Strange Angels

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

Dru Anderson

ISBN# 978-1-59514-251-1

Available now

Published by Razorbiil

Format: trade pbk., 293 pages

Genres: YA, fiction, urban fantasy

Ok, for those that can't quite put it together, Lili St. Crow is the YA pen name of author Lilith Saintcrow. This marks her first foray into the young adult market. Under the name of Lilith she has written The Watcher series, the Dante Valentine series, the Jill Kismet series (which takes place in the same world as the Dante books), and The Society series. She's also written Steelflower which will have a sequel when ever she finds the time to write it, and the stand-alone novel, The Demon's Librarian. For Dante Valentine lovers unaware, there is a free serial novel up about Selene (Dante's best friend) which is a sort of prequel to the series.

Dru Anderson and her father are not like most people. They know monsters are real, and even hunt those that have become a threat to humans. They move across the U.S. like vagabonds, but this stop may just be their last. Dru knows this hunt is different because her father wouldn't tell her anything, and when he isn't back by the next day she gets a real bad feeling that the nightmare she had may have been a vision. The next night he finally comes home, as a hungry zombie. Now she's stuck in a town she barely knows, all alone, with her father's killer possibly coming after her next. Graves (the goth kid from school) finds her in shock at the mall and barely survives his late night introduction to the Real World when a werwulfen goes on the attack. Despite Dru trying to push him away for his own good he takes the whole experience better than expected, and even becomes a sort of sidekick. Graves brings a little balance back to Dru's life, but it isn't too long before a stranger that bleeds like a human and moves like a sucker threatens everything Dru's ever believed about monsters and her family.

I am pretty disappointed. The book blurb sounded good, even the first few chapters were very promising. I went from, "Oh my god, it's like Supernatural with a teenage chick hunter!", to, "How can one person possibly cry that much without dying from dehydration?" in the space of just a few chapters. I kept reading because I was hoping we'd get back to the mindset Dru had in the beginning. It seems to me that the author backpedaled after Dru's dad dies and it makes Dru look like one of those kids that pretend to know it all and embellish their stories until they're caught and have to come clean. She starts out very strong. She knows about the Real World and its monsters, she knows how to shoot, and she takes care of the house while her dad's on his midnight raids. After her dad dies she becomes a different person for the rest of the book, she cries all the time, she waves guns around like a crazy person, and she can't seem to defend herself without pulling a muscle or cracking her head on something. Her dad's training is always going through her head, but apparently most of it didn't stick since the messages never make it to the rest of her body. I know she has to mourn, but by the end of this book she has gone from being a strong heroine to a hysterical, damsel in distress waiting for her friends to save her.

Besides all of that there's Dru's description of what a pack of howling werwulfen sound like which I did not get at all. "It's like a spiral of glass on the coldest night you've ever known, naked outside in the deep woods." If someone knows where she was going with this could you explain it to me please? Lili also dated herself by having Dru compare a moment to an ABC Afterschool Special which she would surely be too young to remember. So, while I love Graves and the new take on werwulfen, suckers, animal spirits of all sorts, and what could only be a hellhound by the description I think Dru needs to be rewritten. If you're looking for YA vampire series to love skip this and try the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine, House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast, or the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead instead.

Zhye

Once Dead, Twice Shy

Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison

Madison Avery series

ISBN# 978-0-06-171816-8

Available now

Published by HarperCollins

Format: HC, 232 pages

Genres: YA, fiction, urban fantasy

This book is Kim Harrison's first full-length entry into the YA genre. Although how Madison Avery ended up in her current predicament is covered pretty well, if you want all the details you'll have to read the short story in the anthology, Prom Nights From Hell. If you were hoping for a YA version of The Hollows you will be sorely disappointed since Harrison has taken this opportunity to, once again, test her world-building skills.

Madison Avery is neither alive nor completely dead due to her luck of claiming a reaper's amulet, the same reaper that killed her and tried to take her soul. Since then she's learned there are dark and light reapers, dark being the side that killed her. With the amulet providing the semblance of a body and Barnabas, the light reaper who was supposed to save her, fudging everyone's memories she has been able to return to her life. There is always a catch though. There is always the chance of a dark reaper coming after her, and she can see things humans can't, like black wings (scavengers). During battle with a dark reaper they find out that Madison has Kairos's amulet, which Barnabas says can't be true. Kairos is the dark reapers' time keeper and boss so why would he have come after a human soul himself? Now that Madison and her amulet have been recognized it isn't long before Kairos is back on her trail, and doesn't seem to care who or what gets in his way. Is it just coincidence that Barnabas and his boss left her alone with only a very new guardian angel for protection right before he showed up?

