Strange Angels (Strange Angels, Book 1) [Paperback]

Lili St. Crow (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 14, 2009

In Strange Angels, Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.)

Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Sixteen-year-old Dru Anderson has grown up traveling the country with her demon-hunter father. When he tries to tackle a powerful sucker named Sergej in the Dakotas, he is turned into a zombie. After stopping him from killing her, Dru must save herself when she, too, becomes Sergej's target. She is befriended by Graves, a classmate who is quickly bitten and turned into a loup-garou (half werewolf), and meets Christophe, a djamphir (half-vampire vampire hunter). Dru also learns that she is growing into her own special powers. This is the first book in a series, and a large portion of it is spent developing the three lead characters, which occasionally slows down the action. While Graves seems to be the love interest, it is clear that both young men are attractive enough to draw Dru's attention, promising tension in future installments. However, the book is plagued by frequent odd descriptions (a werewolf the size of a Shetland pony and Graves, who is half Asian, described as a half breed), and the choppy pacing is sometimes distracting. Dru's inner monologue is a bit wordy during action scenes as well, which drags down the pace. Despite flaws, the similarities to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga (Little, Brown) will make this book an easy sell (though Dru is, by far, a tougher heroine than Bella, both in her language and her behavior), and the cliff-hanger ending will leave readers eager for the sequel.–Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH
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Review

The book grabs readers by the throat, sets hearts beating loudly and never lets go. The first in a series, it will be all too hard to wait for the next. ---Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Razorbill (May 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595142517
• ISBN-13: 978-1595142511
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (119 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lili St. Crow is the YA pen name for Lilith Saintcrow. Lili lives in Vancouver, WA, with children, cats, a dog, and a host of other strays. You can find her at http://www.lilistcrow.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gutsy and action-packed May 14, 2009

By The Compulsive Reader VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Dru Anderson and her father live an unconventional life; they travel across the continent, tracking and killing dangerous supernatural things. Thanks to her father, Dru is a physically strong, and due to her time spent with her superstitious grandmother, psychically strong as well.

At first, this new town in the Midwest is nothing new, and her father's unwillingness to allow Dru accompany him on his hunts familiar. But when he doesn't come home alive, Dru is forced to face reality. She's not as capable as she once thought, nor as smart. There are things about the night and the Real World that her father never revealed to her. And if she hopes to make it until morning, she'll have to draw upon everything her father and grandmother ever taught her and learn to trust.

Strange Angels is a fresh take on a popular subject in YA literature, showcasing a heroine that is strong, gutsy, and fallible. Fans of the TV show Supernatural will be happy to dig into this Pandora's Box of creepy-crawlies, blood-suckers, werwulfen, hexes, and many other assorted paranormal creatures and enchantments. Each supernatural creature possesses its own unique characteristics within the novel which makes Strange Angels stand apart from the mundane. St. Crow's writing is solid and wonderfully descriptive, and she skillfully balances out the novel with action-filled scenes and memories from Dru's past, transforming her world into a tangible and comprehensive one. Though she has a tendency to repeat herself in suspenseful scenes, St. Crow does an admirable job creating and building fear and apprehension. Her characters are well-rounded, the setting vivid, and the action scenes suspenseful: the perfect makings for a stellar new series that will spellbind readers and leave them begging for more.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-Paced Action In Sharp-Edged World June 20, 2009

By Mel Odom TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Under her "adult" name (Lilith Saintcrow), Lili St. Crow has written two adult series involving paranormal heroines (Dante Valentine and Jill Kismet). But when the author turns her sights on the YA market, she brings the same kind of fist-in-your face action and briskly moving plot with constant life or death stakes.

I really like the heroine in this series. Dru Anderson is a girl I could have known and liked back in high school. She knows the real score and is tough but vulnerable. A girl who's able to take care of herself in a smashmouth situation, but still thinks and acts feminine. Even down to the way she gets mad at the two guys working with her in this book.

The set-up is familiar, of course. All of these paranormal-girls-against-the-dangerously-weird are going to run close to the same source, but St. Crow proves herself over and over as a storyteller with a lot to say and a way of moving a story along.

Dru has a lot of mysteries in her life. The foremost is what happened to her mother all those years ago, and how she got to be chosen as one of those hunters that chase the dark things through the night and the shadows. And there's the matter of those strange "hex" powers that get stronger and stronger nearly every day.

I'm not giving anything away by mentioning that Dru's ex-Marine dad gets zombified at the beginning of the book because readers get that from the back cover copy. But I do wish I'd gotten to hang out with him more. The father/daughter relationship seems really solid and I can't help feeling I missed out on a lot of great adventures and family stuff.

The loss of Dru's dad is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Apparently all of the stuff Dru never learned about herself is coming home to roost all at once. The magnification of her powers and abilities is a magnet to everything evil creeping around the city.

Graves, the cool homeless kid who befriends her and takes care of her, is a good character and I can't wait to see him develop with all the changes (literally) that he'll be going through. Christophe is equally interesting, and he has at least as many secrets as Dru has.

St. Crow has done a good job of world-building as well. I like the idea of "wulfen" and "suckers," although these are just substitutes for werewolf and vampires. But there are other weird things lurking out there that's she's only now giving us a peek at. I also like the fact that the book takes place in the middle of winter with snow all around instead of the typical balmy summer day. The weather provides great atmosphere.

I will say that the language is full on adult. Several f-bombs get dropped along the way, and the 9-12 crowd needs to know that this isn't a gentle read. The young teens to early twentysomethings (as well as several adults) will hunker down and read this one practically in one sitting. And be anxiously awaiting the second in the series coming in November - not soon enough!

24 of 33 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Wasted Potential July 15, 2009

By M. Cahill

Format:Paperback

I was really looking forward to Strange Angels, a fearless girl with two supernatural guys lusting for her? Sounds good right? Well I was disappointed to say the least when I actually read the book.

Strange Angels takes off when lead girl, Dru's, father dies and returns as a zombie. She then teams up with local Goth boy, Graves who is on his own as well. The two teens escape many supernatural creatures that all seem to be going after Dru. It isn't until practically the end of the book when we meet lover boy #2, who quite honestly doesn't seem romantically intenerated in Dru at all.

Besides a fractured plot line, the story had so much going on it was hard to focus on the point of the story. I often found myself confused or waiting for an explanation that never came. Dru, as far as I was concerned was not the fearless teen the book portrayed her to be, but rather a cursing prone teen who feared the night world as much as any of us regular people would.

I give it three stars because the plot had potential, it really did. But with the awful writing, flawed plot, and confusing characters, the novel looks like the unedited version of a potential story. Read it if you must, but don't be fooled but the sypnopsis.