Review by Alex- Strange Angels

Strange Angels by Lili St. Cyr

Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called athe touch. (Comes in handy when you are 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 are 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?

For me, Strange Angels didn't really work. It sounds really good, it has a good plot, strong characters and all, but then... nothing.

I didn't feel any real connections at all in Strange Angels. The relationships between the characters didn't feel real enough. Even some of the character traits didn't match up to the character. For example, Dru is supposedly an artist who's really good at drawing. Um, what? It's mentioned a couple times that Dru sketches and can draw really well, but it felt disjointed. I couldn't imagine Dru drawing at all. It didn't help that drawing only comes up a few times and each time it felt forced and not at all like it connected to Dru's overall character.

I also wasn't able to relate to the characters. I mean, no one is really going to feel like Dru when her dad comes back as a zombie to kill her, or when she has to fight off some werwulf. But there are other times that, if done better, I should have been able to empathize with Dru. I didn't. I felt so detached from the book and that does make me a little sad. I wish I could have gotten into it more.

The writing is so-so. It's readable, but it doesn't stand out. There are too many descriptions in the book, especially with describing the two love interests who's names I have now forgotten. (Which that in itself is quite sad, since I read the book only a couple days ago. The characters just aren't memorable enough.) The descriptions though, my god. I lost count how many times the eye colour of the two guys were described. I skimmed over a lot of the book because there are so many attempts at descriptions. There's also a lot of use of different verbs that sound really awkward. Of course it would be boring if the author only used simple verbs like "said" and "walk", but it just went too far in Strange Angels. It felt really forced. I'd bring up a few examples of verbs, but I had to return my copy to the library already. The verbs fall into the overly descriptive and trying too hard category.

And because it just really bugged me, the word "hinky" was used far too much. I hadn't heard the word before, I've never heard a teenager say it. Maybe it's just me. But using "hinky" made the book seem more dated to me, or more like a hick.

On a more positive note, the plot is interesting. The book really picked up towards the end, when a bit more is explained. In the second half or so, Dru's exceptional powers come to light, as does the actual bad guys that Dru must face.

Overall, I like the idea of the paranormal romance. A strong heroine battling against evil while also having to deal with some love interests- sounds good. While not exactly original, it's a good idea. However, the execution was poor. The writing could have been a lot better as could the characters. The plot could also have been cleaned up.

Still, if you haven't read it, you could pick it up. Don't bother buying it though- borrow Strange Angels from somewhere.