This book was pretty good despite some corniness near the middle concerning G.R.A.C.E.S. (Guardian, Reaper-Augmented Cherub, Extinction Security). Turning actual words into weird acronyms does nothing for me personally, and they always sound corny. Didn't the first Artemis Fowl book have one for E.L.F./E.L.P.H.? I only read the first book so I can't really remember. So, I was distracted by the acronym silliness and my interest waned, but then the last 60-70 pages came a long and made me want to get my hands on the sequel. Those last pages reveal a plot twist and start a philosophical debate that left me deeply satisfied and wanting more. In all this isn't a fantabulous book, but it looks to be the start of a very original, and what could end up being a fantabulous series. If you're looking for a new denizen of the supernatural to read about grab this book.

Zhye

Ghost Ocean

Ghost Ocean by S.M. Peters

ISBN# 978-0-451-46269-5

Available now

Published by Roc

Format: mm pbk., 479 pages

Genres: fiction, dark fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural horror

You may have noticed that a link to the author's website is missing, and that's because I couldn't find one. Apparently he lives in the wilds of British Columbia, Canada somewhere and has no internet access? If anybody finds him tell him to at least get a website. Oh you few mysterious, elusive authors, you do intrigue me so. Anyway, he has another stand-alone novel out, Whitechapel Gods, that I must now go digging for.

After Te's father died of a stroke five years ago she's led a pretty aimless existence. His old partner, Babu, pulls her in for the odd ghost busting job every once in awhile, but it's mostly an excuse to check in on her. Neither supposedly believe in the supernatural until the day they arrive at Sanjay's house too late. His last words mean nothing to Te, but they obviously mean something to Babu, "He's free. Kitsune." This is the day Te's life and world begin to unravel. Babu has kept her out of everything up til now, even going so far as to make her a non-believer. It turns out that St. Ives is not just any little town, it's a supermax prison for every myth and legend humans have ever been afraid of. While Babu's out gathering his team, the jailers of this prison, Te's doing her own gathering, of stolen information from Babu's binder. Unbeknownst to her, she also meets Yun Kitsune who sows his own seeds of doubt and makes her question everything she thought she was. Can she follow in her father's footsteps when Babu needs her, or will she prove to be her mother's daughter and bring the town down around their ears? Is it even really up to her once the Man in the Empty Chair exerts his will?

I originally picked up this book at the library for the cover, and because of the blurb on the back I thought it was urban fantasy. There are urban fantasy elements such as characters from myth and folklore living in a modern town, but this book could also easily fall into the New Weird or supernatural horror genres. I'm not really sure how to describe the characters. The humans are deeply flawed, and even the supernatural archetypes are deeply unhappy about being stuck in our world. Most of them are not seeking any sort of redemption, they're miserable, but do not apologize for who they are. The reader may not root for the "good guys", or even like them by the end, but you cannot deny that they tried to do some what they thought was right. What I liked about this book the most was the philosophical war going on concerning these archetypes. Should they be imprisoned for being themselves, and should humans really get to make that kind of choice just because some of the creatures terrify them? If you're looking for something similar to early Clive Barker, China Mieville, Thomas Ligotti, and yes, even tones of H.P. Lovecraft now is the perfect time to discover this author.

Zhye

Some Girls Bite

Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill

A Chicagoland Vampires Novel

ISBN# 978-0-451-22625-9

Available now

Published by New American Library (NAL)

Format: trade pbk., 341 pages

Genres: fiction, urban fantasy

Some Girls Bite is the first book in the Chicagoland Vampires series. What sets this book, and potentially the series, apart from the tons of other vampire series currently saturating the market is the setting. We're taken to Chicago, which isn't all that special, but it's also Chicago only a few months after vampires came out to the public. In most urban fantasy vampires have either been out of the closet for a few years and are pretty well established or they're still secretly living among us, so Neill's timeline is kind of refreshing. The second book, Friday Night Bites, will be out in October. Firespell, the first book in a second series is due to come out in January of 2010.

