 So Angel Fall is a series that I started reading last year. In fact, I mentioned the first book in a compilation of book reviews I did last year, and then I believe I mentioned it again in my best and worst of 2021 video. And I was super into it. You know, I really, really liked the series at first. But now that I have finished it, and this is the final book, End of Days. And actually, the series is called Penrin in the End of Days, but I'm going to keep calling it Angel Fall because that rolls off the tongue better. And after finishing it, I just don't know what to think because this thing really falls off a cliff after a while. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So like I said, the first book in the series is great. I mean, it has its issues certainly, like it is definitely a first time novel and it has some of the first time novel problems, but it's also just bursting with creativity and passion. And I mean, the main character is really good. I wanted to see her succeed, even if she's not a particularly complex character. I like I wanted to follow her. The storyline works really well. The climax is fucking insane, like it's genuinely one of the craziest things I've ever seen. And then the second book, I remember liking it at the time. But then once I started reading the third one, I realized I don't remember a thing that happened in the second one, like they referenced some of the events and locations from the second book in the third one. And so I was able to get a vague recollection of some of the events, but it is extremely forgettable, which is probably not a good sign. And then you get to the third book, which I guess it could have been worse. But man, this one just gets really repetitive in terms of the events that happen. And the characters, their simplicity really just starts to stand out more and more. And then once it gets to the end, it almost has a good ending, but then it has to pull out a Deus Ex Machina at the very end. And so the good guys just win for, well, not for no reason, but I'll probably have to get more into that in the spoiler corner. But basically, yeah, the ending of this is just not good. But you're here for some more details than that. So let's go over it. This series is about a girl named Penrin, who at some point a couple weeks before the books began, angels came out, like from heaven. A bunch of angels came out and just started destroying the world. You know, a bunch of earthquakes and tsunamis and stuff hit all at once, which destroyed stuff. And then the angels started going around and hunting down humans. And Penrin, her mom and her sister are just trying to survive in this world. And then one day, or one night rather, while they're out foraging for food, they see an angel being chased down by a bunch of other angels. And they capture him and they cut his wings off. But before they kill him, they notice Penrin and the humans there. And they basically just wind up grabbing Penrin's sister and flying off with her. And so she decides to save the angel. His name is Rafai, which we later learn is short for Raphael, which is kind of a weird abbreviation of that name, if I'm being honest. You'd think it would be rap, but whatever. Penrin saves Raf's life and they decide to go off together so that Rafai can get his wings put back on and so that she can save her sister. And that's the first book really. And it's a simple story. Yes, it's just characters traveling, going on a quest to do something. But I mean, there's a reason that's used so often. It works really well. The real problems arise later on when you realize that the events of the books don't really tie together as well as they should. Like, it works out fine when it's just in a quest format where they're going on a journey because they don't necessarily need to tie together. It's just they run into one obstacle and then another and then another and they just get closer and closer to their goal. But when you start doing more complex stuff like you do in the second and third book, and you're actually just trying to tell a grander story about saving humanity, you do need to have events lead into one another. And I'm pretty sure that's why the second book is just so forgettable because well, the events just sort of happen. Like from what I remember, like, okay, yeah, this thing just sort of happens and the characters escape. And this thing happens and that leads to an action scene, which is written okay, I guess. And then characters manage to scrape away from that as well. And it just it doesn't work very well. And then minor spoiler, the third book is also largely about getting Refie's wings put back on. Like, we already did that in the first book and now we're doing it again here. So things just get really repetitive. And then the last like quarter to third of the third book is where like the big climax happens. And I already kind of mentioned the issues like that almost works. But just the story of this series really needed to be planned out a bit better, I think. Or who knows, maybe Susan E, I'm genuinely unsure how to pronounce her last name, but maybe she did plan it out. And it's just because she's a first time writer that this happened. But either way, it does get sloppy after the first book. The characters, as I said, are all pretty simple. Like, Penrin especially is pretty simple. But that doesn't make her bad. I did like her as a character because, well, she's just, I hate to describe characters using just like one word traits. But that is the best thing for Penrin here. She's extremely determined. Like, you know, from the start that she would do anything in the world to protect her sister, and she will go to the ends of the earth in order to save her. And that's just an endearing quality. I like it when the heroes are like that, you know, they aren't necessarily trying to save the world or anything, but they have this one loved one who they will go after like that. Like, it works really well. And it being a younger sibling is something I can identify with. And I'm sure many other people can too. So it works. And even beyond that, she is pretty intelligent and manages to get her way out of trouble and to avoid trouble for the most part. And so she doesn't wind up causing problems for all the other characters by just being a klutz or anything, which I am, I don't know, that's too common of a thing, especially in young adult series for some reason. So it's nice that she didn't have that. I will say that later on when she starts using an angel sword and it mostly does the fighting for her, I thought that was kind of BS because that takes away some of her agency, but it's not too bad, really. And then we have Rafa, who is, I mean, he's the male love interest. You know, there's not a lot to him. Like, we slowly find out more about