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mailuss's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Blood, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Child death
bamfling's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Kidnapping, Gore, Child death, Cannibalism, Abandonment, and Child abuse
zuha_kh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Body horror, Child death, and Cannibalism
venusdapoopiehead's review
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
due to how overhyped this book is i was genuinely hoping i would like it, but instead i hated it and felt like it was such a waste of my time. here is a well thought out and organized list of complaints:
1. schizophrenia was not at all well represented in this book. schizophrenia is made to seem like something that’s both unpredictable and dangerous, which is far from the case, and there’s multiple times where penryn calls her mother “crazy” and “insane” due to her schizophrenia. the author could’ve done a much better job at doing some research on the condition but instead chose not to and did such a disservice to those with schizophrenia, which is just so unacceptable
2. penryn is completely antagonistic towards her mother despite the fact that we as the reader have been given little to no reason or evidence for penryn’s mom being a bad person. to me it just seems like she just hates her mom due to her mental illness which is bizarre to me. it would’ve made much more sense for the author to add small flashbacks to times when her mother was a bad mom towards her and her sister paige, ie some flashback of her mom abusing them or something, but any information as to how her mom might’ve been before the angels invaded is incredibly vague and not at helpful for understanding penryn’s difficult relationship with her mom.
3. the overall concept is incredibly cool but done so poorly. there’s no clear motive as to why the angels invaded earth and caused all this mass destruction, and if there WAS some sort of motive behind it all it was not explained well enough
4. both penryn and raffe were annoying asf throughout this whole book and it made me wanna rip my hair out. small spoiler >the fact that in the entire book raffe is just so incredibly rude and mean to penryn and then towards the end when he thinks she’s dead, he FINALLY decides to act all nice and acts like he cared about her all along??? ludicrous i tell you, ludicrous. just a pure example of how men ain’t shit, ESPECIALLY if it’s men from some crappy ya dystopian novel. also penryn kind of has this “i’m not like other girls” kind of attitude which is so annoying, like every other woman is just a slut but she’s the only one who’s normal…..mk.
5. the writing at times was atrocious. there were often times some grammatical errors or sentences that made no sense, or even sentences that were repeated multiple times, almost as if the writer was trying to fill a word count or something. i should not be seeing grammatical errors and weird sentences in a published piece of work, PERIOD.
TLDR: the only good thing about this book is that it’s fairly fast paced and if you either aren’t a busy student or a grown adult working a full time job, you can probably complete this in about a day or two. otherwise, the characters are either not written well or just plain annoying, the concept was executed quite poorly, and the writing was just ridiculous at times. just in general a waste of my time
1. schizophrenia was not at all well represented in this book. schizophrenia is made to seem like something that’s both unpredictable and dangerous, which is far from the case, and there’s multiple times where penryn calls her mother “crazy” and “insane” due to her schizophrenia. the author could’ve done a much better job at doing some research on the condition but instead chose not to and did such a disservice to those with schizophrenia, which is just so unacceptable
2. penryn is completely antagonistic towards her mother despite the fact that we as the reader have been given little to no reason or evidence for penryn’s mom being a bad person. to me it just seems like she just hates her mom due to her mental illness which is bizarre to me. it would’ve made much more sense for the author to add small flashbacks to times when her mother was a bad mom towards her and her sister paige, ie some flashback of her mom abusing them or something, but any information as to how her mom might’ve been before the angels invaded is incredibly vague and not at helpful for understanding penryn’s difficult relationship with her mom.
3. the overall concept is incredibly cool but done so poorly. there’s no clear motive as to why the angels invaded earth and caused all this mass destruction, and if there WAS some sort of motive behind it all it was not explained well enough
4. both penryn and raffe were annoying asf throughout this whole book and it made me wanna rip my hair out. small spoiler >
5. the writing at times was atrocious. there were often times some grammatical errors or sentences that made no sense, or even sentences that were repeated multiple times, almost as if the writer was trying to fill a word count or something. i should not be seeing grammatical errors and weird sentences in a published piece of work, PERIOD.
TLDR: the only good thing about this book is that it’s fairly fast paced and if you either aren’t a busy student or a grown adult working a full time job, you can probably complete this in about a day or two. otherwise, the characters are either not written well or just plain annoying, the concept was executed quite poorly, and the writing was just ridiculous at times. just in general a waste of my time
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, and Violence
Moderate: War
prashiie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
“When you're small enough to have to look up at everyone around you, there's no such thing as a dirty fight.”
Basically, the world as we know it has ended, angels are everywhere and humans are trying to survive. An interesting plot! We have angels against angels and Penryn who is trying to survive with her little sister who is in a wheelchair and mother who has schizophrenia and is both intriguing and scary. I didn’t expect her mother to survive and I was surprised to see how self-reliant she was when left on her own. I hope she’ll get a bigger role in the next two books.
The writing felt a little off in the beginning, mainly because of the over-explaining and this made it harder to really get into the book. But I have to say that it got better or maybe I just got used to it. The story also got more interesting later on, so that helps!
Now I’m debating whether to read the other books or not. I didn’t love this book, it was okay but on the other hand I want to know how Paige ended up in a wheelchair–because I don’t believe it’s their mother’s fault–and why the angels are even on Earth and what is going on with them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Confinement
Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Slavery, and Vomit
sam_malaika's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, and Body horror
shakita45's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, and Vomit
josoko's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Mental illness
Moderate: Cannibalism and Vomit
justkarlah's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
I first read this series back when it first came out, and I fell in love with it. It was different from all the books that were popular back then, and my first time reading dark fantasy about angels (I still can't believe it's been over 10 years!).
Reading it again now, my only complaint is how young Penryn is. Growing up makes you realize how YOUNG a 17-year-old really is. It's true she had to 'grow up' mentally and take care of her younger sister since their mother wasn't capable of doing so, but it still feels wrong how young she is. Especially when she's falling for an immortal angel.
I liked the characters, good and bad. They all seemed to have their own personalities and backgrounds, and didn't feel two-dimensional.
This was a fast-paced book; you're basically at the edge of your seat the entire time. Penryn's determination to save her sister forces her to join Raffe, an angel who's wings were cut off and who now has to walk back to where the angels are in San Francisco. Their alliance leads to an eventful trip full of danger, both from humans and monsters alike.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a dark fantasy series about angels and the end of the world.
Reading it again now, my only complaint is how young Penryn is. Growing up makes you realize how YOUNG a 17-year-old really is. It's true she had to 'grow up' mentally and take care of her younger sister since their mother wasn't capable of doing so, but it still feels wrong how young she is. Especially when she's falling for an immortal angel.
I liked the characters, good and bad. They all seemed to have their own personalities and backgrounds, and didn't feel two-dimensional.
This was a fast-paced book; you're basically at the edge of your seat the entire time. Penryn's determination to save her sister forces her to join Raffe, an angel who's wings were cut off and who now has to walk back to where the angels are in San Francisco. Their alliance leads to an eventful trip full of danger, both from humans and monsters alike.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a dark fantasy series about angels and the end of the world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual harassment, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
psliz's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
so beyond ableist i couldn't finish (DNF'd at page 71). but it gave me the opportunity to finally give myself permission to dnf books and the opportunity to get educated on ableist terms/phrases
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Ableism, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Torture
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, War, and Child abuse
Minor: Abandonment and Child death