Eight months ago the Chicagoland vampires announced their existence to the humans by publishing a letter in the Sun-Times and the Trib. Then, they became the public face for vampires everywhere by holding press conferences and taking part in nationally televised Congressional investigations. Merit, a 27 year old grad student who'd finally found her way clear of her parents incessant social climbing, thought the vampires were even worse than high society. When she's made one, without her consent, after a vicious attack to save her life everything else around her begins to change too. Her grandfather, the only family member that's ever loved her just as she is, ends up knowing more about supernaturals than he's ever let on before. Mallory, her roommate who's always been into the paranormal and occult, is told she has magical talent and will need training. Merit's major stumbling block to accepting her vampirism and her role in Cadogan House, one of three vampire Houses in Chicago, is the feudal system they adhere to. While learning to accept her new lot in life she finds out she's not the only young brunette to be attacked, just the only one lucky enough to have a Master vampire near enough to save her. This rogue, which the public doesn't even know exists, is leaving evidence at his crime scenes implicating two of the three Houses so far. Now the hunt is on because if he isn't caught soon the vampires fear that they will once again end up at the not so tender mercy of blind human paranoia.

I really enjoyed this book despite there being so many vampire series out there right now. Some authors seem to think that if you're going to have a stubborn heroine she has to be bull-headed about absolutely everything, but that gets the story nowhere fast and the reader very frustrated. Merit is stubborn for all the right reasons, but even while being stubborn she's still taking everything into consideration and weighing her options. The struggle she has with accepting the vampires' feudal system is the same struggle any modern day American would have I think. I find Merit's underlying sense of grief, from which all her problems about being a vampire flow, very understandable and believable. Unlike the other 11 initiates to Cadogan House she never consented to being turned, she wasn't prepared and before the attack she never wanted anything to do with vampires. I really have nothing bad to say about this book because I can see a lot of myself in Merit's thinking and decision making processes which drew me right in. Highly recommended for urban fantasy fans, especially those with a love for vampires.

Zhye

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

ISBN# 978-0-439-02348-1

Available now

Published by Scholastic Press

Format: HC, 374 pages

Genres: YA, fiction, science fiction

Before she was an author Suzanne Collins worked on many children's TV shows such as Clarissa Explains It All, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, and Oswald.  Now she has a rhyming picture book for younger readers, When Charlie McButton Lost Power, and The Underland Chronicles starting with Gregor the Overlander for tweens.  Then we have The Hunger Games which is clearly aimed at the older YA crowd and even adults (I know I liked it).  If you've seen the movies The Running Man, Battle Royale, or The Condemned you get the gist of this book and should know it's for mature readers.  Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games, will be released September 1st.

In a future maybe not quite as distant as we'd like to think stands Panem, its shining Capitol and twelve districts are all that remain of what was once North America.   In retaliation for the districts' failed rebellion over 70 years ago the Capitol has instituted something akin to martial law.  Their most brutal institution is known as The Hunger Games.  Every year a boy and a girl are picked from every district, by drawing, to compete.  It is mandatory that every child between the ages of 12 and 18 enter, your number of entries depend on how old you are and how badly your family needs food.  The winner and their family will be taken care of for the rest of their lives, but in order to win the other 23 contestants have to die.  The contestants have to kill each other to survive while all of Panem are watching via huge screens in every district.  The richer districts train for it while the poorer families pray it passes them by, but for the Capitol it's just another way to assert their control.

This year is different, this year everything may change.  It all starts with the drawing in district 12.  Katniss volunteers for the games to take the place of her 12 year old sister, Prim.  For this she gets her district's version of a standing ovation.  Peeta, one of the baker's sons is also chosen.  Once they get their mentor sobered up they come up with a plan to present a united front to all of Panem, something never done since there can only be one winner.  Katniss is a survivor, all of district 12 knows this except Katniss, and soon everyone else will too.  Soon she has not only won over her stylists and mentor, she also gets the highest survival score (private sessions with the Gamemakers where the contestants try to impress them).  Peeta decides to win over even more of Panem by telling his interviewer he's fallen for Katniss or at least that's the reasoning she's going with because she can't handle anything else at the moment.  For a few days both are doing well in the games, but when Peeta's mortally wounded and the Gamemakers change the rules mid game can Katniss come out of survival mode in time to save him?

This book is a pretty wonderful find for me.  It reminds me of all the best things I liked about 1984 by George Orwell, the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, and the movie Battle Royale (I haven't gotten to the book yet).  If you've read Uglies the citizens of the Capitol have a lot in common with bubbly-headed Pretties, all the time in the world and nothing to do with it except obsess over their looks.  This book brings to light a lot of the same views as 1984, but from a younger perspective.  And finally, just like in Battle Royale teens end up paying the ultimate price for a floundering government they're not even really old enough to understand.  If you like any of the books or movies mentioned in this review you will love this book.  I also highly recommend this book to all science fiction lovers, as long as you're at least 15.

