What happened in Angelfall by Susan Ee - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Angelfall

Author: Susan Ee

Series: Penryn and the End of Days #1

- Angelfall (May 2011)
- World After (November 2013)
- End of Days (May 2015)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Read a full summary of Angelfall by Susan Ee below. If you can’t remember what happened in Angelfall and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

In short

The apocalypse has started. Angels have invaded the earth and are destroying the world and humans along with it. Penryn’s wheelchair-bound sister, Paige, is kidnapped by a bunch of angels, who are also the culprits of hacking off Raffe’s wings. Penryn meets Raffe, and blackmails him into helping her get Paige back. The pair go on a journey to get to Angel HQ so Penryn can get Paige, and Raffe can find someone to put his wings back on. They come across a bunch of humans who have set up a military camp and are planning on starting a resistance. Outside of this camp, they come across creepy little creatures who they assume are some sort of demon. Raffe and Penryn escape the camp and arrive in San Francisco. Penryn goes to find Paige while Raffe’s “friend” attaches his wings again, except it turns out that Paige has been experimented on and now she’s a creepy demon-thing, and Raffe is given gross bat wings instead of his fluffy angel ones. thee resistance attacks Angel HQ, and Raffe barely gets Penryn out alive. People assume that Raffe is the devil, and it’s all very sad.

What happened in Angelfall?

