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.
@Crystal, I actually minimize that risk because before actually buying the book, I read a lot of reviews. If the majority of the people like it and the sinopsis is interesting enough, I buy it. Since there are so many book I’d like to read, if I’m researching a book that seems interesting but most people don’t tend to like it that much, I’ll simply start looking for another one – If I go to GoodReads to research a book and that book has a rating below 3.8 or something, I’ll simply drop it. So far this method has proved to work.
Another method that I haven’t used in some time now is to read a sample of the book online: there are online shops that allows the buyer to actually read the first pages, and if I like the way things go, I buy it.
Since I’n already writing this comment, I might as well say that my favorite book series ever is “His Dark Materials”, and I recommend it to everyone no matter the age. I’ve read these books when I was about 13 years old. I am now 21 and after re-reading the books I still believe this is a masterpiece of literature.
And really day soldiers is so awesome
I personally loved Angelfall. As others might have said (I didn’t read all of the comments) the book is not for everyone. Everyone is going to have a different opinion, but it wouldn’t hurt to check this book out.
Anyone read the Hush Hush series? It’s similar to the evil angels topic, but I think it’s a lot better. You guys should read it some time
@mtX I thought that was intesting too. I’ve always liked stories like that. You’re experiencing everything for first time along with character. Not many books do that in my opinion. I’m really curious to see where the story of Angellfall goes. @Crystal I got an advanced copy of the second book in the Legend series and it really beats Legend. The story is more defined and detailed, it goes inside the Republic and the Colonies. Give it a try and if it doesn’t grab you then you can stop
My Favorite Books of ALL TIME: The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments, best YA dystopian and fantasy novels ever
in the Bible one Angel killed a whole army….I agree with most of you that this is twisting Christianity a bit it sounds good but I might not read it……also, Divergent was awesome! Insurgent was better though….
Killed an army of people carrying swords…I’ll take an F-35 over an angel anyday.
Silvia: Is TMI a dystopian book? :s To me it just seemed set in the present. Unless I’m wrong and they go in the future or something. It’s been blurry, I can’t remember much from TMI.
Hmm, maybe I’ll get Angelfall. It seems I’m getting into the fantasy stuff lately, especially with “Beautiful Creatures”. That book is like…tied in first place with Divergent and The Hunger Games.
Crystal, I agree with you about Divergent. Apparently it’s supposed to be the next big thing after The Hunger Games, but I just don’t understand why. For the longest I’d seen Divergent on the bestseller’s list and I was tempted to think about buying it to see what the fuss was about. Luckily, I had the chance to listen to the audiobook and I must say that I am NOT impressed at all. The writing is very amateur, the characters are flat and not distinguishable enough, and the world makes no sense at all. Why would a society agree to live by one personality trait for the rest of their lives? I’m not even sure it’s possible because not everyone is the same. We all have different personality traits making us all Divergent. So I’m not even sure how that could even come about. It’s not realistic. I just don’t think Veronica Roth thought the story through. I am by no means bashing her success. I just don’t understand it.
I talked with someone who’s read Insurgent and even though people are telling me to give that book a chance, from what I’ve heard it sounds even MORE like I’ll just hate that one. I’ll try to get it from the library, but I’m definitely not willing to buy it. Reading so many terribly ordinary YA books has made me more wary of where I spend my money. I’ve heard so many polarizing opinions on Chaos Walking too, so I’m still undecided if I’ll buy those.
Crystal I enjoyed Roth’s books. They were different and yes she is a young writer but that is what I enjoyed about them. I did not put a ton of deep thought into them. I mean not like THG trilogy (which I read a zillion times!). But I think you would enjoy them.
Chaos waling are DEFINATELY worth buying, not trying to be bias, but honestly, they’re incredible!
So after commenting here, I got the book and finished it in ONE DAY. I agree it’s no masterpiece, but it’s a very fun read. Raffe and Penryn are likable.
Glad you enjoyed it Abby!
@Jasmine: If you reach the end of Insurgent (which is a great book, way better than Divergent) you may see why “the society agrees to live” like that. Does it really? IMHO, everything will *start* to make sense when you read the final 3 pages of Insurgent. YES, the final THREE pages. And then the book will end, and you’ll be awestruck (I was like it never happened for any book before – best/worst cliffhanger ever), and I’m sure the third book will focus on the society and its creation and explain everything.
