My Take On Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow

 Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie1.)
 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’re 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?

 This book pulled me along with its fast pace, excellent writing, gritty narration, and realistic cast. Dru's voice was exceptional and raw, I loved her style and phrasing. The book was almost infinitely quotable with such gems as, "The mall was as brightly lit as heaven," and, "First one's free," and, "Running on rabbit." You got glimpses of Dru's past in brief descriptions and comparisons she made throughout the book, and what I saw in them was very similar to the first two seasons of Supernatural. I felt that Dru herself was an amalgamation of the two main characters of that show, Sam and Dean Winchester. She's a tough as nails, take no scrap from anybody, in your face, trash talkin', gunslingin', boogey man hunter.
 Other amazing cast members include: Graves, a scrawny goth boy she meets in school who takes it upon himself to look out for her, even though she needs no physical protection, and gets swept up in the mayhem; Gran, who, though deceased, plays a large roll in semi-flashbacks that Dru has to her childhood spent in the country and colors the book with her folksy wisdom; Chris, a suspicious character of undetermined allegiance who walks on top of the snow and smells like apple pie?; and Dear Old Dad, an ex-Marine who drags Dru all over the U.S. of A. hunting the things that go bump2 in the night in an attempt to avenge his late wife.
 The creatures featured herein were varied and very awesome. That was the only thing typical about this book was the choice of monsterage. There were suckers, werwulfen3, spooks, and, of course my favorite, zombies. But they were different from the usual sparkly-attends-high-school-for-all-eternity-monsters we come across all too often these days; these guys were scary. St. Crow's interpretation of them was thrilling and she threw in some creatures of her own to spice things up.
 I'd rate this book as PG 133 for strong language, violence, and scary imagery. In other words, it's an action packed, highly imaginative story with a lot of swearing, all in context, though. I felt that it livened up the dialogue quite nicely and added a level of realism and style that you couldn't have gotten any other way.
 I give Strange Angels...

...Five5 Zombies.

I highly, highly recommend this gritty, thriller. If you enjoy this, you'll also like the Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong.

Happy reading,

Zombie Girrrl

footnotes______________________________________________
1  Yes, I was very excited to see this.
2  Although "bump" is hardly the only sound they make.
3  Pronounced with a v sound.
4  I'll be rating books for content like this from now on. I really hope it catches on as I'm always wondering what books would be rated before I read them.
5  Five fancy zombies!