• Penryn, Paige (her sister), and their mother go searching for food before the gangs come out. hey stumble upon a group of angels fighting. One angel geets his snowy wings hacked off by the others. the mean angels take Paige and leave the injured angel behind.
• Penryn takes the injured angel to an abandoned office building because he’s her only hope of finding Paige. Penryn’s mum is nowhere to be seen. The angel is unconscious while Paige bandages his wounds.
• Penryn’s mother finds her. Penryn doesn’t tell her about the angel. Her mother likes to talk about demons, and before the apocalypse she sent Penryn to self defence lessons to protect herself from them. She’s also the one who hurt Paige and caused her to need the wheelchair.
• Penryn interrogates the angel – whose name is Raffe – when he awakens. He’s still groggy. A gang of humans attack. Penryn’s mother runs away. The humans fight Raffe, and Penryn has to distract them by using Raffe’s wings to pretend she’s an angel. She and Raffe take out the humans and run. Raffe agrees to take Penryn to San Francisco, to Angel HQ, to get Paige. Penryn tells Raffe that he might be able to get his wings sewn back on like humans get their limbs reattached.
• They set out. They reach a highway and they see a bunch of dead bodies that look like they’ve been mauled on. Raffe thinks the culprits are children.
• Raffe and Penryn go through the woods. They are chased by a pack of dogs. Raffe helps Penryn climb a tree, and then runs to lead the dogs – and their owners – away. He gets caught and taken to their camp. Penryn follows after finding out where Raffe stashed his wings, and watches the camp until nightfall.
• Raffe’s kidnappers are living in buildings underneath a canope of trees that angels – if they were to fly over – wouldn’t be able to see.
• Penryn breaks into the building where Raffe is being held. Unfortunately, it’s a trap. Obi, the leader, suspected she would be coming. Obi ties Penryn up in Raffe’s room. Raffe tells Penryn that he had been planning on escaping anyway so her rescue attempt was pointless. They get out of the camp that night, but they have to double back to get Raffe’s wings from a tree. They are caught again.
• Raffe is put on latrine duty, and Penryn is put in laundry. Obi explains that he’s trying to start a resistance. Penryn asks to talk to Obi, but everyone tells her he’s too busy.
• Desperate to speak with Obi to tell him she needs to leave to find Paige, Penryn starts a fight to get Obi’s attention. Boden, the guy she starts a fight with, is an ass. He hits Penryn, and when Penryn realises no on eis going to stop the fight, she takes Boden out. She finds out that Raffe was making bets on the fight along with the rest of the people at the camp. He bet that she would lose.
• Obi explains to Penryn that they allow fights to continue unless it becomes life-threatening, because it allows people to release steam and tension.
• Penryn asks Obi to let her go so she can find Paige. Obi refuses, stating that he won’t jeopardise everyone in camp for one child.
• Penryn meets twins called Tweedle Dum and Dee. They ask her to pick a fight and then lose on purpose, so they can win the bets. In return, they’ll help Penryn and Raffe escape.
• Penryn picks a fight with a girl, whose name is Anita. Anita had previously been flirting with Raffe, so it’s not hard for Penryn to find motivation. Penryn is winning the fight – which isn’t hard – when someone screams. The camp is being attacked.
• During the chaos, Raffe and Penryn escape the camp. She tells him where his wings are, and then Raffe tells her to go back into camp and find a building to hide in. She refuses. Weird, creepy, demon-child things surround Penryn and start attacking her. Raffe arrives and fights them off. Penryn tries to help but she hits Raffe in a sore spot (not THAT sore spot) with a rock instead. Oops.
• Penryn and Raffe find a car. Raffe tells Penryn that the Daughters of Men are forbidden to mix with angels because last time that happened there were Nephilim and Nephilim aren’ good. Sucks to be Penryn.
• When they reach San Francisco, Raffe straps his wings to his back with the help of Penryn. Penryn gets dressed into a tight dress with ridiculous make-up and heels. Raffe hides in the back of the car while Penryn has to drive through the angel security. The angels decide that Penryn is showing enough skin to be let into the aerie – or Angel HQ, as I’ve been calling it.
• Penryn sees her mother outside before she enters the building.
• Raffe and Penryn find a room where there a bunch of other angels. This seems like a bad plan. Josiah, an albino angel in white, is their target. Penryn has to make him go to the bathroom, which she does by spilling her drink all over his suit. Nice. Raffe meets him in the bathroom and they have a chat.
• It turns out that Raffe is really the angel Raphael. No one is surprised.
• Josiah tells Raffe that Uriel wants to be the Messenger, Gabriel’s old job. He also says he thinks the “low demons” (the demon-children) are Nephilim. Raffe disagrees, but what can he do? Raffe tells Josiah about his wing trouble and Josiah says he’ll try to help.
• An angel called Laylah comes to Raffe and Penryn’s hotel room. She’s not the friendliest of people. She says she’ll sew Raffe’s wings back on, although Penryn doesn’t trust her to. Raffe thinks this is the only chance he has, so he gives Laylah his wings and then goes to meet her later. Before he goes, he tells Penryn that he’s agnostic. He’s never spoken to God himself, so he’s unsure of his existence.
• Penryn, now left in the room on her own with Raffe’s angel sword, orders room service. She notices that one of the twins – Tweedle Dum or Dee – is posing as one of the hotel staff. She asks him to help her find Paige. He tells her to be quick because Obi’s people are planning on blowing up the building. He takes her down through the lobby and her mother sees her.
• Penryn goes down to a laboratory where she sees that some scientist angels have been experimenting on people and things. There are some gross looking creatures in tubes. There are also a bunch of children, and amongst them is Paige. Paige is now a demon-like thing with sharp teeth. She can also walk.
• One of the scientist angels attacks Penryn, but then something attacks him. It’s Paige. She attacked the scientist and started eating him.

How did it end?

Their mother follows them to the lab. Together they try to get Paige out. Penryn breaks all the tanks with the scorpion creatures in them so they’ll hopefully die. Raffe comes slamming through the doors, followed by Beliel, the Night Angel who cut off Raffe’s wings at the beginning. Raffe now has bat wings attached to him, and Beliel has the pretty snowy ones. Raffe’s sword has rejected him.

A scorpion creature grabs Penryn and starts snacking on her. She’s paralysed, but Raffe pulls it off of her before it can do anything more than that. It turns out that Uriel employed Beliel to take Raffe’s wings. The building starts exploding. Raffe carries Penryn out, believing that she’s dead but wanting to give her to her mother. Obi’s men leave, and Penryn still isn’t out of her paralysis. She sees Raffe flying overhead, and her mouth twitches into a smile.

This is a full plot summary of what happened in Angelfall by Susan Ee. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!

Other recaps for this series:

• World After (Penryn and the End of Days #2)