Zhye

Red-Headed Stepchild

Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Sabina Kane series

ISBN# 978-0-316-03776-1

Available now

Published by Orbit/Hachette Book Group

Format: mm pbk., 342 pages

Genres: fiction, urban fantasy

This is the first book in the Sabina Kane series, now I have to wait a whole year for Mage in Black.  There's one thing in Sabina's world that isn't explained well, luckily I watched Bitten By Books video interview with Jaye before reading the book.  Who knows how long it would have taken me to figure out that apples, and any products or bi-products, are what rob vampires of their immortality.  It's hardly mentioned in the book, so although vampires are being staked with applewood the why is a mystery.  Be sure to visit the "extras" section of her website for some flash fiction and the playlist for Red-Headed Stepchild.

Sabina Kane is a mixed blood, mage and vampire, and maybe the only one allowed to live.  Being a mixed blood may have made her an outcast, but being an assassin for the Dominae (the vampires' ruling council) has made her a pariah.  She takes her first step into unknown territory when she's ordered to kill the closest thing she's ever had to a friend in a vampire named David for suspected treason.  That same night she's given her hardest mission yet, she must infiltrate the Temple of the Moon (basically a cult) and find out what their leader's real plans are before killing him.  When she gets home a demon is already there waiting to kill her, and while looking for her "in" to the cult she picks up a mancie tail who saves her yet claims to have sent the demon.  A person doesn't expect to make friends while infiltrating a cult, but that's exactly what happens to Sabina.  Suddenly she has no idea how to do her job while keeping her new friends in the dark about her assignment and safe.  Sabina's future becomes even murkier when information from Clovis (the cult's leader) pans out and shows an even darker side of the Dominae.  

I liked this book a lot, and the reasons I liked it are probably the very same reasons some people didn't.  Sabina is not a hero, she's an assassin, and occasionally she kills humans while feeding.  I think most of the readers that really didn't like Sabina, either didn't finish the book, or they just couldn't see where she was coming from.  She can clearly see a cult for what it is, but for most of the book she's unable to see the manipulations that bind her tighter than any rope.  Sabina doesn't come out a hero by the end of this book, but the blinders are finally off.  What frustrated me a little was how long it took for her to "wake up" when we the readers knew what was happening from very early on.  Should the reader know what's going on 100 - 200 pages before the protagonist?  I think it just leads to the reader being aggravated.  I highly recommend this book to urban fantasy fans, especially those looking for anti-heroes.  If you don't like Sabina yet, keep reading.

Zhye

In Over Her Head

In Over Her Head by Judi Fennell

Mer series

ISBN# 978-1-4022-2001-2

Available June 1st

Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Format: mm pbk., 345 pages

Genres: fiction, paranormal chick-lit

Before this book was finally published it was a Top 5 Finalist in the First Chapters romance contest on Gather.com.  Her as of yet unpublished story, Beauty and the Best, was a Top 20 Finalist in the First Chapters contest and a Top 6 Finalist in the American Title III contest held by Romantic Times.  The second book in her Mer series, Wild Blue Under, will be out in November with the third following early next year.  Oh, and don't forget to enter her contest for a chance at one of three romantic getaway packages.

Out on a boat ready to dive is not where you would find most people with a deep fear of the ocean and yet that's where Erica Peck finds herself.  Her ex-fiance wants his diamonds, that she threw into the sea by mistake, and has a gun to prove it.  Luckily for her when things go bad she's saved by a merman, or is she?  When she wakes up she hopes she's still dreaming otherwise this is her worst fear come true.  A merman, talking fish, and being able to breathe water means she is now under the water she's been petrified of since The Incident happened when she was eight.  Once The Council hears a human knows about their kimberlite vein the only way Erica is going to live long enough to figure out a way to get her life back is to find her ex's diamonds and return them to the Mer.  There's only one eensy little problem, Ceto, the mother of all sea monsters (literally) has them.  Even if they do get the diamonds back Reel Tritone with all his teasing and flirting is going to make leaving a much harder decision than Erica ever thought possible.

This book was enjoyable, but not terribly original, in fact, by the second chapter I was re-casting Disney's The Little Mermaid in my head.  The mermaid is now a merman, Sebastian is now a remora named Chum, and the sea witch/hag is now a very fertile ex-goddess who gives birth to monsters.  Some of the humor seems a bit forced, but the story is cute.  The major upside to this story is Reel who's described as looking like Matthew McConaughey's twin brother with black hair, he has dimples, and he acts so much like him in some scenes you can almost hear the Texan drawl!  What's not to like about that?  If you're looking for something light to take to the beach this summer, that also happens to be about the beach, give this book a try.

Zhye