28 May 2010

Review: Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow


Title: Strange Angels
Author: Lili St. Crow
Series: Strange Angels #1
Genre: YA
Release Date: May 14th 2009
Blurb:
The Real World is a frightening place. Just ask sixteen-year-old orphan Dru Anderson, a tough girl who has taken down her fair share of bad guys. She's armed, dangerous, and ready to kill first and ask questions later. So it's gonna take her a while to figure out who she can trust . . .

Dru Anderson has been 'strange' for as long as she can remember, travelling from town to town with her father to hunt the things that go bump in the night. It's a weird life, but a good one – until it all explodes in an icy, broken-down Dakota town, when a hungry zombie busts through her kitchen door. Alone, terrified, and trapped, Dru's going to need every inch of her wit and training to stay alive. The monsters have decided to hunt back – and this time, Dru's on their menu. Chances of survival? Slim to none.

If she can't last until sunup, it's game over . . .


Dru and her father have been hunting things from town to town. In their last stop, Dru's father starts acting weird, but she never gets to find out what's wrong: the next day her father comes back as a zombie, and Dru has to kill it.
She feels lost and doesn't know what's going on or what to do, so when a guy from her school, Graves, gets her a hamburguer and aks her if she has a place to stay, she feels scared enough to accept the offer to stay with him. The first days are good, until a werwulf tracks her down and attacks Graves, possibly infecting him with the werwulf disease.

She brings them back to her house, where her father's corpse lies, and waits until she knows for sure if Graves is going to transform. Time is running out and someone is going to start looking for her sooner than later.

I found the beginning of the book a little slow. A big part of the book is about Dru trying to figure out what to do, and sometimes it felt repetitive. The action didn't start until the middle of the story. Some of Dru's behaviour is weird and not very logical.

The best part of the book was the friendship/relationship between Dru and Graves, especially how they start to trust each other and how close they end up being in the end. I liked Graves a lot because even though he gets mixed up into a lot of bad and weird stuff, he keeps being himself, and tries to help Dru the best he can, even if it means getting out of her way.
This was a good start of a series, although it mostly raised questions rather than answer them. At the end, this book felt like a big beginning of a huge storyline.


Memorable Lines:

It was snowing outside and there was a zombie dead in my living room, and here this girl was, dressed like a hooker and laughing.
My hand curled into a fist. I took a deep breath.
"I know a place." Graves said it quietly, leaning forward across the table. He braced his thin elbows and rested his chin on his fist. "If you want, you know."
Oh, Jesus. Not now. "Why is it there's always a guy who thinks he can get something out of the new girl?" My fingertips dug into my palm. "Every goddam town, is the same thing. Some guy thinks he's God's gift to the displaced."
"I just asked if you wanted a place to sleep." Graves hunched his shoulders defensively. "Jesus."


Next Book:
Betrayals - November 17th 2009.


Rating: 1/2

4 comments:

Michelle Greathouse said...

I love this series. :) Looking forward to the 3rd installment. :)

M

Arena @ {thenerdswife} said...

Found you through the Hop -- Love your blog!

I'm having a giveaway for a *signed* copy of Dead in the Family here.

Have a great weekend!

Steph from fangswandsandfairydust.com said...

Found you on the hop. What a thoughtful review. I like the addition of memorable lines. Sometimes I find the behavior of characters weird too - not very logical - especially teenage characters!

Stay Well & stop by the blog for a visit!
steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com
www.fangswandsandfairydust.com

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Hmm, I have been wanting to start this series. This sounds like a great first start, and then diving into the second book to help with answers. Thanks for the review. I may have to get this one with the second book. :)