3 Stars: Outcast by Adrienne Kress

I was very excited to be able to read Outcast by Adrienne Kress since that cover is just too fun! I was also quite excited about the “angels” that the description talks about, since they definitely don’t sound like the angels we have been reading about much before. Unfortunately, my desire for adventure and exploration didn’t quite get satisfied, but I think many of you who like the high school romance storyline will probably enjoy this one more than I did!

Note: I received Outcast through Netgalley for an honest review.

After six years of ?angels? coming out of the sky and taking people from her town, 16-year-old Riley Carver has just about had it living with the constant fear. When one decides to terrorize her in her own backyard, it?s the final straw. She takes her mother?s shotgun and shoots the thing. So it?s dead. Or ? not? In place of the creature she shot, is a guy. A really hot guy. A really hot alive and breathing guy. Oh, and he?s totally naked.

Not sure what to do, she drags his unconscious body to the tool shed and ties him up. After all, he?s an angel and they have tricks. When he regains consciousness she?s all set to interrogate him about why the angels come to her town, and how to get back her best friend (and almost boyfriend) Chris, who was taken the year before. But it turns out the naked guy in her shed is just as confused about everything as she is.

He thinks it?s 1956.

Strengths:

• I don’t know a lot about angel lore and haven’t read a lot of angel books, but I thought that once we found out more about what was going on, it was a pretty cool take on things. Outcast gets you intrigued immediately about what the heck is going on in this town with supposed angels swooping down and kidnapping people!
• Because Gabe is from the 50′s, there is a great 50′s element. Gabe does a great job of bringing that spirit out with his leather jacket and way of speech. He was such a well-written character and so much fun to read.
• Once the ending got going, there was a lot of excitement and explanation of what had been going on, which was something I quite appreciated ;-).
• There were a lot of great secondary characters including involved and nice parents and high school students that actually break stereotypes. Shocking right??

Weaknesses:

•  A large amount of Outcast was spent focused on the romance and on spending time doing normal high school things, which was a bit frustrating when we still didn’t know what was going on with the angels.
• On a similar note, I spent most of that time wondering why we weren’t investigating this crazy angel thing! I was constantly frustrated that there was this big important mystery, but Riley and Gabe just didn’t care it seemed.
• Remember that socially inept MC theme? It continues.

Summary:

I wanted to love Outcast, but ended up only liking it. There was a lot of potential with the interesting premise, however too much time was spent playing around with the high school aspect. If you are more excited about high school and romance elements, then you might enjoy Outcast more than I did and I encourage you to try it out!

 - A

 Outcast by Adrienne Kress

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© 2013, Anya. All rights reserved.

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