Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

Yes. Everyone is right. This is an awesome book. It doesn't go where you think, which was so appreciated. She doesn't (view spoiler)[join the resistance, even when she falls into their midst. (hide spoiler)] She isn't fighting for the human race. She's fighting to find her sister.

This is such an interesting take on the 'what if angels came back to Earth' theme. It's very much the opposite of what you'd think. There's definitely a line in here that paints it pretty clearly, when Raffe says something along the lines of 'We're Archangels. Just because we'd warn one person a couple times before we killed everyone else doesn't mean we're benevolent.' Because it's true - if angels came back to Earth, we'd assume they would be kind, good-hearted, fluffy winged with harps and chubby cherub cheeks. At least, I would.

With that mythos kind of blown out of the water, I thought it was cool how the rest of it was still kind of true. But the most fascinating part to me what that the angels struggle with the exact same thing as people to in regard to the existence of God. Only the messenger hears God, much in the same way that only some people, like Joan of Arc (I'm not going to go with any modern day examples here) could claim to do. So the rest of the people either have to believe them, or not.

I really love Penryn's crazy mother. And I really hate Penryn's name. It's not supposed to rhyme, right? It's pen-rine? Not pen-ren? (view spoiler)[And her sister totally creeps me out now. I'm just waiting for her to take a bite out of someone and realize that they taste good (hide spoiler)]

Penryn herself is fine for a heroine. She's strong, got some issues, and with her mom being a bit psychotic (okay, 'a bit' is being too nice), she's the protector and responsible one in the family. She's got all the great qualities, and I liked her just fine, but there was nothing that totally endured her to me. Same with Raffe, really. But together, they were great. They had great banter, and that's how all great relationships start, right? Insults and knowing that it's impossible to be together? Because seriously, God smited the other angels that were with the Daughters of Adam.

There are a lot of interesting things happening there at the end that I'm super intrigued about. Definitely a series to keep reading. Anyone else a fan of this book?

GOD YES! I think her name is pronounced Pen-rin, although I had a problem with Raffe's name, is it just spelled phonetically? Because Penryn jokes at some point that his name sounds like 'raw feet'. I've basically given up and just keep calling him Raphael because that's his actual name (was I the only one that saw this coming?). I'm really curious as to what happened to the women that married those angels. But what really surprised me about this book was how often Penryn thought her mother had been the cause of all of those deaths, and she wasn't at all worried by this. I mean, how screwed up does the world, and her mom, have to be for that to be normal?

I almost thought that she was kind of reassured by the deaths, seeing it as her mother being able to care for herself even in her kind of crazed state. As the responsible one, it's kind of more a relief that her mother is managing to protect herself from the bad dudes on her own rather than needing Penryn's help, especially when she needed to go help her sister.

And no, totally not the only one who saw the whole Raphael thing coming. I think the name pronunciation is because of that, actually. If you don't say the last syllable of Raphael, it sounds like 'raw feet' so the nickname makes sense.

Really? I hear ra-fy. Because Raphael is pronounced Ra-fy-el. And that does make sense, I can't believe I forgot about that. I have to say what happened with her sister was just heart breaking.