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A review by steph01924
Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow, Lilith Saintcrow
4.0
I was pretty surprised by this book. I didn't read too much of the synopsis beforehand, but from the looks of the cover and the title, I was expecting some story about a normal girl and some airy-fairy angel dude who was oh-so-hot and mysterious and totally irresistible. So, not expecting much. But, man. My idea could not have been any more wrong. Dru Anderson kicks ass.
What really got me into this book is that it reminds me of the TV show, Supernatural. Like, if Supernatural had a love child with the show, Buffy, this book would be the progeny. Dru and her dad are freaking Hunters, people. Sub in a werwulf and vampire war (a la Underworld??) instead of demon craziness, and you've got a plot similar to the first episode of Supernatural (Dad has an encyclopedia/journal of supernatural things. He hasn't come home from a Hunt. Started hunting after wife was killed. Come on!) If John and Mary Winchester had had a girl instead of two adorably hot sons, that girl would be Dru (though I don't know if the show would be as popular...). I may be dwelling on this too much, but the similarities are very obvious to me. I have no idea what the timeline is in relation to the TV show first airing and this book being published, but whatever.
No matter the similarities, the book is still fresh enough to stand on its own. The characters get their asses handed to them throughout this book, surviving wave after wave of evil badness knocking (quite literally) on the front door. It was nice to see Dru taking charge, but it was also nice to see that she was capable of freak-outs, because, after all, she is just a sixteen-year-old girl. Buffy didn't get to be Buffy right out of the gate.
I'm interested in seeing where the next few books take the characters and I'm hoping there's not some crazy angsty love triangle coming to a head with Graves and Chris.
As a side note, it amused me every time Dru mentioned Grave's 'looking like a white boy' or 'not looking like a white boy because of his half-Asian-ness'. There was a bit of a gap from when I started reading the book to finishing most of it, so I don't recall if there was a clear explanation of Dru's looks...but isn't SHE white? It sounded like she came from a hillbilly family and a somewhat European/nondescript background. I just didn't understand why she would have such a strange obsession pointing out when he looked white and when he looked Asian. Anyway, that doesn't have much impact on the overall story, just an observation.
Good first book!
What really got me into this book is that it reminds me of the TV show, Supernatural. Like, if Supernatural had a love child with the show, Buffy, this book would be the progeny. Dru and her dad are freaking Hunters, people. Sub in a werwulf and vampire war (a la Underworld??) instead of demon craziness, and you've got a plot similar to the first episode of Supernatural (Dad has an encyclopedia/journal of supernatural things. He hasn't come home from a Hunt. Started hunting after wife was killed. Come on!) If John and Mary Winchester had had a girl instead of two adorably hot sons, that girl would be Dru (though I don't know if the show would be as popular...). I may be dwelling on this too much, but the similarities are very obvious to me. I have no idea what the timeline is in relation to the TV show first airing and this book being published, but whatever.
No matter the similarities, the book is still fresh enough to stand on its own. The characters get their asses handed to them throughout this book, surviving wave after wave of evil badness knocking (quite literally) on the front door. It was nice to see Dru taking charge, but it was also nice to see that she was capable of freak-outs, because, after all, she is just a sixteen-year-old girl. Buffy didn't get to be Buffy right out of the gate.
I'm interested in seeing where the next few books take the characters and I'm hoping there's not some crazy angsty love triangle coming to a head with Graves and Chris.
As a side note, it amused me every time Dru mentioned Grave's 'looking like a white boy' or 'not looking like a white boy because of his half-Asian-ness'. There was a bit of a gap from when I started reading the book to finishing most of it, so I don't recall if there was a clear explanation of Dru's looks...but isn't SHE white? It sounded like she came from a hillbilly family and a somewhat European/nondescript background. I just didn't understand why she would have such a strange obsession pointing out when he looked white and when he looked Asian. Anyway, that doesn't have much impact on the overall story, just an observation.
Good first book!