Reviewed by KitsuneBae on
As you probably know, I am greatly enthralled with Angelfall’s greatness that I hastened to read World After immediately. It was an impulsive action that I regretted immediately because I didn’t love this book as much as the first book. Perhaps my emotions were still unstable to feel anything for World After. Or maybe, it was because a large portion of World After became something out of your generic dystopian story.
The plot seemed too long-winded with Penryn and her family trying to survive while living under Obi’s command. There was a lot of running and chasing and hiding that it became tiring. Good thing that it still managed to stay afloat by addressing some of the immediate questions in Angelfall. Things got darker as some hideous revelations came out. Some of the scenes became gorier. But it felt like, it just maintained the whole story to provide a bridge for book 3 and it didn’t really offer anything mindblowing unless you count what happened in the end.
In World After, we will see a lot of Penryn coming to terms with Paige’s hideousness, desperately suppressing her feelings for Raffe and trying to protect her family. Though I admire her unwavering streak for heroism, I am undeniably annoyed with her futile attempts to develop her combat prowess further. Raffe’s sword gave her a lot of opportunity to learn but she kind of failed. Most of the time, it was Paige or her mother or Cara who came to get her out of tight situations. I’ve seen so little of her badassery in this book.
On the contrary, my disappointment with Penryn didn’t extend to Paige and her mother. I got to know Paige more and how my heart ached for her…for what she went through. But despite all the things that were done to her, she’s showing more balls than her sister. Bravo, little one! The same can be said for their mother. In here, I found myself warming up to the paranoid schizophrenic. Yes, she’s crazy…creepy and all that but I just adore her survival instincts and her devotion to Paige and Penryn. In her own manic way, she showed the world how it is to be a kick ass mom.
As for Raffe, he’s still amazing as ever even if he joined the game really late. I love his sarcastic humor, I love how he steadfastly uphold his millennia old principles even if it’s driving him mad silently. I know he wants to be with Penryn but his head and iron will wouldn’t let him. It would be interesting, perhaps mindblowing, to see the moment when he gives in to Penryn’s allure. Bahahahaha.
Overall, World After proved to be a fitting sequel for Angelfall despite its sluggish pace and so little presence of our seraphic warrior. The ending was absolutely awesome and it perfectly set the stage for more electrifying things to come in Book 3. I hope Susan Ee would be considerate enough to release it this year.
Judgment Day is near.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 1 January, 2014: Finished reading
- 1 January, 2014: Reviewed