. For some reason I just could never say the same thing about Tris, Connor (Unwind), or Lena (Delirium). Characters like Thomas (Maze Runner), Callie (Starters), Eva/Addie (What’s Left of Me), and Tally (Uglies) were more interesting, but not truly spectacular.
@THG Fan, Unwind is good. Very interesting. I really liked that book, but I can’t tell you if you’ll like/love it or not. Like how Crystal doesn’t like it, while unwoundtribute loves it. It’s just a matter of opinion.
It is an interesting story, but maybe you’d like to read the preview of it at Amazon.com or watch the Mainstay video.
I’ll have to give this a look. don’t know if i will read it right away though.
@Mandy the fallen series by Lauren Kate is amazing I love the ending(the very ending of the series) I also loved divergent and I’m reading matched: crossed right now and it’s really good
God, Stop Talking or I’ll be depressed by the lack of money I need to buy them all :p
@Crystal: Talking about “interesting characters”, have you ever read the “Unearthly” series? It’s pure paranormal romance, the only book or book series I’ve read that is pure romance, but I like the character development of that series. The second book specificaly goes very deep into the characters and touches on some sensitive topics like family love and what would you do if you knew someone you love was gonna die. I just pre-ordered the third volume that comes out January 22nd.
For those who like character development and angels, its a nice book. But beware, this is pure romance.
@mtX Go to the library! I’ve gotten hooked on borrowing ebooks from my local library. They don’t always have the ones I want though, so I might actually go sign up for holds on actual books. What a weird concept. (j/k)
Oh no! I’m a “collector”, and I don’t mean I collect rare and old books, I mean I want to have the books I read. That’s one of the reasons I don’t buy ebooks, I like to have the physical thing.
@mtX Yeah, but who wants to own books they don’t like? If I read an e-book and like it, I’ll buy the hard copy after that. I’m definitely more into borrowing books now in case I hate them. lol
@mtX Oh! I thought that was the reason. Wow, where the heck did that come from. Maybe I should re-read it
For me, nothing will ever be better than the Hunger Games. There are 2 book series’ that I’ve read and loved and are looking at being turned into movies. They are:
The Gone series – when everybody 15 and older just disappears from a small town in California called Perdido Beach. The last book in the series, Light, comes out this year!
The CHERUB series – eh, I don’t know how to explain this series very clearly but you could just google it.
Just to warn you, after the book in CHERUB named “The Fall” they start to swear A LOT and refrence on topics that aren’t very appropriate. But it’s still a good read and in Gone “Fear” is kind of inappropriate but not as bad as Cherub.
@Zomeatsbrains – maybe it’s me who is mistaken, but one of the things I liked about angelfall is that the storytelling reflected the main characters ignorance. She doesn’t exacly know what the HELL the angels did what they did (pun intended), nobody really does, and I believe that is one of the main misteries of the book. We get some glances, some conversations between angels, but nothing definitive, I think
I wanted to read it a few months ago but it wasn’t on nook
ill check again soon. Anyway, you should really check out Legend by Marie Lu and Day Soldiers by Brandon Hale. Finished both in a day
I finished Legend pretty quickly too, but didn’t care for it. She didn’t flesh out the greater story arc enough and honestly, why is the book called Legend, because I have no idea. lol
@crystal it’s called legend because both June and day are legends June being a 15 year old prodigy and day being the most wanted criminal but u no, there will never be that one book everybody agrees to love