Strange Angels (Strange Angels Series #1)

Great read by a wonderful author

Dru Anderson does not have any easy life. Despite being only sixteen-years old, she has seen and experienced more horrors than most people ever will. Her grandmother called it "the touch." Her sixth sense that lets her travel from city to city and hunt ghosts, suckers, wulfen, corpses- you name it! Not to mention her zombie father...
Dru is introduced to two characters: Graves, a goth boy with a big crush on Dru; and Christophe, another kind of dangerous hunter that is very interested in Dru and her abilities. Together they will face off against an old enemy. The question is, can they find the one that hunts them and turn the tables in time to save their lives?

This is the author's first young adult (YA) book. Having read all her other works, this one does not disappoint. It is seen through the eyes of a teenaged girl juggling too many problems to add romance to the list, but sometimes you do not have any control over that. The heroine is faced with tragedy, tough choices and revelations in this story which is sure to have a sequel coming soon. It quickly captures the readers imagination and attention, making it hard to put it down! And the reader is left waiting to find out what will happen next to Dru.

The book has certain similarities with other great YA novels such as the Twilight and Harry Potter series, yet it is uniquely its own. It is not for the faint of heart reader, but rather filled with action, anxiety, and wonderful characters and relationships. It is a great read that is sure to please the young and old readers alike!

18 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

Okay

I thought it would be better, because of how many other people seemed to like it, but I felt let down. The main character was inconsistent, to me, in her personality, and there was the repetitive use of the word goddamit, and that got tiring. The plotline wasn't really great. I hope the next book is better.

6 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

A Surprise of a Good Read

At first, I thought this book was going to be awful. It took me three, count them, THREE turns at picking up this book between others to finally get into it!! Once I got about a third of the way through, and got over Dru's hideous language quirks (ie. "Goddamn", "Kid"), and really started getting into her story, the book really picked up and I was hooked! Dru ended up being much more endearing and vulnerable than I ever expected she could be, and Graves' honest-to-goodness and strength made him more than a little interesting...not to mention the introduction of Christophe, who I suspect will just be simply yum! Another surprise for me was that as I got more interested in the story, I again started to feel let down as I saw the many similarities forming with Vampire Academy, BUT as I read on and now that I've started Betrayals, I feel encouraged that St. Crow has taken on her own twist on the Vampire, Djamphir, Boarding School storyline. I'm excited to continue reading the series now, and would definitely recommend to others! A surprise indeed!!

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Reminds me of the Supernatural tv show.

Dru can sense The Real World (the paranormal world, not the tv show), and she travels around with her Dad, who's a down-and-dirty monster killer. When she's left all on her own--in a dramatic and heartbreaking fashion, I might add--she's in big trouble because something seriously bad is gunning for her.


So much to like, here. 1. St. Crow has an earthy, realistic writing voice with a Deep South feel. The prose style is enjoyably descriptive, and we get simple but lovely lines like, "My mouth tasted like day-old coffee mixed with ash" (pg 106). So good. 2. Most of the character behavior is totally justified, frex: this is a gritty, dark book, and one of the ways the grittiness manifests itself is in some pretty heavy language for a YA, but it all feels natural, considering the MC's rough background. 3. Great secondary characters. It takes a little while, but Graves gets pretty amazing, though he bugged me at first. Then there's Christophe, who doesn't really put in an appearance until halfway through the book but moves the story forward in marvelous ways. 4. The mythology is fresh, complex, compelling, and the longer you read the more interesting it gets.

Another big reason I find Strange Angels appealing is that it's a good example of the kind of writing I'm going to arbitrarily call "Scrape Fiction" where, unlike many novels where the characters have two states: perfect health or almost-dead-from-stab-wounds-and-bullet-holes, the MC can gets little cuts, sprains, and headaches that hurt in a standard bearable fashion, but are annoying or interfere with the MC's activities. In this type of book, busted lips and bruised knuckles are the order of the day instead of broken bones or lopped-off limbs, though those may appear, too. Gotta say, I'm a fan of this approach. In that way, Strange Angels reminds me of one of my favorite tv shows of all time: Supernatural, where the lighting is dim, the monsters are abundant, and the setting feels lived-in and unglamourous. Though now that I think about it, this book's similarities to that show are huge--the backstory is, Dru's and her dad bounce from town to town fighting whatever monster is in residence, with only each other for company. Dru's dad is even a fan of classic rock a la AC/DC.

Dislikes: 1. It's presented as part of Dru's overall gruffness and insensitivity, but I cringe when she mentally refers to Graves, who is part Asian, as a "half-breed". It just sets my internal racism alarms a-ringing. 2. Dru's awesome and tough--sometimes so much so that her POV feels male. Can we have a tough girl protag without making her sound like a dude? Tall order, I know. 3. "Werewolf" in this book is spelled "werwulf," and I can't get behind that. It's like when someone spells vampire as "vampyre," and while I'm fine with more obscure supernatural species being spelled however you like (faery/faerie, selkie/selchie), if you're going to write vamps and wolves I prefer you call 'em that. Leave off the fancy sauce and just give me the chicken.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Kick Butt Kinda Girl!

I really liked "Dru" in the novel. She is kind of a teenage "Anita Blake". I hope all the books in the series (as it seems there will be sequels) are as good.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

OMG!!! Best Book Ever.Love It. Great Sieries!!!!!!!

