Bookish Excursions

If I were to pick one word to capture the tone of this story, it would be despair.

World After begins where Angelfall left off.  Penryn is reunited with her family and must deal with the aftermath of Paige's captivity and her mother's perpetual state of craziness. Unfortunately, there are not many Raffe-Penryn moments, but the few trinkets we're given are golden and these moments make you cherish their relationship that much more. 

This book definitely is not romance-driven, which may disappoint some readers but I appreciated it.  The story focuses on what really matters in Penryn's world, which is the destruction of humanity and Penryn's desperation to ensure her mother and sister survive the angel apocalypse.  Throwing a hot and heavy romance into the mix would trivialize the dire consequences involved in Penryn's predicament.  However, I absolutely love how Penryn continues to dream about having a better life in spite of all the tragedies she witnesses. 

Penryn Young is the type of heroine you can't help but love.  While Penryn is a complete badass and willingly fights dirty, she is also aware of her limitations.  I like that she knows when she needs help and is on the losing side of a battle - she is human, afterall.

Oh, and then there are the scorpion fetuses.  Remember those?  Yeah, we definitely learn more about those things. World After is plagued by these scorpion monstrosities.  I may very well be scarred for life.  They are wonderfully horrific creatures.

While I am intrigued by the world Ee created and impatiently wait to learn the fate of all the characters, I wasn't crazy about some of the angel politics in this book.  For me, the story lulled a bit when it focused on Uriel or Beliel.  It was never uninteresting to read, but I definitely felt Raffe's absence and didn't care a lot about what was happening on the angel-side of things when he wasn't in the picture. 

Overall, I am happy with how things turned out.  I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for the next book to be released!