Angelfall

I picked up this book because I saw the slew of four-star and five-star reviews. If so many of my fellow readers thought so highly of this book, how could I not feel the same?

On my first attempt, I gave up about two chapters in. The next day, thinking that I had ejected the book in haste, I picked it up again and started over. This time, I made it 26 chapters in before I gave up again. I can safely say that despite my best efforts, I won't be attempting a third try.

The problem is simple: I just don't care about these characters. I have no clue why they're in the situation they're in, nor why I should care about any improvement in or destruction of their journey or lives. In the hodgepodge of post-apocalyptic distress, teenage girl issues, and characters that are as milquetoast as they come, there is no discernible “higher purpose.” Again, why should I care? The plight of these characters is so flimsy and half-baked that I'm not even given a chance to care.

Of particular distress is the oh-so-obvious, disguised-under-layers-of-seething-sarcasm romance that leaks out between the two main characters. Why bother with this over-the-top charade when it's clear that that's what's building? Where I a girl and in Penryn's shoes, you can bet I would do a little more due diligence before clumsily drooling over the amazing attractiveness of my mortal enemy.

I realize now that I've been hunting around YA books in search of the next Hunger Games. I think it's time I give that notion a rest – this is yet another disappointment in a long string of disappointments within the genre.