Betrayals

Strange Angels, Book 2

By: Lili St. Crow

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Lili St. Crow staked her place among writers of dark fantasy with the release of Strange Angels, the first book featuring night hunter Dru Anderson. Here, teen Dru returns, a little wiser but still beset by supernatural terrors that would have most girls her age running for cover. What else would you expect for someone with nonhuman blood coursing through her veins?

Now Dru is stuck at a secret New England School for other teens like her, and there’s a big problem: she’s the only girl in the place. A school full of cute boys wouldn’t be so bad, but Dru’s killer instinct says that one of them wants her dead. And with all eyes on her, discovering a traitor within the Order could mean a lot more than social suicide.

She's no cherub: listen to more in the Strange Angels series.

©2009 Lili St. Crow (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"[G]rabs readers by the throat, gets hearts beating loudly and never lets go." ( Kirkus Reviews)

I'm Done Now

I first listened to this maybe 11 years ago and thought it was gritty enough for a good four stars.

Now, after my second listen...hmn...I can see where I used to really enjoy this series. Dru is snarky, willing to fight her own battles, and the world she lives in is dark and not afraid to shy away from blood and horror. I've always liked it when YA novels didn't treat their audience like shrinking violets and dealt with tough matters. For example, Dru's dad dies. She has to go through that pain of losing her parent, and her grief doesn't just disappear in the second book. She mourns the loss of all of the ones she loves and needs to process. I like that a lot.

However, Dru internalizes so many things. I would have liked if her inner monologue would have been externalized. Many confusing situations and emotions could have been resolved if she just said what she thought. She goes through line after line of deep thought that could have done wonders to change the environment around her only for Dru to emote single syllables and add nothing to what's occurring around her.

As such, scenes that could have been quick and to the point were drawn out. Dru would think and think and think all in the matter of seconds, but those thoughts extended scenes that just didn't need to be extended or lost their weight of urgency through those extensions. As an example, Dru needed to escape quickly. Something was coming after her. But first she had to think about her dad, her grandma, her perfectly detailed surroundings, some snippets from the past, what she thought of Graves, inquiries on where Christophe was, and then she outwardly moved to escape the threat about 10 pages later.

A few instances of this would have been fine---but this held true throughout the entire book and it honestly got exhausting getting through it.

The plan here was to reread the series because I never read the 5th book. Now...I don't think I have the time or energy. So this is where I'll stop to keep the good memories I had about the time I read this series 11 years ago intact. Thanks, Dru.

I ALMOST GAVE THIS

I ALMOST GAVE THIS AMAZING story 3 stars CAUSE THE NARRATION IS AWFUL!!!!!! I had to keep rewinding it cause SHE'S MONOTONE!!! THE STORY IS REALLY GOOD BUT....... EVEN THE BEST STORIES CAN BE RUINED BY THE WRONG NARRATOR!!!

Strange Angels

Any additional comments?

This was a great book. The narratotr was awful. Too old - she didn't sound like a teen girl at all. She took forever spitting out a fun, witty comment a character would make which would ruin it completely. Was not able to keep up with banter and the dialogue between characters just became painful to listen to. She has obviously not spent time around teenagers. Just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Strange Angels mauled yet again by the narrator

The only thing more shocking than a horrible narrator, is realizing how many books they've narrated. I'm serious confused by the way Alyssa Bresnahan reads... pardon the reference but it's like she's constipated. I can't get passed this because the world Lili St. Crow has built deserves a better read.

I think this is my first review on audible recommending that you buy the paper version instead.

I rated this book three stars... one taken for narration (I should have taken two but the story itself deserves three) and one taken for language in a YA novel. I mentioned this in the review of the first book, but if you're writing YA, you have to realize not all parents are okay with profanity being slung left and right. I dont have kids, and I don't mind language, but I rate YA based on what a mom might read before buying it for their teen.

I'm liking the book better now that things are finally getting going. Dru's a strange bird... she's being hunted by vamps because she'd a half vamp girl (which is rare in this world) and she drinks and cusses like a sailor. She's caught in a typical triangle between a were and another half vamp (or 1/16) and had a goal of staying alive until she matures... apparently her blood is yummy now and wont be once she's changed.

Listening to this book is like traveling a gorgeous landscape on a bumpy bus with a partially working airconditioner... sometimes its a breeze, sometimes you're in agony... but at least the view is great.

I've read the books and fell in love.

I'm not much of a fan for the narrator chosen for this series.. it would have been nicer to have had someone else and another one for the guys.

Other than that it's pretty decent. I would just like to remind people that it's for young adults and not children... Meaning there's cursing and later on in the series there's some sexual tension but nothing like adult romances.. I'm seeing a lot of ratings acting shocked about this which confuses me.. the books are meant for YOUNG ADULTS not ten year olds..so please don't rate it like that. It's for mature youths finding their ways into the ADULT world of romance novels without reading all the nitty gritty stuff the older generation is reading.. highschool students who are old enough to know what sex is and trust me, they're already reading our types of novels anyways and watching the same movies we're watching so come on.... Don't get young adult novels twisted with children's books...