“Prior.
The video stops. The projector glows blue against the wall. I clutch Tobias hand, and there is a moment of silece like a withheld breath.
Then the shouting begins.”
Everyone needs to read the maximum ride series! End of time thing. I just started reading Angelfall and it is AWMAZING!
you guys should read legend by MArie lu I loved it n the second book called prodigy is coming out this month my favorite after hunger games I think
there’ s too many books I wanna read! lol
I don’t know enough to judge this book for being advertised as “like thg” but you know what book I will judge: “Matched.” I have never read anything so bland. Disgusting. Blergh.
I too have just finished City of Bones and I too thought it was great! If you like THG then read The Mortal Instruments! I am now reading Blood Red Road by Moira Young in which MTV have stated as ‘better than the Hunger Games’ however although it is good, I do not agree with this and the style it is written in is very difficult to read. I will read Divergent next but will probably not read this ‘Angelfall’ it just sounds like there is not enough excitement and action. I advise you all – read the mortal instruments, it is second best book ever, just falls short of the hunger games series.
I think tmi and divergent have the best shot as of now. Sometimes we really like books that the general public wont. And it’s really hard to be realistic. I know this because there is nothing I would like more than for Chaos Walking to be successful. But yeah, quality does not equal the moneh.
Although THG is pretty quality. And HP.
And @Anonymous I too have been recommended this ‘matched’ book series and in all respect to the author, I think it’s crap.
I have been told by so many people to read Matched and for some reason I just can’t bring myself to buy it and read it. It just doesn’t sound interesting to me at all. You guys saying it’s actually crap doesn’t help, lol!
Don’t read Matched. First book was okay, second book was awful and the third is extremely boring and has nothing to do with the other books. There are much better books in the world
@benji Legend is also my favorite! Execpt I liked it more than the Hunger Games
@benji And I was lucky to get an advanced readers copy of Prodigy. It’s AMAZING!
I got this book recommended to me a little while ago on my Kindle (and it still keeps getting recommended to me) and I read the reviews and the first chapter and I was very interested. I was a bit annoyed when people mentioned it being the next Hunger Games because they always seem to be trying to one-up The Hunger Games but I realised that if I forget that I might really enjoy it, so I was planning on trying it out.
Delirium has also been compared, and although the writing was good, the story was boring. The only thing I disliked about her writing-besides that it was boring- was that she had like two-three metaphors in each page, and while metaphors can be beautiful, it get annoying after about 100 of them.
What I didn’t like about Delirium was that for someone who grew up in a loveless society, she sure had a frilly, beautiful, and loving way to talking.
Omg, i love that book! I hope the movie is like the book.
I hate it when they say ‘the next twiilight/thg/harry potter’ i mean, they are all different story. DUH!
Well I have not read Angelfall yet but I will. I did enjoy Divergent and Insurgent a ton and will read the last of the Trilogy when its out. To the teen guy asking about books more for guys I would say the Maze Runner series would be good for your taste perhaps. I liked them even as a Grandmother. I like the Matched series as well but still THG’s series is my favorite and will be always. I can see the Divergent books as a movie as well as the Maze Runner. Both have brought some pretty amazing images up as I read them. I think they would be pretty exciting to see if the right cast and director did them. I think we all like good SciFi don’t we?
@Benji
It was amazing! Counting down the days until “Prodigy” comes out! Oh my gosh. c:
“Legend”, yes!
I don’t get why people compare things that aren’t even alike. My dad was comparing “Beautiful Creatures” to “Twilight” and I just don’t see the similarities. Sure, it’s a love story, but that’s it. And “Legend” is “The Hunger Games”? Last time I checked, there was no fight to the death with children. Really. Read or at least watch the movie before you judge. .-.
By “next”, I’m talking next big hit.
@Crystal well Matched isn’t that bad. It just seemed to be different to other books like THG and TMI, like these two storylines centre around the action like ‘the hunger games’ centres around the actual games and the romance is second. Whereas I seemed that on Matched, the romance was first completely and as a male reader, I found that quite boring.
Yeah I’m not that big on the romance angle either for some reason. I prefer it to be an underlying theme for a book with a larger plot. I really don’t want to read The Selection either because it just sounds like a reality show beauty contest in book form.
