Adrienne Kress
Paranormal Young Adult
322 pages
Diversion Books
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review
THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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.
Set in the deep south, OUTCAST is a story of love, trust, and coming of age. It’s also a story about the supernatural, a girl with a strange sense of humor who’s got wicked aim, a greaser from the 50’s, and an army of misfits coming together for one purpose: To kick some serious angel ass.
MY THOUGHTS
Outcast is a story that promises so many of the things lovers of paranormal young adult fiction crave when reading, a little mystery and a little romance nicely woven together to create a balanced story that allows both elements to shine without one overshadowing the other. Though the blurb suggests we're in for an action-packed page-turner as soon as we crack the spine, this story does take a while to really get going, the initial intrigue of Riley's rather violent reaction to an angel in her backyard quickly fading as more mundane details about her day to day life take over. The mystery surrounding the Taking and the fate of those chosen by the angels for either glorious or nefarious purposes still hovers at the edge of Riley's vision, but for a good portion of the middle we simply spend time with her and Gabe, enjoying their moments together while wondering when everything is going to be made clear to us.
Riley has a cute personality; a dry sense of humor and a less-than halfhearted desire to fit in among her peers leaving her on the outside looking in, but though we don't necessarily get to know her as well as we might like over the course of her story, she's not completely inaccessible to us and it's easy to spend time with her as she sorts out worries both normal and paranormal. One minor nitpick, and certainly one personal in nature and unlikely to be an issue for everyone, is her continuous referral to her father as Daddy, something that makes her feel much younger than her seventeen-ish years. That rather minuscule complaint aside, Riley is someone easy to root for both romantically as things progress with Gabe, and physically as time passes and a new Taking approaches.
Gabe is someone we come to know even less than we do Riley by the time we reach the final page, but though he doesn't firmly embed himself under our skin, he's easy to appreciate on a more superficial level, his interest in Riley progressing from shallow and flirtatious into something far more meaningful over the course of their time together. Our connection to him reaches its most emotional in the concluding chapters, a more concrete bond to him snapping into place quickly and easily, leaving us thrilled to finally have it where we want it but also mildly regretful that it's in place for so short a time before we close the back cover.
All in all, Outcast is an enjoyable read with a very bittersweet ending, and while it does take a bit of time for us to settle in and for the plot to pick up speed after a quick sprint at the beginning, our time with Riley and Gabe is still time well spent. Those readers who are able to take explanations for supernatural things at face value will likely fare better with this story than those for whom the question “why” is a repeated mantra while reading, as the details surrounding the Taking and those responsible for it are not quite explored as much as they could have been. That being said however, surface questions are answered and we're given a cliffhanger-free ending with the promise of happiness down the line for our young heroine, leaving us satisfied with only minor complaints here and there rather than large grievances.
Rating: 3.5/5
Find Adrienne:
Find Outcast:
Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Diversion Books
This
book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a
review.
I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.
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