Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

First in the Strange Angels series

3 stars
Dru Anderson has always been a different, but what do you expect when you move around constantly and your dad hunts paranormal creatures and sometimes you help. One night Dru is visited by an owl, her grandmother’s spirit, and has a bad sinking feeling. When a zombie comes bursting through her back door and she realizes it’s her dad, her world comes crashing down. The world Dru has known is about to get weirder and someone is hunting Dru and her destruction’s the number one prize for the suckers. I feel like 3 stars is kind of nice because to be honest this book wasn’t at all like I thought it would be. I had been expecting to be blown away. I was hoping for another Vampire Academy, which is my favorite YA series, but this book didn’t even come close to it. The mythology was interesting but not fleshed out enough. I really want to talk about the characters before I talk about anything else because the characters were my biggest problem.

The main female character is Dru. I thought Dru was going to be a kickass heroine. I wanted a new Rose Hathaway or a character similar to Sherrilyn Kenyon’s heroines, but Dru was a bitch.
 
She was a straight up judgmental bitch and every word that came out of her mouth made me want to scream. She was rude to Graves and he pretty much help save her dumbass. I’m trying not to curse, but Dru is so infuriating. 
 

I haven’t been so frustrated with someone in a while. She did have a few good qualities and she started to stop being such a bitch at the end, but her bad qualities outweigh her good ones. I liked how she could fight, but even her fighting skills didn’t seem all that amazing and were just pure luck. She even admitted that the werewulf attack was luck and she and Graves were lucky. I want to know why she has this owl following her around. I get that it’s supposed to be her grandmother’s spirit, but why is her grandmother protecting her and what is the owl’s exact purpose other than a premonition of what’s to come. I’m glad we got insight as to why her mother was killed though and I want to know more about her species or gift, whatever you want to call it. One more thing, how can she hex people? Is it a gift or just a common thing for her race?

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5


The main male character is Graves. I like Graves, he’s my favorite character in the whole entire novel, but even he wasn’t all that fleshed out. Graves took Dru’s verbal abuse and helped her find a place to stay after her dad was zombified. Dru described him as ugly, but I think he sounds kind of hot, minus the uni-brow, but I think it sounds kind of hot; just throwing that out there. He’s a nice guy and I feel bad that he was dragged into this mess. I’m curious to know more about him being a loup garou and how that’s going to work out.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 8.5

The Villain- One of my biggest problems with this book was the pacing. It was so fricking slow. We didn’t even know how the villain was until around 65%. I wasn’t taking notes so I don’t remember and I returned the book to the school library. All I can remember about the villain is that his name is Russian and something along the lines of Sergei. Probably not right, but this guy just sounds like a weird looking teenager. He was creepy sounding and made me uneasy. He better be more a villain than just creepy or I’m going to be POed because I will try to read the rest of the series.

Villain Scale: 7

Christophe is a sucker. Try to guess what a sucker is. Do you give up?




That’s right he’s a vampire, but not just any vampire. But a djamphir, I think that’s the spelling. Dang I wish I would’ve taken notes on spelling of names. Anyway he’s similar to Rose Hathaway only though djamphirs(?) are usually only males and they are the children of a ‘sucker’ and a human female. Female djamphirs are rare and they have their own name which I forgot. I should probably look it up on the internet.
*looks stuff up*
I didn’t find anything other than a quiz and some cool looking wallpapers. Anyway Christophe seems like a jerk and I like Graves. IMO Graves seems like a cooler guy, but I also kind of like Christophe. I don’t know, I’m conflicted; I mostly hate him, but at the same time I kind of like him. Dru’s dad was only featured in memories and as a ZOMBIE. He was obviously not very prominent in Dru’s life. I bet if he was there at home instead of hunting her butt would be in school.


Character Scale: 7.5
The mythology could’ve been more fleshed out, but maybe St. Crow is saving it for the other books. I expect to learn more about the REAL WORLD. A brief take on some of the mythology I learned:
Suckers= Vampires
Ghosts= Ghosts ;) Glad to see something didn’t change. Btw that snake thing part was pretty cool and even though I forgot what it’s called I think it was an interesting concept and I want to see more of it because it’s obvious it could wreak havoc.
Wulfen= Werewolf I hate how werewulf is spelt it annoys me so much; almost more than how the Casts spell vampire in the House of Night series.
Zombies= Dead people risen from the dead through spells, usually to kill enemies.
Laoup Garou= A person bitten by a werewulf that didn’t fully change. They can still talk and have human qualities in this form, unlike werewulf.
Djamphir(?)= A male vampire hunter that is the product of a vampire and female human. They can go out in the sun and have excellent strength and fighting skills.
Whatever the hell a female djamphir is called= A rare djamphir that is only female. They are faster, stronger, and more valuable than male djamphirs. They are usually hunted and killed by suckers because they are such a threat.

Every time Dru mentions the Real World, I feel like I’m watching the show.
 
The pacing was slow as I mentioned early and after the ending, I’m hoping the pacing to be a little faster. I’m not asking it to be race car fast, but let’s leave the segway speed to mall cops and be a bike speed.
 

I am expecting the next book to be better because I want it to and I’m hoping it is. I have a feeling it might redeem itself and if it doesn’t I’ll probably continue with the series anyway. That is all I have to say because I think I may have given away quite a bit.


Cover Thoughts: I like the cover. It looks kickass, unlike Dru, but at the same time I pictured Dru to look exactly like this. The night sky sets a dark tone to the cover and I like it.