Dru Anderson has been running all her life. With a special ability called the Touch, she and her father hunt things that go bump in the night, and they never stay anywhere for too long. When her father is murdered, she befriends Graves, a boy with a past almost as mysterious as her own. As more and more attempts on her life are made, Dru and Graves begin to wonder who–or what is hunting them, and why.
Lili St. Crow’s writing is quick, engaging, and snappy. With “Strange Angels,” she has crafted a very entertaining, fast-paced tale that will have you up all night. Dru Anderson is a heroine that deserves to be right up there with Cynthia Hand’s Clara, P. C. and Kristen Cast’s Zoe, and Andrea Cremer’s Calla. She is truly a strong woman, a character that many teen girls will look up to.
Something I appreciated very much about this story was the lack of romance. Sure, there were male characters that may end up being something to Dru in later books in the series, but her life did not revolve around them. Recently I have gotten very frustrated with romance in novels for teens. Sometimes the romance is not even necessary, and I think it is important to show young women that they can be strong and successful without wild love lives.
Though you may not guess it from the cheesiness of the cover, the writing was of a fairly decent quality. As I’ve already mentioned, St. Crow really knows how to craft engaging sentences. I had my doubts about the book when I picked it up (if it wasn’t an old free ARC I probably wouldn’t have bothered), but I was hooked from the first sentence about the owl. I felt like the opening sentence already told the reader a lot about Dru and her family, even though it was only eight words long.
However, the writing was certainly not without flaws. I felt that some of the jokes were a little bit forced and/or uncreative. I also disagreed with some of the dialect choices she used for Dru’s family; I just don’t know that real people would talk that way.
Still, these minor deficiencies did not keep me from enjoying the story, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series, “Betrayals”.
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