his past and how, oh, he's hiding things. This might be bad. And it turns out to not really be that bad. And he's a good fighter. And there's not that much there to him. I thought him and Penrin's relationship was okay as well, except for this one scene in the third book where, like, they're sleeping in a bed together. And Penrin, like, can't sleep, but Rafa is asleep. So she just straight up takes one of his hands and puts it on her boob. And that's sexual assault. That's not okay. Now, Rafa wakes up and he's cool with it. So I guess it could be worse. But still, that's not okay, Penrin. Don't do that. Penrin's mom at first I really didn't like because her mom is schizophrenic. And I feel like maybe the end of the world should have made that worse because of the stress and losing access to her medications and everything. But the way Penrin describes it, it sounds like she's been pretty much the same forever. So I'm not sure what to make of that. And honestly, at first it just seemed mean spirited. Like it was a caricature of people with mental health problems. And I can't put my finger on why exactly that is. But it just felt that way at the beginning. And then later on, though, she actually does contribute to things and she does help out with things. And well, yeah, she is kind of a crazy person. She's not a bad person. And she does want to help and she does help. So, okay, she wound up being fine. And the only other characters of note that I really want to bring up are just these twins called Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb who are working for the human resistance. And I don't know what exactly their job title would be. But they just do a lot of stuff other than fighting. And on one hand, I did really like them because they contribute to victory and they help out without just being stereotypical good fighters or good planners or anything like they're they're actually just very weird people. They're like Fred and George Weasley almost where they finish each other's sentences and they just actually flamboyant and they're constantly joking around, which is not a bad thing. But it does feel out of place for the end of the world. And their humor isn't really funny enough to take the edge off of all the dark parts of the story or to really make sense as character traits. I mean, like, maybe they're just doing this as a way of dealing with the stress of the situation, which would be fine. But they don't really get enough screen time to delve into that. And if we had like maybe one scene or even just a couple of lines where we got that impression, then that would have added a lot to them. But as it stands now, they're just kind of a weird anomaly in a story that is this dark. And as for the angels as villains, I uh, well, like a lot of other parts of the series, I have mixed thoughts on them. See, at the beginning of the series, they seem to work well as this powerful, intimidating, overwhelming force. And you're thinking, okay, the humans are going to have to defeat them somehow, but we don't know how exactly. And at first this works. And near the end of the first book, there is a scene where you see humans like shooting down a bunch of angels from the sky and seemingly killing them. And you're thinking, oh, okay, so humans can fight back. It is possible to defeat them. And the leader of the human resistance actually says at a couple of points that they just need one big victory to give people hope and to bring them over to their side. And that that's what happens. And I even, as a reader, just felt myself being filled with hope as well and thinking, yeah, I'm on your side. Like, you can do this. Let's do this. But then the beginning of the second book kind of throws that all down the drain, so to speak, because a bunch of angels who are seemingly dead riddled with bullet holes and stuff just get thrown out into the rain and then the water like seeps into them and heals all their wounds and they're back to normal. And at that point, they just become too powerful. Now, obviously, it is possible to make villains too weak because if the villains are too weak and the heroes can defeat them too easily, then there's no real conflict and therefore no real story. But it is possible to go too far in the opposite direction as well, where the villains are just too powerful. And so you know, on some level, like the only way the heroes are going to be able to defeat them is to bring up some sort of Deus Ex Machina out of nowhere or else have some other type of asshole where they just say, aha, we found this new power or something like that. And so in both cases, it makes the story just not work that well. And I mentioned already how the ending of the series almost avoids that, but it doesn't. And the thing about the angels healing is that it seems pretty inconsistent because, okay, the rain heals them, so water heals them, but then there's parts where they fall into the ocean and they have wounds which don't get healed. So like maybe salt water doesn't do it, but then how exactly does this work? I'm just I'm just not sure. Like it's never specifically said like, yeah, salt water prevents them from healing or something like that. And there's also times where they just die and they don't get healed, even though it seems like it'd be very simple to just splash a bucket of water over them. Like some of it makes sense. Like, okay, angel swords can kill angels. Like, okay, sure, that makes sense. Like you can cut off their head or whatever. That's fine. That's that's all dandy. But I don't know, I feel like if you're going to make something that has multiple facets to it like this, then you should probably explain it a little like if it's really simple, like if it was just freshwater heals them and salt water burns them or just doesn't heal them, then that'd be fine. But it seems more complex than that. And I just I don't know. I didn't like it. And finally, I will just say that again, because this is a first time novel, the actual writing and prose itself is just not good. Like at first I was okay with it. But after a while it really started to grate on me. Like there's just not enough detail. Like a good example of this being in the third book, Penrin gets stopped on the road and then a gang comes out and she just says like, okay, the gang comes out of hiding. There's a bunch of dudes with tattoos on their hands and faces and they're holding clubs. And that's all the detail we get really. Like, you know, moments like that, where it's supposed to be tense, you should definitely spend a little bit more time going into it, like describe specifically what types of tattoos they have and maybe go into detail on one of them. Like there's one big guy in the middle who everyone seems to be deferring to and he seems like the leader and he has a tattoo