In a post-apocalyptic world, a
human joins forces with an angel to rescue her little sister as a resistance
movement launches its first mission against the supernatural creatures.
Definitely in the dystopian tradition
of Hunger Games, this story of a
world in which paranormal creatures rule the night has a fine, feisty heroine,
an intriguing anti-hero angel without wings and a quest. It’s well-written but
derivative (especially for readers of the genre in general and Hunger Games in particular).
PENRYN YOUNG is 17
and basically in charge of her family—her mentally ill mother and her disabled
sister PAIGE—in the wake of world-wide apocalypse involving angel attacks.
Everyone on earth saw GABRIEL, the Messenger of God, killed in Jerusalem and
since then, angels have hunted and killed humans for their own uses.
Penryn
is uniquely suited to protect her family since her paranoid mother signed her
up for a series of self-defense classes. That’s good because her mother is off
her meds and unpredictable and her sister is useless. The family has been
hiding out on the top floor of an apartment building, but the bands of roving
gangs have been scavenging closer and closer for days. Penryn realizes it’s
time to move and despite her mother’s terror of the night (when the streets are
empty of humans but filled with all kinds of predators), she wants to move at
night. With her mother pushing a shopping cart and Penryn pushing her baby
sister in a wheelchair, the trio sets out.