I’m always looking for new recommendations, so I may consider reading Angelfall (and several of the other series pointed out by posters).
As an adult woman, I don’t read a ton of YA lit, dystopian or otherwise. However, I was surprised, after reading all of the posts, that nobody has mentioned the “Ashes” trilogy by Ilsa J. Bick.
It’s definitely more post-apocalyptic than dystopian, but thoroughly engrossing. The main character, Alex (a girl) is relatable despite the circumstances. I have a hard time telling people about the book without spoiling it, but Google it or look up the summary on Amazon.
The second book, Shadows, was different than the first, and may suffer a bit from “middle book syndrome” where you can tell that it’s setting up the finale, but even still, it’s good in its own right. One think I loved about “Shadows” was that it jumped right in. There wasn’t the usual wasted review chapters.
One note, though. Both books can be gory. I’m NOT one for gore, but in this case it’s necessary for the story. Either way, the series is worth a read. I’ve recommended it to a number of folks, and all, like me, are now anxiously awaiting the trilogy’s conclusion with “Monsters” this fall.
Has anyone ever read the “Ender’s Game” series? Thanks for the review, I will give it a shot.
I highly recommend Ender’s Game, it’s been a favorite of mine since the sixth grade (20+ years). I have a site for that as well, haha! http://www.enderwiggin.net
I liked it too but sometimes its soooo dumb
like when ender goes to the acadamey he apparantly is the FIRST AND ONLY person to figure out how to use people as meat sheilds in the training games…….like seriously NO ONE ELSE HAD THE MENTAL CAPCITY TO FIGURE THAT OUT??????
@mthawks: “Ender’s Game” movie will be released this year, so I’m considering reading it, yes.
Read Warm Bodies!!!!!! I love it and Jennifer Lawrence’s boyfriend is gonna be in the movie!!!
Ex-boyfriend now.
Well I think both THG Catching Fire and TMI City of Bones will come first and second in the MTV movie brawl but.. If they were to make a mini-comp out of the two, TMI would win but only just, GET VOTING PEOPLE!
Hey Crystal did you make this website?
Mj.net or Daughters of Men?
@Crystal Both. This is so cool. I’d love to make one for Legend.
Nah. I don’t think ‘Angelfall’ would get at the same level (c’mon, fan websites everywhere), because it isn’t even very known.
I liked a book called I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, which was made into a movie later. It is a series and the next book is called The Power of Six or something like that and I haven’t read it yet but I am hoping I’ll like it as much as I Am Number Four. The main jist of the story is that these nine alien kids who have superpowers had to leave their planet after it was taken over and stripped of its organic resources by the Mogadorians when they were little kids. The kids are called Garde and they left with their protectors called Cepan form the planet Lorian. They went to go to Earth which was the closest life sustaining planet except for Mogadoria. The plan was to blend in until Lorian could sustain life again. Only the Mogadorians are hunting the kids down. The story is in the point of view of Number Four. He is the next one the Mogadorians are going to come after. He is about 15 and he starts dating this human girl and falls hard in love with her, while having his powers come in. It might sound a little boring and childish the way I am explaining it but it is really good. I can’t really compare it to anything because it is so different from what I usually read.
OOHHHH YEAH I LOVE THAT SERIES~!
I <3 Divergent.
Uhhh no…that book in know way compares to the awesomeness of the Hunger Games. Sorry…Uhhmmmm really no….
read UNWIND! its a YA DYSTOPIAN THRILLER the themes and messages are almost as amazing as THG!
I loved Unwind!
Have you seen the video by Mainstay Productions for Unwind? It’s how I came across the book.
If you love THG I recommend reading the Divergent trilogy, the Mortal Instruments series, and Maximum Ride series. These are all excellent YA books with similar themes like the Hunger Games and great messages.
Any chance you have heard of the River of Time series by Lisa T. Bergren?
They are really good. Very different from THG, infact it’s about time travel.
Don’t let that put you off – you should read it! It has a lot more to it. You may be suprised. It’s very intense. I held my breath the whole way through!
I just think it deserves to be read. It doesn’t have a HUGE fan base and it definitely should.