of a spider across his face or something. You know, something distinct like that to make it stand out in my mind. But we just, we just didn't get that here and we didn't get it in a lot of the rest of the series either. So it just, moments that should have been more intense wind up not being as intense. I think that's about it for the non-spoiler section and the spoiler section probably isn't going to be that long either. So do I recommend this series? Man, I straight up don't know. It has some of the highest highs I've read in years, but it also has some of the lowest lows I've read in years. The best advice I can give you is that if the idea of post-apocalypse caused by angels appeals to you and sounds neat, then maybe check it out. At least check out the first book and then decide for yourself whether you want to keep going from there because the second and third ones do drop off quite a bit, but I mean I don't regret reading them. And I guess that's it. So let's go to the spoiler stuff. Okay, so really here I just want to talk about the ending of the third book, like the finale. So at this point Rafai has just gone off with his own little cadre of angels to do his own thing. Like he is going to try and become the leader of the angels and hopefully stop the war and Penrin has to go off and do her own thing. And I did like this bit, like they had their own separate responsibilities which pulled them apart. And when she meets up with the resistance, like the angels are about to begin to hunt where like several groups of them will go out and just try and kill as many humans as possible and whoever kills the most wins. And obviously that's bad. And so at first they try evacuating everyone from the resistance camp, but they realize they're trapped. There's the angels set a big fire to corral them in. So they just say, okay, we're gonna have to set up a place where we can make our last stand and maybe get like the women and kids out of here. But our odds aren't great. And so near the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge, they just set up there and then the angels attack and the humans fight back. And at first this works really well because the angels actually have super good night vision, which is why they attack at night, and extremely good hearing. And the humans take advantage of this by setting up these speakers that play this really loud static noise and the humans plug their ears so it disorients the angels. And then they also have these blinding spotlights put on them. So it blinds and deafens them and the humans are able to fight back against that. And at first I was like, okay, that's actually a pretty clever plan. And it seems to be working for a while, but it's not enough. And then Rafai and his cadre of angels come in and they actually start fighting alongside the humans. And what they do is they'll have all the sensory overload going and the humans will fight the bad guy angels. And then they'll switch it off real quick. And then the Rafai and his angels will fight the bad guy angels. So it's constantly keeping the bad guys off balance and its teamwork from the good guys. And I really liked this. I was thinking, you know what, this last book had a lot of problems, but the climax seems to be working here. But then we got a diabolus ex machina, which if you're unfamiliar is just a bad guy version of the Deus Ex Machina. It's like everything's going great. And then they just need to pull something out of their ass to make the heroes on the back foot, basically. And I won't go into too much detail, but basically it's like, okay, bad guys are winning again. Like they just brought in all these other creatures and they're just they're just better at fighting now, I guess. And it seems like, okay, they're about to lose. But then they bring in a Deus Ex Machina and the good guys win. And what this is is the Lord of the Pit, who they don't explicitly say, but it's pretty clearly Lucifer comes out and he defeats the bad guys for him. And then he turns to Rafa. And he's like, now, you remember our deal, which we apparently made offscreen. And Rafa is like, okay, that's fine. And then he gets his wings cut off and then Lucifer takes him and goes away. And that's the end. I will admit, there's a brief scene after that where the leader of the bad angels, Uriel, is like on the ground, too wounded to really fight back. And then a mob of humans surrounds him and kills him. And it's described in like, very unpleasant detail, like they beat him and he starts screaming and then they start mutilating him and holding up pieces of his corpse as trophies. Like, it's not pleasant, but I mean, he was the bad guy. So it seems deserved. And then at the very end, it's like, okay, Rafa is just gonna live on earth now. He can't live among the angels anymore. So him and Penrin are gonna be an item from now on. And he's gonna live among humans and try and help them rebuild. And just that that's the end. And I thought about it for a bit. I'm pretty sure the reason the author went with this is because she couldn't think of a better way to get Rafa away from the angels. Like in order to have her perfect happy ending, she wanted Rafa and Penrin to be together forever. And in order to do that, she had to pull him away from it. And she couldn't just have him say, well, I don't feel like being an angel anymore. So rather than doing the more interesting thing, which would have been that they love each other, but they're just pulled apart by circumstance. And they say goodbye. She just had to come up with this excuse. So she winds up trying to avoid a Deus Ex Machina for a little while and it works. But then it works too well. And so she has to reverse it. And then she has to reverse it again. And it's just clumsy. It is a very clumsy way of ending a series. And well, I mean, if it's her first one, I can't be too harsh on her. Like, I think I gave this two stars on Goodreads, which is not terrible, but it is bad for a variety of reasons. Like, I didn't even go into how there's sort of time travel in this series. But it also might just be transporting people to another dimension. And time works differently in that dimension. But it doesn't make much sense. And it's not very clear. So I just, I don't know, I didn't even go into that. But yeah, like I said, it's not a great series. I don't know if I recommend it, but there are really good parts to it. So I just, I don't know, I have very mixed thoughts on this. So you'll just have to make your own decisions based on everything I've said here. If you watch this far, thank you. I'll see you later. Goodbye. If you watch this far, then thank you so much for supporting my rambling. And thanks a whole bunch to all of my patrons, whose names you can see here. 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