E.C. meyers is a fucking creep but I will admit this book was good. It made me love team cfvy sooo much more than what I'd already known and as a RWBY fan this made me so happy. Yatsuhashi in this book was just amazing but everyone else really got their time to shine. 4* just cause of the author but i really loved this read

This book took me almost a whole month to finish?!?!? I wish I would have read it faster. I loved RWBY so getting to see more on the side characters. I had a lot of fun with this. The flashbacks, the building of their relationships, how they connected and became such a good team.
FRTC-maybe...

3.6 - and I wanted to round up but I just couldn’t this go around. I loveeee Team CFVY. I loved every interaction with Team RWBY. And I loved the flashbacks and alternating perspectives.

The writing and storytelling might not be the strongest but there was enough new info for me to thoroughly enjoy this. Not to mention be counting down for the next installment. Points taken off for typos/formatting flops (BUT THE CHAPTER ARTWORK MAKES UP FOR IT).

I finished this book in a single night. I haven't finished a book in a single night for four years.

After the Fall is an enjoyable spin-off on the RWBY animated series, starring the one and only Team CFVY (Coffee). I fell in love with Team CFVY the moment they kicked butt in the Volume 2 finale, and I never thought they got enough screentime afterwards. So imagine my joy when I heard this book was a thing!

Speaking of the characters, they're what really sells the book. I love all of them. Some more than others, but I do love all of them. Coco, the stylish type A team leader with a reputation for breaking girls' hearts, is easily my favorite of the bunch. She has a nice platonic partnership with Fox, a blind, snarky telepath. Velvet is adorable and sympathetic, and her shyness and desire to prove herself are all too relatable. But the dark horse for me was Yatsuhashi. He seemed pretty unremarkable in the tv series, since he never said much of anything, but here he turns out to be a sweet, gentle giant with surprisingly fitting insecurities and inner conflicts. His relationship with Velvet is adorable and honestly? It has me really hoping that they'll become a couple later on (though I wouldn't be opposed to Velvet x Coco, either). They're all strong characters and they come together to also have strong chemistry as a team. It's all just super fabulous.

And it's pretty readable, too. That's why I managed to finish it in a night. The plot is fun and fast-paced, and one of the twists actually surprised me. It's also got me thinking about how the whole thing is connected to RWBY's plot at large, and now I'm excited.

Spoiler

Carmine and Bertilak are totally connected to Salem's faction, aren't they? Tyrion mentions something about Jaune's semblance being powerful, Cinder at another point mentions that Pyrrha's semblance is interesting, and now Carmine and Bertilak's employer is seeking out people with abnormal/powerful semblances. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

That said, it's definitely not without its flaws. The writing is . . . it's pretty poor. I never expected it to be a literary masterpiece, since it's just a spin-off of an animated series, but holy heck. In the main plot, viewpoints are confined to one character, so it's pretty jarring in flashback chapters when the viewpoint is omniscient and we suddenly (and crudely) jump from one character's head to another. It left me feeling frustrated.

Because the writing is poor, it's also not accessible to people who haven't watched RWBY. RWBY's worldbuilding is terrific, and it's one of my favorite fictional universes of all time. But it works because it's been slowly built up over the course of six seasons. This book can't effectively cover all that ground in a fast-paced 300 page book. Myers tried to make it accessible to non-RWBY fans, but he just wasn't successful. After the Fall does do a good job on capitalizing on the worldbuilding that RWBY fans knew about it, though. More than anything, it's like a cherry on top for those who're already acquainted with RWBY.

This may feel like an odd complaint, but I also thought Team RWBY also had too much pagetime. Yes, they're relatively minor characters here, and yes, they only appear in flashbacks. But it also felt like they were put where they weren't needed. I adore Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang as much as the next RWBY fan, but come on. RWBY has their own tv show. Let CFVY shine in their book.

Another thing I'd like to address isn't so much a complaint as a personal disappointment. I can't pin down what made me think that Coco and Carmine had feelings for each other, but if you also come in with that expectation, don't hold your breath. Coco thinks Carmine is attractive for a second and that's it. They don't have any interactions with each other beyond that. Which is fine, the plot works well regardless. But it smells like a missed opportunity. Something tells me a deeper relationship between the two of them could have fleshed out the two women even further and raised the emotional stakes

Spoiler

after Carmine is revealed to be one of the villains

. Ah well, we can't always get what we want.

It's definitely not perfect, but After the Fall was still a fun popcorn read. It got me out of my reading slump. And sometimes, that's all you really need. Totally recommended for fellow RWBY fans.

RWBY is one of my favorite shows with adorable main characters who kick ass, cheesy puns, and amazing character development. I desperately need to catch up with Volume 6 at some point. It's no surprise I'd get my hands on a copy of After the Fall. This is the first in a series based on the show.

After the Fall doesn't focus on Team RWBY like the show does, though. The book is set a year after the fall of Beacon, focusing on team CFVY as they are settling into a new life at Shade Academy to continue their training as huntsmen and huntresses.

The first novel in the RWBY novels alternates between the present when Team CFVY receives a call about Grimm attacks and their time at Beacon before the fall. Favorite characters for fans of the show make an appearance through the alternating timelines, like Team RWBY and Team SSSN. However, it takes a few chapters of disorientation with the two different timelines, which I let slide because it's more than likely a personal preference than an issue with the book.

After the Fall focuses a lot on the backgrounds of each team member and how they ended up at Beacon. Myers also goes into detail with how they ended up together as a team, and the challenges they go through as they learn to work together. This novel is really another challenge for them to work through as a team in a more practical experience.

Pacing for the first novel feels a little slow, especially for those expecting the fast-paced action of the show. But there is action throughout the novel as they try to figure out the cause of the ongoing Grimm attacks. If this were on screen, it would definitely be as fast-paced as the original!

I do, however, enjoy getting to know Team CFVY better because they make a major, however brief, appearance in the series. I'm not too sure if they're in Volume 6 or 7, either, so it's fun getting see a different team in the spotlight. After watching Volume 5, though, After the Fall feels like a true companion novel. Future volumes will continue the storyline already set up, but fans can get a taste of a different story running around the same timeline.

I feel like After the Fall turned out to be a little disappointing for me, though. Although I love reading Team CFVY's stories, I wanted more from the story. That didn't really happen as much as I hoped I would? I don't think the first book in the novelization does the show justice; I highly recommend watching the show to get up to speed before the start of the novel. It's hard to say if I want to invest in the series, but I want to see what adventure they're up to next. I think my personal love for the show will keep me interested in continuing.

This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts.

Absolutely loved it.

The writing itself was eh, but the world-building and backstory on team CVFY was utterly irreplaceable!