Strange Angels book review

My previous post was about a character from this series. And I was at a bit of a loss what to type up as a review, since I've got a bucketload of anime reviews already laid out, but didn't want to stifle you guys with them. So here's a book review.

Strange Angels is the first book of a series by the same name. It's good. Really good. Here's the excpert from the back of the book:

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, traveling from town to town with her father to hunt 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...

That's all fine and dandy and dramatic, as is to be expected from the back of a book, but the first half is laughably wrong. It portrays her as some Buffy the Vampire Slayer or something.

That is not the case.

Dru reacts like you or I would to having creepy-nasty-monsters coming after her. Which is basically this:

Only substitute the flailing with shooting wildly.

Which means she screams. A lot. Don't get me wrong- she manages to kill the things. It's just that she's screeching like a banshee the whole time. So it's exceptionally realistic, which is good. Dru is very relateable, as is the dorkling of a skinny goth kid that I mentioned on Monday.

Graves is the same side of the coin, but a little different. Like this, for example:


He wasn't raised around this stuff like Dru, but when something happens to him and he's drawn into it, it's like he says ".... Okay. Whatever," shrugs and accepts it as real. He's freaked out as heck through the whole book, just like Dru, but he's accepting of the fact that such a thing as werewulen and other nasties exist.

In all, the character ranking is 9 stars out of 10.

The plot is good as well. There's hardly ever a dull moment. It's like the Maximum Ride books, but with an actual solid plot rather than just running from the bad guys. So an 8 out of 10 there. Eight, because the author, Lili St. Crow, tries to throw in a love triangle. Thankfully, Dru shoots it down. After a long period of being extremely oblivious about either boy's feelings..... Idiotic girl. *Sighs wearily*

Family friendliness is probably around 6 out of 10. There is a scattering of cuss words, mainly the f-bomb and sh**, but they're used in relatively okay times. Meaning that, if I were in that circumstance, I'd probably be swearing like a sailor there too.

Over all, I'm going to give the book 8 stars out of 10.

Any thoughts? Questions? Suggestions on books to read?

Thanks for dropping by and I shall see you Monday, if Kathryn doesn't scare you off!!
--Rebecca