This is a real thrilling book,I love how the author(Lili St. Crow) is not afraid to put her words on paper.Dru is just my favoite,she's not afraid to say what she's thinking.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good Vamp Read

The writing style is hard to get use to. But the story is good and the Characters are fun. It takes the Vamps and Were story to a different level. She was almost real, with her trials and troubles. I love a strong heroine but i can relate to one better when she has the Occasional break down too. i recommend anyone to read it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

(Twilight Saga Forever) This book can hold its own!!!

I Really like this book. I ended up reading it all in one sitting, I actually wasn't in store for this one but the cover caught my eye and figured what the heck. I haven't gotten so enthralled in book since the twilight saga. I can't wait for the second book in this series to come out.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

nothing special

this book wasn't anything new or exciting for me. the beginning started out okay but then it started to drag on which just made it boring.

1 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Amazing creative book!

This book reminds me a lot of the televsion show called supernatural. I love the show and this book. A lot of books these days seem to be all about vampires but this book is more creative! I love it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good Story

I can't wait until the second book comes out in Novemeber! I enjoyed it - and I am in my mid 30s!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A wonderful book that keeps you wanting more.

This is one of the best books i have ever read. It has all the right things: its thrilling, interesting, crush, can't put down book, funny, edgy, exciting, etc.
I can't wait for the next book to come out BETRAYALS.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Strange Angels is Awesome

I had anticipated this book...I read the summary, loved it and went out and bought the book like a week or so after it came out...and immediately began to read it...and I loved it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

it was different but good.

i liked this book for many reasons but i also had some issues.one of the good parts about this book was that the charchter of dru. i love the way her attitude is throughout the whole book. her confidence is very contagous. one of the issues about the book, for me, was that it went kind of slow. i think, in my opinion, that the author over discribed some parts and took to much time in doing so. i am still going to buy the next book in the series because i am curious about the charchter,dru. i hope in the next book, it explains her mother more. i would still reccomned this book to the supernatural readers and i hope the next book does well.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

LOVE IT!

i really loved this book. It was great and i cant wait to read the next one!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Dru's mom died when she was young, and she ended up spending a lot of time with her grandmother and father. When her grandmother passes away, Dru must scour the country with her dad, a hunter, looking for paranormal beings to kill. With Dru's help using "the touch" her dad's hunts have been very successful, until one night when he goes without her on a hunt, and she fails to tell him about her bad feelings. With her father dead, Dru has to figure out how to survive on her own, decide who she can trust, and find the monsters responsible for her father's death. All this while watching her own back for whoever is hunting HER.

I really enjoyed Strange Angels, there is nonstop action which I love! Dru is a strong protagonist, but she also has her weaknesses like all teenage girls should have. She's scared and is determined not to let that show, even when she begins to feel vulnerable around her new friend Graves. St. Crow is a genius when writing intense and heavily emotional scenes. Her descriptions of the "real world" (no, not the reality show), which are shown through Dru's eyes, are dark, scary, and vivid. She has built a world full of intriguing creatures including; Zombies, Weres (werewulfen), Vampires (suckers), and all kinds of big and small monsters.

The only part that sort of got old was that Dru likes to repeat a lot of the same phrases or lines. Which I'm going to go ahead and say is because of the traumatic death of her father.

Overall Strange Angels was a very exciting book, and fans of Lilith Saintcrow's adult series will also enjoy her YA. I'm anxiously waiting to see what happens in book two of the Dru Anderson series.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A terrific young adult fantasy

Sixteen years old Dru Anderson is used to traveling around; never staying in any place for more that a couple of months. Her father trained her as his sidekick killing deadly supernatural creatures and once the mission is accomplished the pair would pack up and move to the next monster nest; some of these otherworldly beasts have no English word. Her Granmama taught her mostly in dreams and occasional rare visits how to be spiritually psychically stout. As for her mom, there are the curls.-------

Everything changed for Dru in the Dakotas the night her Granmama died. Dad acts strange as he goes out on the mission alone. When he fails to come back alive, Dru has to confront realities. The only two people in her life are dead within twenty-four hours of each other; and though she thought she was a pro at hunting, she realizes she knows nothing about what they hunted beyond her extrasensory gift of the "Touch" and even less about surviving in the mundane world. First she must live through the night as she knows mortal teen boys and creatures from beyond have caught her scent; she is not sure which is more dangerous to her existence, but then again there is her dad's killer stalking her too.----------

The key to this terrific young adult fantasy is the supernatural creatures seem genuine with the representatives of a variety of species possessing differing personalities beyond just their basic "natural" needs. Dru is fabulous holding the story line together in a first person viewpoint as she is a typical teen with a special skill and a radically different childhood than the norm. Fans will admire Dru and her two new associates Christophe and Graves who risk all in a battle against deadly foes who should not exist in the wintry Dakotas.---------

Harriet Klausner

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great!

This is my favorite series behind Vampire Academy. Dru is a total badass and I adore the love triangle. This series kept me guessing the whole time and I could not stop reading till I finished the series. Definitely make some time to read this series!

Awsome

Dru Anderson with her friend Graves and her kinda friend Christophe are amazing characters that bing tis book to life dont hesitate to read it. And if your one of those people who think zombie books are weird and creepy and are skeptical of this book dont be i hate zombies and thought this book was fabulous!

Swearing

I absolutely loved this book but my mom thought the swearing in the book was not appropriate for me so i had to stop... :-(