Por Júlia Abrahão
“I never thought about it before, but I’m proud to be human. We’re ever so flawed. We’re frail, confused, violent, and we struggle with so many issues. But all in all, I’m proud to be a Daughter of Man”
Angelfall, Susan Ee
The penryn and the end of days trilogy was written by Susan Ee, published by Skyscape from 2012 to 2015. The books follow Penryn, a teenager who makes a deal with a fallen angel in order to find her sister. The world is fresh from an apocalyptic event, that being the descent of the angels of apocalypse to destroy the world, and the rules of society are no more as chaos and selfishness set the tone of the story. The books are fast paced and well written , Susan Ee makes an excellent job at keeping the reader involved without outpacing them. The story has no considerable gap holes or undermining plot lines, it’s satisfying on the very border of just enough. Ee maintains the story interesting and surprising with convincing plot twists and unforeseeable storylines.
“A little weird? That was freakin’ Bizarroville.”
He pauses and looks back at me.
“Are you speaking English?”
Angelfall, Susan Ee
Narrative details aside, the book’s ambience is what surprises me the most. The horror genre has its many ramifications. Ever since the beginning of the genre, it’s possible to recognize the purpose of inflicting tension, the fabricator of fear and suspense. Tension is something that can be created by the unknown and the unpredictable. Jump scares, the iconic surprise attack that’s accompanied by a quick rush of adrenaline, can only be effective if preceded by the tension of unpredictability. The unknown is an immediate cause of unsettle for the spectator, since the human mind naturally wants to seek understanding and acquire knowledge in any given situation. Ee, while still utilizing these tools, chooses to fabricate tension from a different perspective: the macabre.
“Because there’s no reason to think Paige had to eat anything. Paige is not a low demon. She’s a little girl. A vegetarian. A born humanitarian. A budding Dalai Lama, for chrissake. She only attacked the angel to defend me. That’s all.
Besides, she didn’t eat him, she just… gnawed on him a little.”
Angelfall, Susan Ee
The macabre comes from the weird, the quirky, the unnatural. It does not simply represent what’s out of the norm, but that of which is so unseen and unthinkable, it becomes uncomfortable. It doesn’t necessarily install fear, but perhaps disgust. Ee uses the macabre to keep the reader uncomfortable and, therefore, tense. The atmosphere remains throughout all three books of the trilogy, making it a seamless transition between them. This type of technique has been steadily growing in popularity among the youth, the consumption of shows like American Horror Story and books like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, are a testament to that. Can it be considered horror though? And if not, then what is it? While I believe this style deserves its own category of classification, nowadays that is not the case. The macabre, despite its capability to intensify a traditional horror tale, is not bound by the definition of such genre. Although, in current days, the macabre is not classified within the horror/suspense genre, I believe that, of the categories available, it is where it fits best. It falls somewhere close to psychological horror with its psychological unsettling, since it’s based on creating tension.
Perhaps the best way to describe Susan Ee’s Penryn and the End of Days book trilogy is to affirm that, if there were ever a live action,the best director for it would be Mister Tim Burton. As always, I finish with my favorite quote and my own fan art of the books.
“Maggots are freaky hideous,’ I say, getting up. I try to salvage some dignity, but I can’t help but shiver and shake my hands in the air. It’s an instinctive impulse, one I’m not up for resisting right now.
‘You’ve fought off a gang of men twice your size, killed an angel warrior, stood up to an archangel, and wielded an angel sword.’ Raffe cocks his head. ‘But you scream like a little girl when you see a maggot?’
‘It’s not just a maggot,’ I say. ‘A hand burst out of the ground and grabbed my ankle. And maggots crawled out of it and tried to burrow into me. You would scream like a little girl too if that happened to you.’
‘They didn’t try to burrow into you. They were just crawling. It’s what maggots do. They crawl.’
‘You don’t know anything.”
End of Days, Susan Ee