I do not think i will read this book, i feel as if it goes against my religionI actually liked divergent better than insurgent. And this sounds really mean, but I think it’s because the part I liked best of the hunger games was the actual games. But I don’t mean it like I loved seeing every one die, more like… I liked the sence of trying to survive, and all the different techniques and stuff. I’m just that kind of girl, I like climbing trees and camping out and playing hide and seek and running around outside ( it doesn’t have to be in a forest, but its more fun cause there are more hiding spots). That’s also why I didn’t like mockingjay, and catching fire that much ( catching fire less than mockingjay). And I totally appreciate the deeper political meaning of thg, but the book is so captivating, and moves so fast that, at least for me, it was hard to focus on the meaning while I was reading. And then I kind of forgot about the deeper meaning. Like I still got some of it, but most of it… Whoosh! Gone. But I’ve read it 3 or 4 times now so I totally get the deeper meaning. So anyways, sorry about that, back to why I liked divergent better than insurgent. In insurgent tris seems more helpless, in divergent she was still helpless, but less so than in insurgent. And now I have you thoroughly confused, I also liked the initiation process she had to go through. ( that was the main reason why I liked the book) I DID NOT LIKE THE LOVE THING THAT WAS GOING ON! There was too much!! I like books that are full of action and fast paced and… And… And EXCITING! And thats one more reason I like insurgent less than divergent, I felt that its just to slow paced. But I still want to read the third book cause insurgent left a big cliff hanger. As for some other books that were mentioned, I have only read 2 of the MAZE RUNNER books ( my library doesn’t have the rest) and liked them but there were too many un answered questions ( which is why it’s really bugged me that I can’t read the other ones yet.) I have read GONE which was interesting enough to make me read the other ones, but my library has all of them but the next one in the series ( hunger) sooo, that’s out of the question for now.i read LEGEND, but I can’t remember anything about that so clearly not interesting enough, I read MAXIMUM RIDE, which I loved ( but not as much as the hunger games) but again, too many un answered questions. I read TWIGHLIGHT, my only comment is ehh, not that interesting to me. MATCHED was good, even though its centered around a love story, it seemed less love storyish to me. More like… Trying to find your freedom. ( and again only read the first book, bad library) I’ve also read PURE which I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet. The only thing I can really remember is that it’s postappocolyptic, and some how, through the war, people got fused with whatever they were next to at one point in time, so the main character has a baby doll head for a hand.and on more book I saw mentioned that I have read is ASHES, which I thought was I pretty good and wanted to read the next one but again bad library. And this has nothing to do with the hunger games at all, but two other books I LOVED were EAST and ELSEWHERE. East is more for younger kids, I read it when I was twelve, I’m 15 now, but I still like it. It’s a fairy tale based off of the ( I think Norse) folk sory east of the sun west of the moon. ( or something like that)) it’s about a girl who is taken away by a polar bear and there are trolls, and birth superstitions and… And it’s a lot more interesting than I’m making it sound… Any ways Elsewhere is about a girl who dies at 16 and goes to a place called elsewhere. It’s very interesting! I read it for a book club, and then I just had to buy it!
So that is my thoughts on all the books mentioned in the comments that I have read. Wow. I wrote a lot. I totally didn’t even mean to do that…it’s probably cause its 22:29 and I’m a total night owl ( it drives my mom crazy) One more thing. in case you are wondering what is wrong with my library, I live on a military basein Italy, and the young adult section is like 4 sets of shelves, and at least one of them is filled up with books like Twilightand other vampire love story’s or just plain love sorys. And as I said before, ehh, not my thing. Any ways I’m really done talking now.
It’s very straightforward to find out any topic on web as compared to books, as I found this article at this website.
I don’t see how this book would offend Christianity – given that Angels were sent down to destroy sinners. Look at 2 Kings 19.35, Isaiah 37.36.
If you’re offended by this book, then you’re offended by the Bible. And we also need to look at this as FICTION. If you get offended by this book and other things that ‘goes against your religion’, you might as well throw away every single works of fiction you have on your book shelf.
Don’t get your knickers in a bunch and enjoy this good piece of fiction.
Divergent and Insurgent were good. The Hunger Games is my 1st Fave ever. But Legend by Marie Lu is good too! I want to read the Host but I just put it on hold in the Library.
This book is a MUST READ.
Article writing is also a excitement, if you know then you can write
if not it is complicated to write.